MONEY

Frigid Cryotherapy opens on Eastside

Amanda Coyne
The Greenville News

Courtney Neel and Cecily Bridges want to help you freeze.

The twin sisters have opened the Upstate's first cryotherapy center, Frigid Cryotherapy, on Pelham Road. While not FDA approved, cryotherapy users say the deep freeze can help alleviate pain, give an endorphin rush and burn as many calories as an hour at the gym.

Customers spend between $40 and $50 per session to strip naked and stand in a chamber pumping liquid nitrogen as cold as negative 288 degrees for three minutes. To protect their extremities, users wear mittens, socks and slippers (and, for men, boxers). The nitrogen quickly turns to gas and circulates around the body, causing blood to rush to your core muscles. When the session is over, users often break into a cold sweat because the body is working to heat itself back to a normal temperature, Neel said.

The energy it takes for the body to heat itself up after being chilled nearly 300 degrees below its normal temperature is what is thought to cause a calorie burn of 500 to 800 in each cryotherapy session. That claim has not been evaluated by the FDA. Cryotherapy is not regulated by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, a spokesman said.

Neel and Bridges got the idea to start a cryotherapy center in Greenville after Neel's husband, a chiropractor, saw a video about it on Facebook. Because chiropractics and cryotherapy are both considered alternative therapies for pain, Neel thought it would be a natural choice. She and Bridges worked to open their business for about a year and a half, traveling to Dallas to become certified to operate the machines, which evoke thoughts of science fiction films and Walt Disney's fabled cryogenically frozen head.

Sisters and Frigid Cryotherapy managing partners Cecily Bridges, left, and Courtney Neel, recently opened their Pelham Road business.

Users can only use the cryotherapy machine a maximum of twice a day for safety reasons. Neel and Bridges also take the precaution of having a device to monitor oxygen levels in the room housing the cryotherapy machine to ensure too much liquid nitrogen does not fill the room. If the oxygen level dips too low, an alarm goes off. Nitrogen gas can cause death by asphyxiation at high levels.

In addition to the cryo-chamber, Frigid Cryotherapy offers the NormaTec Pulse Recovery System. It's a pair of thigh-high boots that essentially act like a blood pressure cuff, but encasing the whole leg. Air fills different pockets in the boots, starting at the feet and moving pressure upward. Christy Benitez was using the NormaTec boots Tuesday morning. She uses the therapy to reduce swelling in her legs and feet caused by her pregnancy.

Christy Benitez relaxes during a NormaTec therapy session at Frigid Cryotherapy on Pelham Road in Greenville.

"I like it so much I looked into getting a pair to use at home,' Benitez said. "Then I saw the price tag. No way."

Benitez said she is looking forward to using the cryo-chamber after she gives birth — you can't use it while pregnant.

For most new customers at Frigid Cryotherapy, it's the first time they've tried it. Some come in because they've seen it on "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills," Neel said. Some don't know what to expect; a few have been so nervous, their blood pressure has been too high to enter the chamber on the first read (all customers get a blood pressure reading before freezing themselves for safety).

Christy Benitez relaxes during a NormaTec therapy session at Frigid Cryotherapy on Pelham Road in Greenville.

"The first time, it's kind of eerie because you're naked, it's weird, and you're in a freezer," Neel said. "But it's so relaxing."

But some get hooked. In the four weeks Frigid Cryotherapy has been open, 20 people have purchased $199 unlimited memberships so they can come freeze themselves every day. Many customers have medical issues that cause chronic pain, including rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia, Bridges said. Others use it as a recovery tool after intense Crossfit workouts. But some simply enjoy the thrill that comes with a quick freeze.

"It's an endorphin rush. You have energy for the rest of the day," Neel said. "You know when you're in the woods and you smell that crisp fall air? That's the feeling you get."