Welcome to the Get Fit Guys, quick and dirty tips to slim down and shape up.

My name is Ben Greenfield and I'm the Get Fit Guy.

Now the word cryotherapy may sound like something out of a science fiction novel,

but it's actually something you've done before.

If you've ever

iced a sore ankle, taking a plunge into a cold shower or bath, or shoved your hand into

ice water after touching a hot stove. It's simply the use of ice or cold as therapy.

Of course, you can get very scientific with cryotherapy if you would like. For example, a few months ago when I was at a health and fitness conference,

I actually tried a pretty advanced form of cryotherapy in which my body was immersed in a sub-zero temperature chamber for three minutes.

And if you care to watch the three-part video series from that chilling experience,

I'll link to it in the show

notes for this episode over at quick and dirty tips.com. Now, in this case, the immersion in the

cold was meant to boost my metabolism, assist with fat burning, and improve sleep. But in today's

episode, we're going to focus on perhaps the most convenient, useful, and slightly more

pleasant form of cryotherapy, icing sore muscles.

And you're going to learn whether icing muscles really works for soreness, along with the

very best way to ice.

So, back to icing for recovery.

In the episode How to Recovery, after a Workout, you learn about

using techniques like nutrition, hydration, compression, blood flow, and topical ointments

to limit the annoying muscle soreness that you often experience when you're lifting weights

or running or exposing your muscles to potentially damaging activities. But icing and cold exposure

...