When torn knee cartilage threatened a Calgary man’s career as a professional Brazilian Jiu Jitsu fighter, he kept his cool, stripped down to his underwear and climbed into a metal canister chilled to -145 C.
Tim Blanchard exposed his nearly naked body to temperatures lower than anything recorded in the natural world, in a controversial but increasingly popular treatment known as cryotherapy.
“I popped into cryo pretty regularly as soon as I got the injury, and because of that I found that my knee was able to recover a lot better. I didn’t need surgery … so I think it definitely helps a lot with injury prevention and inflammation and I firmly believe that cryotherapy is the real deal,” Blanchard said.