There are many methods of self-care people go to when it comes to helping with pain and recovery. Often the first things people try is: foam rolling, stretching, and massage percussion guns. These are all great ways to help relieve muscles and send signals to the brain to help them relax. However, what if what we need is to help already damaged tissue heal and reduce inflammation in the area, this is where contrast therapy comes in. Simply put contrast therapy is cycling through hot and cold temperatures to bring blood into the affected area and cold to send signals to bring fluids back to the heart. When repeated this creates a powerful healing assistance synergy.
Benefits of contrast therapy:
Bring in blood to help body structures heal
Remove inflammation away from affected area
Faster recovery
Injury prevention
increased mobility
People dealing with the following would benefit from contrast therapy:
Arthritis and osteoarthritis
Sesamoiditis
Golfers elbow or tennis elbow
Ankle sprains and strains
Any muscle, joint, ligament, and tendon pain or injury.
Athletes looking to speed recovery and prevent injuries.
What do you use to create heat and cold?
Simply put you'll need to find ways to create heat that will last for 5 minutes and something cold.
Localized areas
If you're working on something like a shoulder I would recommend a hot pack or warm towel. For something cold you could use a bag of frozen peas or ice.
Forearms, hands and Feet:
If you're working on forearms or feet I highly recommend using water. This could be using 2 dish tubs, one filled with hot water and the other filled with cold water and ice. This is extremely effective as the water is able to completely cover the entire surface and all the tiny areas of the feet and fingers. You can of course use anything for these areas but I find water the best transmitter for heal/cold in these areas.
Full body:
If you want to target the whole body I would recommend a Sauna, steam room, and hot tub for heat and use a cold shower or better yet a pool to cool your body down.
How do you cycle temperatures?
I would recommend starting with hot and always end with cold. This way we start by flushing in nutrients and end with draining away inflammation.
Repeat 3-4 times: 5mins hot, 5 minutes cold.
Total 30-40mins
Why RICE Should Not Be Used For Recovery?
Rest Ice Compression Elevation was a method originally intended to help speed up recovery by reducing inflammation. However, the creator this method, Dr. Gabe Mirkin, came out in 2015 saying that it not only does not help speed up recovery, but can be damaging as well.
Can I just use heat?
Heat is one of the most important components of contrast therapy as it is what is bringing in nutrients and vasodilating the veins, arties, and lymphatics. If you don't have access or time to use cold this is still a great option and will still have tremendous benefits. That being said the cold can help bring waste away so each cycle of heat keeps bringing in new nutrients.
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