Footnote's Blog - Athlete's Foot | realbuzz

DEC
16

Tip of the day: Icing an injury

12:00 p.m. on 16th December 2009
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Hello my Footlings!

Today I thought I would share some tricks of the trade when it comes to icing injuries or niggles. The main use of icing an injury is to reduce inflammation immediately (and upto 48 hours) after the injury has occurred. Icing or ‘hot and cold’ treatment, I will describe in a moment, is also used by many elite athletes as a method to aid repair.

Immediate use of ICE on an injury:

As I said you should apply cold ice bags (bags of peas are my favourite!) to an area straight away after an injury. Ice will:

These effects all help to prevent the area from becoming stiff by reducing excess tissue fluid that gathers as a result of injury and inflammation.

Rehabilitation Phase (after 48 hours)

After 48 hours the Hot and cold technique is recommended to aid recovery. The general principle of this is that the ice will reduce the pain of the injury but, also tells the body to send more blood to the area (to keep it warm). Many running injuries occur in the lower leg which is furthest away from the heart therefore blood flow is a lot slow than other parts of the body. The ‘Hot and Cold’ technique aims to increase blood flow to the injured area. This fresh blood brings with it healing chemicals and cells which remove dead muscle fibres and start the repair process.

Hot and Cold technique:

Cold: Place ice or even running a cold tap over the injured place) for 3-4 minutes.

Warm: Place in injured area in a bath or run a warm tap (Note: Hot water will be too painful and not need so just use warm water or hot water bottle) 3-4 minutes.

Repeat at least once but preferably twice.

For more advice on running injuries visit the running injuries section.