Just weeks after squatting 1,003 pounds at the Powerlifting America Southern States Championships 2026, elite powerlifter Ahmed Hassaninn found himself in a familiar place: managing recovery.
While his performance was exceptional, the reality of elite strength sports is that recovery often determines what happens next.
That’s where a new wellness adjunct at Active Sports Therapy, Deep Blue Cryo localized cryotherapy, caught our attention in a very unexpected way.
If you missed Ahmed’s incredible comeback story, be sure to read our previous article, From Unable to Squat the Bar to a 1,003-Pound Squat: Ahmed Hassaninn’s Remarkable Comeback at the Powerlifting America Southern States Championships 2026.
Recovery Looks Different for Elite Athletes
One thing elite athletes learn over time is that training and recovery are equally important.
Ahmed has accumulated a tremendous amount of mileage on his body through years of powerlifting.
While his knee is functioning at an elite level, the reality is that previous injuries and surgeries can occasionally leave the joint irritated after periods of high training volume.
As athletes become more experienced, they also become better at recognizing subtle changes.
They know when something feels off.
They know when recovery isn’t happening quite as fast as it should.
The goal isn’t necessarily fixing a major problem.
The goal is helping the body recover efficiently before small issues become larger ones.
Looking Beyond Traditional Options
One of the conversations we frequently have with athletes involves the management of recurring knee irritation.
Historically, options have included:
- Activity modification
- Rehabilitation
- Manual therapy
- Anti-inflammatory strategies
- Corticosteroid injections
- Viscosupplementation injections
While injections certainly have a role in medicine, they are not something most providers want athletes relying upon indefinitely.
During a sports medicine discussion with orthopedic surgeon Dr. Jaron Sullivan of Vanderbilt Sports Medicine, he emphasized an important point that many orthopedic specialists recognize:
Because of potential cartilage concerns associated with repeated corticosteroid use, we should always be looking for ways to minimize their use when appropriate alternatives exist.
That idea sparked an important question.
Could there be another tool that helps athletes manage symptoms and recover more efficiently?
Introducing Deep Blue Cryo at Active Sports Therapy
Recently, Active Sports Therapy added Deep Blue Cryo localized cryotherapy as a wellness adjunct.
One of the reasons we were interested in the technology was its ability to deliver rapid, targeted cooling directly to a specific area.
Unlike traditional icing methods that often require prolonged application, localized cryotherapy treatments are extremely brief.
Most of our applications last less than 40 seconds.
The goal is not to treat a medical condition.
Rather, the treatment is designed to create a rapid cooling response followed by a natural warming response.
This process involves:
- Rapid vasoconstriction
- Followed by reactive vasodilation
- Increased circulation following treatment
- Temporary symptom reduction
- Improved comfort during movement
While researchers continue to explore the full physiological effects of cryotherapy, athletes have been utilizing cold exposure strategies for decades.
Ice baths, cold plunges, and localized cryotherapy have all gained significant popularity in performance and recovery settings.
Why Thermal Imaging Fascinated Us
One of the most interesting aspects of this process wasn’t the cryotherapy itself.
It was the thermal imaging.
Before treatment, we utilized thermal surface imaging to assess Ahmed’s knee.
Sports medicine providers are already trained to evaluate swelling using clinical examination techniques such as:
- Sweep tests
- Ballottement testing
- Passive range-of-motion assessment
These tests remain extremely valuable.
However, Ahmed weighs over 400 pounds.
In larger athletes, visual assessment can become more challenging.
The thermal imaging gave us another layer of information.
What was fascinating was seeing areas that correlated with our clinical suspicions regarding localized irritation.
Rather than relying solely on what we could feel, we could actually visualize temperature differences across the region.
Ahmed’s First Experience
After documenting baseline temperatures, we applied Deep Blue Cryo.
The treatment itself was quick.
Very quick.
Using thermal imaging throughout the process, we monitored temperature changes and worked toward surface temperatures in the upper 30s to low 40s.
Immediately afterward, Ahmed repeated movements that had previously been uncomfortable.
The change was dramatic.
Swelling appeared visibly reduced.
Motion improved.
Most importantly, pain that had been significant before treatment was absent during the immediate reassessment.
As clinicians, moments like this are exciting.
Not because we’ve found a miracle.
But because we’ve found another potential tool.
One of the most impressive parts of the session was how quickly Ahmed noticed the difference.
After years of surgeries, rehabilitation, injections, and elite-level training, he has developed an exceptional awareness of his body. He could immediately feel that the knee moved differently and felt less irritated after treatment.
We then had him perform squatting movements that had previously reproduced discomfort.
The pain that had been present before treatment was gone for that session.
How Localized Cryotherapy May Help Reduce Knee Swelling in Athletes
The key lesson here is not that cryotherapy replaces rehabilitation.
It doesn’t.
It doesn’t replace strength training.
It doesn’t replace proper diagnosis.
It doesn’t replace movement correction.
What it may do is help create a better environment for those things to occur.
For athletes like Ahmed, every training cycle matters.
If we can help reduce discomfort and improve recovery between sessions, that may have meaningful long-term value.
For some athletes, that may mean fewer interruptions in training.
For others, it may mean helping calm down an irritated joint before a competition.
For others still, it may simply mean feeling better while continuing to build strength and performance.
A Very Cool Addition to Recovery
Yes, the pun is intended.
We are still in the early stages of utilizing Deep Blue Cryo.
We are continuing to collect observations.
We are continuing to compare findings against objective measures.
And we are continuing to explore where it fits best within our comprehensive sports medicine model.
What we can say is this:
Ahmed Hassaninn came into the clinic following a championship performance and left genuinely excited about what he experienced.
For an athlete who has undergone multiple surgeries, tried numerous treatments, and spent years chasing recovery, that says a lot.
We look forward to continuing to monitor his progress as he prepares for the next stage of training and ultimately the World Championships.
As always, our mission remains simple:
Help athletes move better, recover better, and perform at the highest level possible.
