On an overseas trip last offseason, coach James O’Connor both scouted for additions to his Louisville City FC squad and surveyed some of the world’s top clubs for the latest methods in keeping them at top physical condition.
“I was asking people what they were doing for recovery,” O’Connor said. “Cryo(therapy) was the thing that kept coming up. So that was something I brought back.”
O’Connor and players were recently featured in the Lexington Herald-Leader for their trips to The Cryo House, now a partner of LouCity based in the neighboring town. The coach regularly schedules times between games — especially last week, with three of them in seven days — for the sub-zero treatment.
Players enter a full-body chamber, where liquid nitrogen is blasted around them to create a dry cold more efficient than an ice bath. Some of LouCity’s top talents have found an hour-long drive worth the three minutes of cryotherapy.
“I’ve done cryo five or six times now,” defender Kyle Smith told the Herald-Leader. “I did it the first time, felt great. The next week, I didn’t do it, and my body, I felt kind of achy, just didn’t feel as good. Since then, I’ve gone (for treatment) any time I could.”
Read columnist Mark Story’s full Herald-Leader piece here: http://bit.ly/2wW7lsm
