TEMPE, Ariz. -- The last time the Cardinals woke up the morning of a game, looked outside and saw the friendly Arizona landscape, it was Aug. 19, and their roster was nearly twice the size.

It was their third preseason game, against the Chicago Bears. A lot has changed since. Arizona has played four consecutive road games -- two in the preseason and two in the regular season -- with three in the Eastern time zone. In the meantime, the Cardinals' roster has shrunk from 90 players to 53.

When the Cardinals take the field at University of Phoenix Stadium on Monday night against the Dallas Cowboys (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN/WatchESPN), 37 days will have passed since their previous home game. But instead of being worn down, Arizona feels it will be fresh and recovered from swelling and other effects of air travel, to say nothing of the pounding of football itself, thanks in part to an array of devices, techniques and philosophies.

“It is different for different guys at different positions,” veteran safety Antoine Bethea said. “It’s just guys knowing their bodies, and as a coach you got to kind of gauge, ‘Are my guys rested?’ or whatever the case may be.”

The additional 24 hours of rest afforded by Monday Night Football will certainly help: After Sunday games, Bethea said, it typically takes until Thursday for players’ bodies to start feeling right again.

“It feels great having that extra day,” linebacker Josh Bynes said of playing on a Monday. “Of course, at the games, it’s like getting hit by a train over and over and over. You finally have that extra day to just recover.”

The Cardinals had a walk-through Wednesday before donning pads Thursday, giving the players’ bodies a break before returning to a regularly scheduled week.

While each player has his own way of recovering, the Cardinals have added two new instruments this season to help the process along.

One is a cryotherapy chamber.

Temperatures as low as 230 degrees below zero help reduce pain and inflammation. Sessions last about three minutes, and while it’s much colder than a cold tub, nobody gets wet and has to then slosh through the locker room. You can't have moisture on your body when you enter a cryotherapy chamber; it’ll freeze. Quickly.

Cardinals defensive tackle Frostee Rucker said the chamber is a more efficient way to get the same results as a cold tub.

“I think you’ll try anything at that rate just to get your body back to feeling somewhat good,” the 12-year veteran said. “You get on a plane and everything swells up and stuff like that. I’m trying new compression pants as well, and new, different things. You just got to play.”

Bethea said he likes the cryotherapy chamber, but he also considers himself “an old-school guy” and still sits in the cold tub.

“It’s big,” offensive coordinator Harold Goodwin said of the tub. “It’s huge. Those guys love it.”

The other tool to help combat soreness and swelling new to Arizona’s locker room is a device called the TheraGun.

In short, it’s hand-held vibration therapy. It helps increase blood flow, which oxygenates muscles to relieve pain and soreness. It has the look of a staple gun with a vibrating ball attached to one end. It has helped take the place of massages and foam rollers and, being portable, it can go anywhere, particularly on road trips.

“There’s a lot more impact to it, so it’s actually hitting the trigger points instead of the entire muscle,” wide receiver Brittan Golden said. “It’s just an easy tool you can take anywhere.”

He’s used it at home, often right before he goes to bed. He's also used it during and after plane rides, which players find particularly useful.

“It just helps loosen stuff up before you go to sleep,” Golden said.

Bethea has turned to the TheraGun in place of daily massages. And where he uses it before and after practices, some players have done so during games.

“It’s something you can grab right then and there, and you don’t have to wait on anybody,” Bethea said. “These types of instruments anybody can use any time of day.”

But where some players are quick to adopt new technology, others prefer the traditional means of staying -- or getting -- loose.

Bynes likes to stay active after games to keep his muscles limber. He makes sure he jogs or runs, anything to get his body moving again.

He also does dry needling, cupping and float therapy. Bethea includes yoga in his weekly routine.

By the Friday before Week 1, Cardinals coach Bruce Arians could see his team getting tired. The grueling travel schedule had worn him out, so he knew it had hit his players. Using data to back up his argument, strength and conditioning coach Buddy Morris convinced Arians to not practice hard four days in a row. Though Arians said the Cardinals have had success with four such consecutive practices, he made Wednesday a walk-through as a concession to his players' healing process. (Though Bynes described that day's activities as “walk-through-ish.”)

“In the past, we probably would have gone a lot harder,” Arians said, noting that four consecutive practices is helpful with the game's mental aspect, “but having judged those things in the last two years, working four days in a row probably wasn’t the best thing physically."

With all the tools at their disposal and the extra day to rest ahead of their Week 3 game, the Cardinals will head into Monday night’s home opener not as sore, not as tired and not as vulnerable.

“We’re fresh as daisies,” Arians said.