I’m looking for everyones ice tricks - we all know how good for you it is, but if you’re like me you don’t seem to take advantage enough.
I used to have ankle issues playing lots of Ultimate, so I would fill a bucket with ice water and plunge em in. Most of the time I could grit through, but too often I would just pop the Vitamin I and call it good. I didn’t want to deal with the ‘before-numbed bone cracking cold torture’
I came up with a trick to get around it - sort of. Here is my trick:
Fill bucket with cold tap water. Get container of ice but don’t put any in yet. Plunge feet (or whatever body part). Gradually add cubes as your body slowly cools down. Before you know it, you will be down to freezing temp. The key here is the gradual part. If you are a total wimp, just do it really slowly.
You know you need to do the ice bath, now theres no excuse!
If anyone has a good way of doing an ice bath for your knees, that doesn’t involve soaking everything up to mid-thigh, I would be highly interested.
Yeah - expensive to actually “buy” (still needs a presciption). I use these units post surgery for many patients and most insurance companies cover it (except Aetna and govt. programs) with a patient out of pocket limited to $250. There are numerous other units from DonJoy, Bregg, etc., but this thing is absolutely the bomb. Controllable, segmental compression and controllable temp ice in one computer unit. REALLY sweet and well made. I’ve been doing my damnest to get the rep to give me one of these things (if I use enough I guess) would love to use it after long runs, etc.
I have to be honest, when it comes to icing, I am a big sissy. I think I temporarily suffer from “selective” ADD (I ride the CompuTrainer with the CompuTrainer telemetry on one screen, a movie on another all while listening to my iPod) in addition to not being able to stand willfully subjecting myself to feeling cold.
Next time I’m sore or injured, I will try your advice, maybe with my iPod!
The Vancouver Ultimate League used to own the knee version and lend it out to players after their ACL surgery (you know the incidence of injury is high when …).
I have two, neither that is very original. First, I keep 2 bags of frozen peas in my fridge, both at home and at the office, so I can ice various body parts (currently shoulders, neck and foot) with little fuss/muss. My second (and they work quite well together at home) is a Manhattan on the rocks with 2 cherries.
