Inside Boca Cryo: Where Tennis Meets Recovery

In Boca Raton, Florida, athletes from all sports—tennis stars, football pros, basketball teams, even rock legends are discovering a secret weapon for performance and longevity: recovery. In beautiful Boca Raton, FL, Boca Cryo was founded eight years ago by former strength and conditioning coach Ian Pyka. Boca Cryo is all about recovery; helping athletes heal faster, sleep better, and get back to competing at their highest level. On a recent visit with Florida Tennis, we went inside this state-of-the-art facility to learn why recovery is becoming just as important as training, and how Boca Cryo is at the center of it all.

Photo credit: Florida Tennis

“I’ve done [strength and conditioning] my whole life at the collegiate level, at the pro level, working with the New England Patriots and the Florida Panthers,” Pyka explained. “And once we got out of that, [we] started to look at a private clientele and start to formulate some ideas about the recovery.” 

Pyka said Boca quickly became the perfect spot to launch his vision. “The more I looked into it, the larger the project got, the more expensive it became,” he said. “So it went from a training recovery project to just, let’s see what we could do for recovery, so we could cover more people with recovery.”

At the heart of Boca Cryo is its namesake: whole body cryotherapy. “We pride ourselves in that because we’re the only true whole body cryotherapy down here in South Florida,” Pyka said. “That meaning that we’re cold air, we’re completely enclosed chamber, whereas most of the cryotherapy modalities down here in Florida are driven with liquid nitrogen, which can be dangerous if inhaled.”

Photo credit: Florida Tennis

So how cold is it? “Our chamber goes down to about minus 150 degrees Fahrenheit,” Pyka said. “Minus 150 is enough to stimulate the brain to start releasing norepinephrine, which is basically a natural opiate in the body… you’ll get this calming effect and one of the key outcomes of cryotherapy really is the sleep that you get.”

But cryotherapy is just the beginning. Boca Cryo offers red light therapy, pulse electromagnetic field therapy (PEMF), infrared sauna, oxygen therapy, a cutting-edge device called the Magnesphere and more. “We brought in infusion therapy IVs in the last year which has been very effective… and now peptides are becoming very big to help the body in terms of recovery.”

Photo credit: Florida Tennis

Another unique option offered at Boca Cryo is the Emsculpt. “A 30 minute session [is] equivalent to about 20,000 sit-ups,” Pyka explained. “[It can help] if you’re looking for a six pack… [but] it’s not just for cosmetics, we use it for therapy as well.”

When asked where tennis players should begin with all these modalities, Pyka’s advice was straightforward. “I think the first place to start is at inflammation,” he said. “The easiest thing to do is to apply the cold therapy. See where you go with that, how your body adapts to that, whether that’s enough or whether you need to go to the next level.”

There have been some amazing tennis players that have come through Boca Cryo such as Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Ons Jabeur—and the list goes on. “It’s incredible how many athletes come in here in terms of tennis” Pyka mentioned. At Boca Cryo, other pros and collegiate level athletes also use the facilities, from FAU’s Final Four basketball team to NFL players and even rock icon Roger Daltrey, have made Boca Cryo part of their routines.

Photo credit: Florida Tennis

At the end of the day, Pyka says recovery needs to be treated with the same seriousness as training. “Years ago, I used to think training was the end all, and training really isn’t the end all, it’s a small portion of it,” he said. “When I traveled in Europe for track and field years ago, recovery was such a big part of their training. We didn’t do that here. And now this is a way of us making people more aware of what’s important in their training.”

“The guys that are at the professional level that come through here, they recognize [the importance of recovery],” he said. “Even Marie Bouzkova, for instance, who comes in here from Czech Republic. She sees the importance—they do this all the time in Europe.” 

From top pros to weekend warriors, Boca Cryo is giving athletes of every age a new way to recharge, recover, and extend their careers. As Pyka summed it up, “It’s still hard to get through to our athletes here [in America] how important [recovery] is because it takes time and it’s got to be part of your regimented program every day.”

Exclusive Interview

===

Written by Florida Tennis Assistant Editor Alex Binstok.