Discover when to get cold or hot when suffering an injury
When we dedicate ourselves to exercise, it is sometimes inevitable to suffer some injury than another. The injuries do not always appear as a result of exercise are many situations that can occur in our lives and as a result of being injured: work, daily tasks, domestic chores, a fall while walking, while on vacation, some disease.
The injuries that we can get to suffer can be several: muscle or joint injuries, contractures, falls, bumps, strains, muscle cramps, muscle tears, torn ligaments.
In the face of these injuries, it is good to know when to resort to cold application or to the application of heat as a therapeutic purpose and to improve or alleviate it while the lesion subsides.
Since ancient times both cold and heat have been used for therapeutic purposes not only in the case of athletes also to treat the cases of people with chronic ailments.
Know the effects of using both cold and heat
Before deciding what to apply if cold or heat we must keep in mind that this is what happens when both the muscles and the ligaments, tendons or adjacent tissues are injured so that the blood vessels in the area can be damaged.
This damage in the blood vessels causes a hemorrhage to occur inside the tissues that are around and as a consequence of this an inflammation arises, the pressure of those tissues increases and in addition to inflammation it produces swelling and pain.
In these cases it is good to resort to cold application that should be applied at the time of injury.
The result of immediately applying the cold causes a vasoconstriction to occur, which contributes to the time of less bleeding and inflammation.
In case we resorted to the application of heat we can say that it would have almost the opposite effect since the blood vessels would expand with heat, also increasing the fluid of the tissues with what both the bleeding of the affected area and the inflammation , they would be bigger, and the pain too, besides the healing of the lesion would be slower.
In what type of injuries can we apply cold and in which heat?
Cold is indicated in cases of muscular or joint injuries and we must take into account to apply it immediately, depending on whether we are injured.
The application of cold is effective in the treatment of:
- Sprains
- Twists.
- Contractures
- Bruises
- Hits.
- In muscle, ligament, joint injuries.
- In acute inflammatory processes.
The cold is not only good for injuries, it is also ideal to use after having done the exercise as it helps relax the muscles and improve muscle fatigue.
The heat, on the other hand, is effective in case of these ailments:
- After long periods of immobilization.
- To reduce both rigidity and lack of mobility in cases of rheumatism, arthritis, arthritis.
- To relieve pain in chronic degenerative diseases such as arthritis and osteoarthritis.
- In case of joint stiffness.
- For cases of gout.
- To improve muscle contractures, cervical pain, sciatica, tendinitis, low back pain
- Before starting to exercise as a warm-up.
- As a warm-up before a massage session.
And when to combine cold and heat?
To improve some ailments it is sometimes necessary to combine heat and cold, obtaining good results.
The combination of both treatments is effective in the case of people with reduced mobility and who need rehabilitation.
For these cases before beginning the rehabilitation exercises to reduce joint stiffness, the application of heat is necessary, in this way, by reducing the rigidity, both the tendons and the muscles can move better, with which the pain is also less.
After finishing the rehabilitation exercises and reducing both the inflammation of the tendons and muscles that have been worked on, the application of cold will calm the pains that could appear after the rehabilitation exercise. ThemesExercise Sports injuries
