Fire or ice: How to know when to apply heat or ice to a sporting injury

 Rating: **

This article didn't offer a sufficient amount of advice for treating sports injuries, however it did cover the basic knowledge of sport injuries that everyone should know. Sporting injuries can be broken down into two categories, chronic pain and acute pain. Treating these two types of pain should be handled differently. Chronic pain takes its time to develop and the pain generally lasts longer, in this case you would use heat, (I.e heat packs). Most athletes know that ice is for immediate use after an injury, acute pain can be handled the same way. Ice reduces inflammation and pain of a sudden injury. Although I knew the basic heat/cold sport injury suggestions, this article reminded me of the little details that make a difference in the recovery of a sports injury such as applying ice for 20-30 minutes for three days after an injury which causes swelling, and to never use heat on a swelling injury, as heat will increase circulation and skin temperature. This article taught me that in special cases it is fine to use both heat and ice depending on the injury.For example it would be fine to use heat/ice if it is a frozen shoulder or someone who suffers chronic pain from overusing a specific muscle. I also learned that athletes with reoccurring injuries should ice after each performances.

St. Jean, Julie. "Fir or ice: how to know when to apply heat or ice to a sporting injury." Ottawa Outdoors Sept. 2012: 20-21. Print.