After joining Manchester City in 2022-23, the 24-year-old Norwegian striker Erling Haaland maintained his status as the top goal scorer in the English Premier League.
This season also, the story is the same, as he already scored 13 goals for his club in all competitions.
The 194cm-tall forward is often called a ‘Robot’ by the fans, due to his knack of scoring across the seasons and irrespective of the opponents. He has all the qualities that should be present in a centre-forward in modern football.
Other than his clever movement, positioning and presence of mind, his fitness is also commendable. Immense stamina, pace and acrobatic skills in the final third make him a lethal weapon in front of the goal.
What’s the Secret Behind Haaland’s Fitness?
However, although Haaland is hailed as a robot by football fans, he also has to go through rigorous procedures to maintain his unmatchable fitness and a major one of them is a cryotherapy chamber, which can drop to a super chilling temperature of -200°F.
Taking a long ice bath after the matches is quite normal for the footballers. We often see that with footballers like Cristiano Ronaldo, who have always maintained their fitness at a top level, but the Norwegian forward just took it to another level.
After the last UCL match against Sparta Prague, Haaland was seen sliding into this popsicle chamber, after delivering a spectacular performance.
How does Cryotherapy help in Recovery?
The whole body cryotherapy in a nitrogen-cooled environment is a comparatively new domain in sports science, which helps athletes on multiple levels. Exposure to extreme cold increases testosterone levels, which directly boosts players’ performance.
It also boosts the activity between the nervous system and skeletal muscle along with increasing dopamine secretion, leading to increased heart rate, helping the performance of the athletes in the long run. Post-training or post-match cold exposure reduces muscle soreness, which helps in a quick recovery.
In the cryo-chamber, the body performs an emergency reaction to maintain the optimal blood temperature and this reaction helps in increased blood flow to the limbs and other peripheral areas. Hence, in the current highly competitive schedule for top-tier football clubs, cryotherapy is a much-needed solution to stay fit throughout the season.
