3 things you must never do to an ACUTE injury

This post will be short and sweet but please take 30 seconds to read it.

Avoiding the three things below will save you much time in recovery.

1. Never put HEAT on an acute injury

If you have just had an acute injury the area will immediately go into an inflammatory response.

If the area around the injury is hot, red, swollen or painful you must avoid putting heat on it.

Heat will only increase the inflammatory response along with any bleeding or bruising in the area. Avoid heat at this stage! Including hot baths.

2. Never MASSAGE an acute injury

This is for exactly the same reasons as I set out above.

Massage on an acute injury will only increase blood flow which in turn will increase the inflammatory response. Avoid massage on a 'new' injury!

3. Never try to 'RUN OFF ' an acute injury

This rule really falls into the common sense category. If you've just sprained an ankle, twisted a knee or pulled a hamstring you must stop exercising if it's causing you pain.

If you keep running on a painful joint or muscle then you will be creating additional trauma to the muscle fibers or joint surfaces.

To add to this, these type of injuries can feel less severe while the muscles are still warm it's only when you stop and cool down when the joint or muscle begins to 'stiffen up'. This is the point when you realise the full extent of your injury.

STOP if you are in pain to avoid causing more damage.

When to use ice vs when to use heat?

I get asked this question most days, so I thought it would be best to write a short blog post on this area.

Ice

In the most basics terms you generally want to use ice on an acute injury when there is swelling and inflammation present. The main aim at this point is to reduce the inflammatory process. This will most likely be within the first 48 hrs of an injury occurring (although it may be a bit longer!)

Heat

Heat will most often be used on chronic problems or injuries where there is muscle spasm occurring. Never apply heat to an injury where there is still swelling and 'puffiness'.

There are occasions when heat will be used to treat chronic complaints, however its best to seek advice on this first. As always if in doubt please email me or call me first to discuss what the best action is.

A word of warning

When using ice be careful to cover your ice pack (or pack of peas) with a cloth. This will make sure you avoid ice burn or even worse, frostbite. Ice burn can occur fairly easily especially when icing areas such as the hands, feet or skin around the face.

I've see a couple of cases of ice burn first hand and it can leave some nasty blisters. When icing make sure you lift the ice pack every 2-3mins to check the skin is not reddening too much and avoid applying ice for longer then 15mins at a time.

For more information on when to use heat vs when to use ice click here.

Additionally click here for extra information on the dangers of over icing.