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The Voya Cryo Revive Ritual combines a full body massage with alternating heat and cold
Hot and cold therapy is having a something of a moment. Ice baths and cold plunges are cooler than ever , while you can’t move for saunas popping up all over the country.
There is some evidence that the use of cold water immersion can benefit a range of issues from muscle tension to stress, while heat therapy has been studied for its effects on circulation, muscle relaxation and pain. I’ve dabbled in both over the years, including a period avidly following Wim Hof and his breathing exercises followed by an ice-cold shower – although more for the clearer mind I experienced afterwards than any attempt to be fitness cool.
What interests me now, particularly in spa and wellness settings, is what happens when you combine these intense sensations with more traditional wellness treatments, such as massage, and whether one enhances the effects of the other. On a visit to the Chill Spa in the Ice House Hotel, perched on the banks of the river Moy in Ballina, Co Mayo, I am drawn to the Voya Cryo Revive Ritual, a 75-minute treatment combining hot and cold therapy with full body massage.
Arriving early for my treatment, I wander around to check out the facilities, which include ice baths and plunge pools. People bring their phones everywhere these days, but here, groups of friends, couples and solo spa-goers like myself are either looking at each other or out at the river. Nobody is on their phone. The experience here forces you to take in your surroundings, drop your shoulders and watch the ducks paddling by on the Moy.
The treatment starts with a fairly typical full body massage. Nothing major, as my spa-loving mother would say. Kneading, rolling of muscles – I’m pretty sure I feel an elbow at some point. It’s quite a long treatment and, at first, I find myself wondering if I should have booked a more intense massage – I usually like to be almost beaten off the bed.
My muscles are tight. I want them worked out. But after settling into it, I realise this is actually a very persistent massage. It’s slow, it’s methodical and it works in zones.
At times, it is so repetitive that I almost zone out completely, only to realise the muscles have started releasing. Then the promised hot and cold element arrives. It’s a little jarring, but in a good way. Depending on the part of the body the therapist is working on, sometimes the cold comes first and other times the heat.
The hot stone is a shock to the system – borderline uncomfortable – and sends this glorious spread of heat out from wherever it’s placed as it’s massaged vigorously into the body. The cold is less shocking but equally mind-numbing. And this, I suppose, is the wonderful thing about this combination: during those moments of hot and cold, you can think of literally nothing else.
If your mind had been racing previously, as mine was in the run-up to this treatment, the placement of those hot and cold stones clears your thoughts immediately. Your brain, your mind, your body can focus on nothing but the sensation spreading through your limbs. I simultaneously feel more focused and more relaxed.
The treatment concludes with a vigorous massage of the shoulders, neck and chest, which I greatly appreciate as someone who’s regularly hunched over a desk for days on end. Post treatment, I am ushered out to the relaxation space. I can choose from the Snooze Room, which is dimly lit, calm and encourages, as the name suggests, a snooze; or the River Room, which I quickly learn could also be called the Snooze Room.
Heated, gently rocking beds are positioned in front of floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over the river. Closing my eyes, I feel like I’m gently rocking on the water. Thankfully, there’s no cold plunge involved. Simone Gannon was a guest of The Ice House.
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