Imagine for a moment that you are struggling with knee pain (and if you’re like many gym goers playing basketball or hitting hard weights, you will almost certainly deal with it at some point). To combat the problem, you can put a messy ice pack on your knee to help ease the pain. Or maybe you would put a heating pad on your knee to get blood circulation going.
Or you can take a sleek black case called the Hyperice X, strap it to your knee, connect it to your phone via bluetooth and enjoy a unique mix of warmth and cold that promotes blood flow and healing to your knee. And suddenly the recovery headaches are just a little easier.
The Hyperice X is the latest recovery device from a company that is at the forefront of relaxation and wellness. A few years ago Hyperice led the vibration therapy revolution, supplying vibrating foam rollers and massage guns, and last year Hyperice added NormaTec, which makes air compression boots.
The X is the brand’s latest innovation – and it’s taking the entire recovery industry in a new direction. It is designed to simulate “contrast therapy,” a unique recovery therapy used by top athletes in which they alternate between extreme heat (via a sauna or hot tub) and extreme cold (ice bath or cold bath) for a few minutes for several cycles. It’s a process that you couldn’t really experience in the comfort of your home before unless you had a sauna and cold tub. The X is supposed to change that.
Men health
Why contrast therapy works
The process of contrast agent therapy doesn’t seem fun, and yes, it’s quite awkward and uncomfortable. Traditionally, you hang out in the sauna for a few minutes and then run straight into a cold bath. And yes, that’s as harrowing as it sounds. You would do this for at least 8 to 10 minutes, working these tight cycles, and essentially battling extremely hot and cold temperatures.
I did and I can tell you it’s not fun. I like my body at ideal temperatures – I don’t like hanging out in the sauna and I struggle through treatments like cryotherapy and cold dives. But when I worked through the contrast therapy, I enjoyed the results the next day.
Essentially, every passage in the cold tub pushes your blood vessels to constrict, thereby restricting blood flow. Then you go to the hot tub or sauna and the extreme heat will cause your blood vessels to expand rapidly, allowing better blood flow to your entire body. Alternating these two processes stimulates tremendous blood flow, and this circuit and blood flow help drive nutrients, metabolites, and healing factors through the body.
Perhaps you have also felt this at times. Ever shovel snow in freezing weather, then come back inside and run water over your hands to warm them up? And do you feel a massive rush of blood on your fingers? The same idea occurs during contrast therapy.
The challenge, of course: you just have to survive. And you have to have time for that. Contrast therapy isn’t something you can do while playing video games or watching TV: it’s 10 to 15 minutes of your busy day that you need to, well, not completely relax. It’s work.
The Hyperice X makes contrast therapy accessible
This is where the Hyperice X comes into play. The tiny device looks like a black case with tiny compartments attached to it, and my comic book fansite could very easily see this case on the bionic right arm of Sebastian Stan’s Winter Soldier.
The simplicity of the appearance belies how it works. Once switched on, it can cool down to 35 degrees or heat up to 113 degrees – and quickly. You simply slide your sleeve over your knee and open the basic Hyperice app (which, by the way, nowadays contains a treasure trove of other recreational qualities). Pair the device with the app and you can access the library of preset Hyperice X programs.
Select “Contrast Therapy” and your X goes to work silently, with alternating heating and cooling intervals along your knee. It’s gentle and extremely easy, a key strength of the X.
You don’t have to go through a complicated process. For the past few weeks I’ve been using it on leg days, several hours after training. I strap the X to my left knee (I tore my cruciate ligament in college), kick my feet on the couch, and start NBA 2K22 on the Xbox. In the middle of the first quarter (by the way, I play a whole 12-minute quarter) the program ends and I don’t even notice it (the device is so subtle).
As the game progresses, I’ll put the X on my right knee and do the contrast therapy program again. No, I didn’t injure my right knee, but this is more than a pain reliever; Whenever you can, it is good to have high quality recovery work done.
And I can do that easily with the X without disturbing the rest of the evening, so I let the program run on my right knee and keep playing 2K22.
Herrenheide
How the X feels
The classic contrast agent therapy is usually a whole-body therapy. It’s not like putting your knee in a cold tub and then putting your knee in a sauna. And that’s why I was a bit skeptical about the X. Would it actually do something for my knee?
And no, the device doesn’t really feel like a classic contrast agent therapy. That is of course a strength. Contrast therapy requires work and focus and a little bit of mental strength.
The Hyperice X doesn’t ask for anything and still feels comfortable. The warmth it provides is gentle; 113 degrees are enough to create a pleasant feeling of warmth on the knee. The only time you’ll notice the X is on is when it’s cooling down. The 5 small fans on its surface start to hum softly and spin to cool your knee quickly. It’s an almost faint hum. At first, as I described in the video above, I was nervous that the humming would be “annoying”. But it’s way quieter than many massage guns, and it never rises to a level that interferes with my gaming or watching movies.
When the X cools the knee, it feels cold, but never unbearable, even though it’s just 12 degrees above freezing. This is undoubtedly one of the strengths of the X. You don’t want to come home from a long day of work or exercise and suffer from your “recovery”.
With the Hyperice X you won’t suffer. You just come home, sit back and enjoy the mix of hot and cold. And when it’s over – when I’m done with each session and unbuckle the X – my knee feels a little more relaxed, a little less tight.
The X will continue to grow too
That’s exactly how I used the X, of course, but it has several other uses as well. And that’s part of what makes the device so special.
Sure, it’s built for contrast therapy, but since it can heat and cool too, it can easily serve other purposes as well. Storing ice packs in the freezer? Throw these away, because the X can handle the task too. Heating pad? The X can also take on this role. Aside from contrast therapy, it’s an all-in-one heating and cooling device, and Hyperice is gradually releasing more programs on its app to make this easier, from pain relief to relaxing warmth to pre-workout warm-up programs.
The technology that powers the X can also work on far more than your knee; Remember, classic contrast therapy is a full-body treatment. The X is specially designed for your knee in shape and fit, but I’ve also tried it on my shoulders after hard chest workouts and also placed it on my quads. This allows me to get this contrast effect in other areas, and while the X was not designed specifically for those placements, it has been effective so far.
No matter how you use it or where you use it, you will almost certainly enjoy the experience – and the ease of use, too. This is a device that travels well, which means you can take it with you on a trip or break out on the sidelines of a pickup basketball game. It replaces your ice pack, heating pad, and (most impressively) sauna and cold tub.
It’s hard not to love this.
Courtesy of the dealer
This content is created and maintained by a third party and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may find more information on this and similar content at piano.io
source https://www.bisayanews.com/2021/09/26/hyperice-x-review-2021/
No comments:
Post a Comment