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Samantha Valencia was just months away from walking down the aisle two years ago when the unbearable back pain that had intermittently plagued her life began to rear its ugly head again.
The 31-year-old yoga studio owner from Brooklyn and her soon-to-be husband had made all the preparations for a destination wedding in California when a familiar, unwelcome sensation crept back into her body.
“I was getting married that year, so I was doing all of the classes, I was going to a gym with a friend and weightlifting… and, you know, making sure I looked the best in my wedding dress, as brides do,” Valencia told The Post.
“And I lifted too heavy at the gym and I was going way too hard, not giving myself time to recover, and I activated that old injury.”
For 13 years, Valencia had been dealing with the after-effects of a broken pelvis, two fractured vertebrae and two broken ribs — injuries she sustained while at summer dance camp between her freshman and sophomore years of college.
“I took break dancing too literally,” she quipped.
Valencia, who danced professionally growing up until she enrolled at a university, was always one to take on a challenge.
“There was this move where I had to put all of my weight on one arm,” she recalled. “It was basically a single-arm handstand, is the best way to explain it. And my arm gave out on me, and I landed on my chest and my feet tapped to the back of my head from behind.”
She lay on the ground and thought: “Something is broken.”
“I got scooted off to the hospital in nowhere Connecticut, and they’re like ‘Yeah, you fractured some things. You’re done,’” she said.
“That put an end to my dance career… but every now and then that injury would flare up.”
Fast forward to 2023. With the pain re-emerging just as her wedding neared, Valencia was desperate for a solution that wouldn’t sideline her big day.
She tried everything — physical therapy, acupuncture, ultrasound, stretching, cupping, heat packs. She even took her grandmother’s leftover muscle relaxers. Nothing worked.
That’s when she came across Siobhan Peterson, a local cryotherapy specialist based in Brooklyn and owner of the Recoverie spa.
“I was doom scrolling [on social media], and one of Siobhan’s posts comes up and she’s doing localized cryo on someone’s knee — a runner hurt their knee,” Valencia said.
“And I was like, ‘You are my last hope. I need help — can you do this for my back?’ And she was like, ‘Let’s see what we can do.'”
Peterson recalled the moment clearly. “I knew that the localized cryotherapy would help because before we treated the public, I treated many of my family members and friends and I saw the wonders it did for them,” she said.
“So by the time Sam came through my doors, I was pretty confident.”
Peterson asked Valencia to commit to a rigorous protocol. “But you need to come every other day for two weeks,” she told her.
For Valencia, it was better than the alternative.
“I was getting MRIs, CAT scans, and they were like, ‘We might just need to go in and do exploratory surgery on your spine,’ and I was like, ‘No,’” she said.
Peterson says local cryotherapy was developed precisely for cases like this.
“Local cryotherapy is amazing for people like Samantha who struggle with chronic pain because it helps target the source of the pain while greatly reducing the inflammation,” she said.
“Also, many people who are chronically inflamed or suffering with pain are told that their only options are surgery or pain medications, and oftentimes, those medications can become addicting. Localized cryotherapy is a healthy and non-invasive alternative.”
Unlike whole-body cryotherapy chambers, local cryotherapy targets specific areas — such as a knee, back or shoulder — by exposing them to extremely cold temperatures, often ranging between -166°F and -256°F.
The cold rapidly reduces inflammation and promotes healing by stimulating circulation and constricting then expanding blood vessels.
As a non-invasive and drug-free option, it has gained traction among athletes and chronic pain sufferers alike for its ability to relieve discomfort and support recovery.
Valencia was soon a believer.
“I tore my meniscus in my knee, and I didn’t even bother with physical therapy or anything. I just came right to Siobhan,” she said.
After six weeks of treatment and some basic rehab exercises, she added, “I was good.”
Peterson has seen cases like this before.
“Last year I was treating a former athlete who had such bad back pain that she’d be bedridden for days,” she said.
“Her husband drove her over to the club to try local cryo. We started out doing two sessions per week and now I only see her once per month.”
From a single machine operating out of a studio in Dumbo, Peterson’s work has grown into something much larger.
“I’m not surprised by the improvement,” she said. “But to think that we started out with our one localized cryotherapy machine and now we have a full-on wellness club — red light, saunas, ice baths, compression and the works — all that I can say is that I’m truly grateful. And to this day, we are still treating people with local cryo on a daily basis.”
As for Valencia, she made it to her wedding — walking, dancing, and pain-free.
English (US)