The Power of Ice Here’s how you properly ice a pained area. Fill a Ziploc bag with enough crushed or cubed ice to cover the injury. Sit or lay down. Set the bag of ice against the injury and let it cool the area for 10 to 15 minutes.
How to Use Ice for the Most Relief Once the time is up, take off the ice immediately. You don’t want to leave it on for too long because it can actually damage the area more than it will help it. Ten to 15 minutes alone won’t be enough to help the injury much. You will have to wait until the area warms back up to room temperature before trying again. You should usually wait between 45 minutes and 1 hour before you ice again. Ice for another 10 to 15 minutes and let it warm up to room temperature. The number of times you ice it will be up to you according to the intensity of your pain. Usually two to three repetitions will be sufficient for a day. Do more though if you don’t see any improvement. Grabbing a bag of frozen peas works just as well. Take it from the freezer and set it against the injured area. Keep it there for the same amount of time and return it to the freezer in between repetitions. By itself, ice cannot save you from all injuries. If you continue to push yourself beyond your limits thinking that “pain is weakness leaving the body” then even a day long icing couldn’t help you. You are liable to show up at the Salt Lake Orthopedic Center when you continue to push yourself to injury. Nothing will put more of a damper on your workout goals than having to visit the Orthopedic Center in Salt Lake for some joint replacement work.
Listen to Your Body To avoid this result, you need to create balance. The balance you need to find is to know when your body is telling you to stop and when the burn is just enough. One of the biggest distinctions to remember is that joint pain isn’t always weakness leaving the body. Joint pain is usually indicative that you’ve pushed your skeletal structure to its limits and you need to slow down.
It could also indicate that you need to spend more time working on the supporting muscles around the joint to cradle it in future. In cases like this, consider slowing down your workout, allowing the joint to start healing with ice and proper care, and then cross training to strengthen the area. Cross training will usually involve activities like hiking, sprinting, or swimming. This will work out different muscles that stabilize your joints in future. Listen to your body for pains like that. Ask representatives at the Salt Lake Orthopedic Center for recommendations on how to identify the proper workout and too much. Also talk to others that work out. Ice will help you to stave off injuries as they begin. You’re going to have to have a heart to heart with your body to know when to slow down and when you’re simply pushing yourself to better things. With time, experience, and a lot of icing though, you’ll learn quickly what’s good and what’s bad. Photo Credit: topfer asifthebes