Ice and Injury: The How to Guide You Never Read

I want you to do a little experiment. Get an ice pack, and get a watch with a timer. Put the ice pack on your thigh, and start the timer. After 1 minute has elapsed, remove the ice pack.

Now take a look at your skin. What color is your skin where the ice pack was laying? For most, the skin will look white / blanched.

Now put the ice pack on your other thigh and leave it there for 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes have elapsed, remove the ice pack.

What color is your skin now? Most people will find that their skin will be red. And if your skin turns red after only 5 minutes, you’ll probably find that it turns really red after 20 minutes.

When your skin begins to cool, the initial reaction is constriction (shrinking of the diameter) of blood vessels. This happens after a short period of time (1-2 minutes for most people). The result of constriction of the blood vessels is that “whiteness” or blanching.

However, after some time has gone by, your body reacts to the cold by actually INCREASING the size of the blood vessels in that area to send more blood in to warm it up and prevent damage to the skin/tissues (this is known as the Hunting Effect).

When you are hurt, you tend not to move the injured area. The result of not moving is that your muscles don’t pump normally. Without this active pumping of muscles, the abundance of blood in the area can pool, resulting in an increase of swelling!

That’s the down side of icing for too long. Now let’s look at the benefits of ice and how to use it.

The best use of ice is to reduce pain. When pain is reduced, muscles in the area can “relax” and you can start to move your muscles or joints (even if it’s just a little bit). The relaxation of your muscles and the movement of your joints can lead to improved circulation. This is healthy, normal circulation and this removes excess fluid and chemicals from the area resulting in less pain and reduced swelling.

So here is the takeaway: You should ice an area long enough for the analgesic / pain reducing effect to occur, but not long enough for the skin to turn red-colored.

For most people, 2-3 minutes is long enough to get this effect. After 2-3 minutes, you should remove the ice pack and do some light (pain free) movement of the area. Then wait until your skin returns to “normal” temperature. At that time, if you like, you can repeat the brief icing. Repeat this on / off pattern of icing / exercise for as long as you desire.

This combination of efficient use of ice and low intensity, pain free motion should have you back in action in no time!