The Best Way to Ice a Muscle

Putting ice on an acute soft tissue injury (like a strain or sprain) can prevent further tissue damage, limit the appearance of new swelling, and decrease pain. However, it’s important to remember that using ice, like most injury treatment techniques, is best utilized in moderation and in combination with complimentary treatment methods.

Using RICE to Treat Your Acute Injury

In the sports medicine world, “RICE” is a well-known self-treatment for acute soft-tissue injuries. RICE stands for Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. Like most things in life (especially performing arts medicine), RICE should be used in moderation, as too much of even just one of the segments can hinder healing and potentially cause additional tissue damage. The exact length of each segment depends on the severity, location, and stage of healing of your injury.

The best time to apply all four components of RICE is several hours after a severe acute injury before you have the injury evaluated by a medical professional. Unless you are specifically told to do so by a medical professional, you shouldn’t need to apply RICE more than 3-5 days following a severe acute injury (assuming you don’t re-injure yourself).

Ice vs. Heat

Now that you know the effects of cold and heat on the human body, here is the answer to the ever-popular question, “Should I ice it or use heat?”

How Cold and Heat Affect the Body

You strain your hamstring doing a penche, so you put ice on it. Your muscles are achy when you’re lifting your sousaphone over your head after the first week of band camp, so you use a heating pack to soothe them. You know that ice and heat help, but how do they help?

Cold application (cryotherapy) and heat application (thermotherapy) are often used in athletic medicine at all levels, from weekend warriors to professional athletes. But why? Changes in temperature result in predictable physiological changes within the body. As you would expect, cold temperatures often result in different changes than warm temperatures do, but there are some changes, such as reduction in pain, that can be caused by either cold or heat application.

Using a Heating Pad is not the same thing as Warming Up

Many performers – most often, they’re dancers (sorry, guys, but it’s true) – think that if they use a heating pad for a few minutes before a workout, rehearsal, or a performance they will be properly warmed up and ready for physical activity.  While using a heating pad can help achieve some of the things you need from a proper warm-up, it can’t do all of them.

When sports medicine professionals, like athletic trainers, tell you to warm up before you start a workout or a rehearsal, they don’t mean that they want a part of your body (say, your hamstring) to feel hot to the touch.  What they mean is they want you to go through the process of physiologically warming up.  Basically, they want you to do several minutes’ worth of light exercising that elevates your heart rate.

Why?