Should Athletes Use Hot or Cold Therapy After an Injury?

Heat packs and ice packs are commonly available in the markets and these are among preferred choices to treat the orthopedic issues. Choosing the most effective one is necessary. Which technique is good to treat an injury? Should you use heat or ice pack? What should be the length of the application? Find the details about injury treatments with the help of heating pads or ice packs.

Ice Treatment:

The method of ice treatment is common and excellent to treat acute injuries. Those who have received an injury (24 or 48 hours) should try this method to control pain and swelling. The ice packs such as Coldest Ice Pack would be useful to manage injury and other associated issues such as bleeding, clotting, pain in muscles and spasm.

Ice packs are also used for foot injuries such as ankle sprains. Athletes should apply the ice packs immediately after the injury (best within first 24 hours of injury). This reduces the swelling around the injury. It also controls the inflammation. Use of ice on the injury improves blood vessels and limits the blood flow around the injured area. It is necessary to ensure that unnecessary fluids are not present around the injury. There is no need to use ice packs if the injury is chronic.

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Traditionally or previously, the ice packs were made with the help of towels and ice (muslin cloth in some cases). This method was laborious and difficult. Some athletes use plastic bags filled with water. They put these bags in the refrigerator to make the solid ice bags. All these methods are no longer necessary. You can choose the Coldest Ice Pack in order to avoid traditional problems.

Note: Never treat your left shoulder with an ice pack if you have any heart condition (heart stroke or cardiovascular pain).

Heat Treatment:

Heat treatment is effective for most chronic conditions. It is helpful to loosen the tissues, relax the muscles and to improve the blood flow. You can use heat treatment without any worries, especially for overuse injuries. Do it before starting an activity.

When to Avoid Heat Treatment?

Don’t apply heat pads on the injured area if there is swelling. On the other hand, you should also avoid it after physical activity. As a matter of fact, using heat therapy after physical activity or swelling may promote the bleeding in tissues.

You can buy a heating pad from the markets. Alternatively, hot towels or straps are also effective for heat treatment. It would be better to maintain a moderate temperature level. This will help to avoid skin burning. Take care if you have a burning sensation in the injured area.

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Precautions:

Avoid the heat pads if:

• The injured area especially the skin has a poor condition.

• The injured area has poor sensation.

• The body or injured area has a poor blood circulation.

• You are diabetic.

• You are allergic to any condition.

Please read more details about Hot + Cold Therapy if you have a further quarry.