Posted on September 5th 2022 by Jason Wells

Throughout life you’ll be lucky if you don’t have your fair share of muscle and ligament injuries, neck related headaches or putting your back out.

When dealing with pain and injury there is a lot of confusion over when to apply ice or heat. As a general rule injuries that cause swelling require the use of ice first then heat later. Pain that is chronic usually responds best to heat. So, to clear a few things up we have put together a guide for you with some more information on each application:

ICE

Ice is for acute and new injuries – calming down damaged superficial tissues that are inflamed, red, hot and swollen.

Although the inflammatory process is a healthy, normal, natural course for your body, it also happens to be incredibly painful, and icing is an effective, drugless way of dulling the pain of inflammation and taking swelling down. The aim of ice during acute soft tissue injuries is to slow and stop any bleeding and settle joint inflammation. This is usually applied for the first 2 days during an acute soft tissue injury after which heat assists in promoting healing.

When not used at the right time, ice can aggravate symptoms of tightness and stiffness. For example, when you have a sudden onset of back or neck pain, the application of ice around your spine often causes reflex muscle guarding and increased tissue and nerve sensitivity.  

HEAT

Heat is for muscles, chronic pain, and stress - taking the edge off symptoms like muscle aching and stiffness. Heat is especially helpful to improve range of motion on a joint that maybe isn’t moving so well.

Chronic pain, especially back pain, often involves lots of tension, anxiety, hypervigilance, and sensitisation, in which comfortable heat can soothe a jangled mind and nervous system.

When not used at the right time, heat can make inflammation significantly worse

What about injured muscle? Muscle strains?

If you’re supposed to ice injuries, but not muscle pain, then what do you do with injured muscles (a muscle tear or muscle strain)? This can be a tough call, but ice usually wins – at least for the first few days at most, and only if it really is a true muscle injury. A true muscle injury usually involves obvious trauma during intense effort, causing severe pain suddenly. If it is indeed a torn muscle, then use ice to take the edge off the inflammation at first and once the worst is over, switch to heat.

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The bottom line on ice vs heat is to listen to your body, follow these guidelines above, if you start to use one and you don’t like the feel of it, switch to the other and if you need some more help, that is what we are here for!

Ice and heat work well when used correctly but if not they can actually cause the opposite effect and make you ache even more acutely.

Our team of experienced Physiotherapists will assess your injury and provide tailored treatment and a plan for your best healing and recovery. They will advise if ice or heat is best for YOUR injury and care for you throughout your recovery process.

To find out more about us, have a look around our website or give our front desk team a call on 9293 1800. You can also book online any time by visiting the link below: https://www.meadphysiogroup.com.au/book-online

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