icing in general
I'd love any icing suggestions that you may have...
Her coach works with her to do extra stretching for her hip flexor and her hamstring. She's using KT tape on her hamstring right now. That's more of a precautionary measure. She felt a little twinge of pain on Monday and tightness in her hamstring, so she's trying to be real careful with it.
The All You Can Eat Icing Buffet........
These are just my suggestions based on my experiences. I will qualify some of the icing experiences and methods where I feel they are a little out there. First a list of statements or conclusions that I live by.
Icing is safe, even to extremes if done using proper methods
Icing is best done by adding pressure, and elevating the injury above the heart (when practical)
rule of thumb...less than 20 minutes won't do much good except for really small body parts...like thumbs!!
Ice as long as possible/reasonable for "deep tissue" problems. If the numbing effect can't be felt where the pain is coming from it won't do any good beyond a plecebo effect.
Ice the entire joint when possible for wrists and elbows
Icing constricts the capilaries, decreases blood flow to reduce swelling, drains the iced area of any available damaged tissue that can be disposed of through the circulatory sytem which leaves space available within the damaged tissue for fresh, healing blood in the injury area. No draining...bad, More draining...good.
Frequent icing in addition to the obvious beyond "it hurts so I'm icing it" will accelerate healing because of the above. The iced area should be allowed to "rebound" with a fresh supply of blood before starting the next cycle
With planning, icing can be done while other activities take place.
Icing can be used as part of a maintenance program to keep overuse and hrp under control.
According to a nationally recognized pediatrician whose daughter spent years with me....you can ice and use the hrp area during less stressful warm-up activities, and then transition to the full meal deal type of activity. Use caution??? Don't just drop the ice pack and go full bore. Spent about five minutes at the less stressful level before moving on.
Strategies and Methods.....
For tissue safety and comfort start with a dry washcloth or hand towel between the ice and skin. This will prevent frostbite/damage to the skin, and allow for more comfortable icing as the "cold" comes on slowly enough to start the numbing process before the "full freeze" level hits.
Use smaller "loose" cubes to conform to the injured area's contures. It won't help much to put most of the "ice pressure" on an ankle bone when you are trying to ice the tissues above or below the ankle bone.
Wrap it up to keep it in place.....It only takes about eight to 12 ounces of cocktail ice to get the effect you want for the amount of time needed. By using just enough, you can still move around freely by first encaplsulating the ice cubes in a hand towel, place the towel on the injury with only one layer of fabric between the ice and skin, then you can keep the ice in place with an ace wrap....and even better, try using the 4-6 inch wide "shink wrap" found in most home improvement centers. It will contain most if not all of the water and still provide pressure.
I've schedule my work-out to have the impact activities alternate with the non-impact activites...Tumbling followed by dance throughs/dance elements with ice packs for those who need them....transition with ice packs still on, to beam or bars, warm-up the event as ice packs are coming off.....finish the event and move on to the next impact activity....ice packs after that event are worn during the last event warm-up.
I wouldn't say that each child has to ice at every opportunity, only those that have a hrp or minor injuries, but I can't think of any harm in having every child icing their wrists, elbows, ankles, and knees as event actvities allow to sustain good joint health.
It may seem like a lot to do, but if ice is handily availble it really takes just about 2-3 minutes for kids to "ice up" once they've been doing it for a week. I had more time lost with them thinking it was "break?chat" time than anything else, and had to cure that by assigning each child their own spot in the gym for icing up. It was either that or eliminating their scheduled break time.
So go out as a group and buy your gym an ice maker, or have one installed in you childs bedroom, or stop by a friendly fast food or restaurant on the way to and from the gym, or just pray for a timely and robust hail storm. No matter how you do it, more icing is better than none, and too much icing is just enough.
I think that about covers it. I'll happily answer any other qustions if I'm not busy icing for my "keyboard wrist" syndrome, or hanging out at the local hospital E.R.......
