Ice Versus Heat for Stretches

Let's start with some controversy today. Ice versus heat in the medical world is probably one of the most debated topics out there, from doctor to doctor, physical therapist to physical therapist, and sports injury physios. The data could go either way on this but for today's sake and to make it simple, these are the MOST followed rules when choosing ice versus heat for your injury. Also, we are only going to cover acute injuries, anything more than that then you need to see a physical therapist, because the injury is out of this range.

Ice:

Let's start with ice first, it is the one you will probably end up using the most. I know all of you have presumably had one of these afflictions, sprained ankle or back injury (back pain.) It may not look like it, but these two traumas require the same protocol: ice. When you sprain your ankle what happens? It promptly begins to swell and swell big time. Your back actually does the equivalent of that, but because there is more adipose (fat tissue) around your back, we can't see the swelling occur. Both are inflamed and your number one priority for the first 0-48 hours, is to get that swelling down. Enter the ice pack. One thing to note about ice packs, is that you should never put it directly on the injured skin. Our freezers are intense, and if you put an ice pack that is 16 degrees on raw skin and hold it there, the raw skin will have frostbite within fifteen seconds. So just note you should wrap the ice packs in either something like a pillowcase or an old t shirt. Cold generally penetrates far lower into the skin than heat. A prevailing routine is fifteen to twenty minutes on. The paramount thing about when to use ice is for RECENT injuries. Old injuries won't swell, they are inflamed for other reasons. If you are stretching and hear a pop or feel a burning in a ligament, that is a recent injury, and the ligament needs ice immediately. The ice will help reduce the swelling from the stretch and shorten the ligament faster.

Heat:

I have one rule for heat, never EVER use heat on your body after a stretching class! You see, heat makes ligaments elongate and slide better past one another, which is great when you're warming up and need them to expand. But after the yoga class, you need those tendons to shrink. Otherwise, they stay elongated and the percentage of you getting an injury AFTER class is goes way up. For weight classes or cardio classes feel free to take a long hot bath afterwards for those sore achy muscles. But the rules for stretching and yoga are different. After class go home and get settled on the couch with an ice pack. Just gently leave it on the major ligament and tendon joining sites: the knees, elbows, back, and maybe the hips. You don't have to leave it on their long, like five minutes for each section. The only people who should not consider that guideline, are individuals with arthritis. Their joints are already inflamed without a recent injury and heat will actually make the pain worse. Cold packs should be in their everyday routine. Now with a heating pad, moist heating pads tend to penetrate better than just the normal pads from the store you plug in. The moist heating pads can be left on longer without fear of burning the skin. With the normal heating pads, beware of leaning too far back into the pad. The blood will get constricted to that one area and won't have a chance to circulate that heat throughout the body. Which is the whole point. Also, one final remark about heat injuries, is you don't have to elevate the affected area. That is only with ice involved injuries.