Hot or Cold, which is better for healing?

RICE

Rest Ice Compression Elevation

This has been first aid advice for years now, but is it right?

In the last couple of years the research has shown us that no, it isn't. Which is inline with the Traditional Chinese Medicine / Ayurvedic practitioners have always said heat over cold.

So what should we think?

The key, as ever is in the context, I made a short instagram video on the topic here below, which I'll expand on below that:

Ice, or cyro therapy is useful as it immediately reduces pain and inflammation.

And on the whole, we don't like inflammation.

Actually that is not quite true, we love inflammation, when it's appropriate and not excessive. inflammation brings healing, it is the fluids rushing to the injury site bringing with it nutrition, warmth, blood, plasma, lymph and and the good stuff that will help things fix themselves up in quick time.

In order to encourage blood flow and speed up the inflammatory process, we can add heat. Heat will open the vasculature allowing for a greater amount of fluid going into and out of the area. Bringing nutrition and raw materials in and transporting the junk out.

My tool of choice for this?

The good old fashioned hot water bottle.

Second to that you can get the microwavable bags, chemical packs and after that we're into creams and rubs such as Tiger Balm, Deep Heat and the like.

On the creams, it is thought that a large amount of their success comes from the rubbing as you apply them. I'm not sure whether that's right or wrong, but I've used enough Tiger Balm over the years to tell you the heat and the rubbing together make for a happy Dave!

So what about cold?

Do we kick it to the kerb entirely?

Not so fast. If you are an athlete training multiple times per day or competing across a day, as in a BJJ or Judo competition, then ice could be just the thing.

We said Ice has a near instant analgesic effect, it takes the pain away very quickly while preventing, even reducing inflammation.

So lets say your knee is hurting, but you have to go out again in an hour, or later that day to compete in the next round, we don't want our range of motion inhibited by inflammation, we merely want the pain reduced enough to allow us go out and do our thing. Ice is just this.

If we're doing tough strength and conditioning training and have a skills practice later today, or the next day, cold can help us moderate the inflammatory response and we may be better able to practice tomorrow.

The cold has it's place. In my mind it's short term and acute to get us through this here, this now.

Once home though, we want to encourage blood flow through the region, and heat is a better option. Heat and movement if appropriate. If you have questions or comments on anything in this post, please get in touch. Comment below or drop me message.

And if you feel this information would help someone else, please do hit the share buttons and spread the word.

Thanks

Dave Hedges www.DaveHedges.net

Focus

Focus has never been so under threat as it is currently.

Between the constant media barrage, including things like on demand streaming services, which I love by the way..

And also your email, your social media, gaming and so on.

Non of this is conducive to high performance.

Even I struggle with this, a quick look at my facebook leads to a silly amount of time scrolling, then since I checked there, why not check insta.

Did I receive any emails?

Ah sure, the phone's in my hand, let's just do a quick level on that game I downloaded...

And before you know it, time is gone, we're now in a rush to do the stuff we should have been doing.

Not only that, our brain now feels flat.

It's been spoon fed excitement, it's had an almost passive supply of dopamine fed to it from the scrolling.

And now, putting the device down, our brain has to work for that dopamine hit, it has to fire up it's creativity circuits to get back to doing real stuff in the real world.

Now don't get me wrong, the phone is a great tool, I'll not be getting rid of mine any time soon. But we have to recognise the limitations it can place on us and how it can have a negative effect on focus.

In order to perform well, we require focus.

Focus on this task Do this thing Do it well and only move to the next task when appropriate, not because our attention drifts and we drift with it.

Over the 20+ years I've been involved in coaching and rehab, a huge obstacle I've come across time and again is the disconnect between people's physical body and their attention.

So many folk in the modern world live and work in the virtual environment of the internet. They work at a computer screen, then to relax, they sit at a computer screen or TV, or mobile device.

Again, there's nothing wrong with this, so long as we find a balance with some physicality.

The intellectual work that makes up many peoples lives, is great and well needed, but it does not "feed the animal" ie move the physical body, with it's physical hormones, synovial joints, lymph and blood flow.

I mentioned Dopamine earlier, this is a hormone that stimulates us to seek reward.

The mobile device gives us that reward all too easily, hence the almost compulsive behaviour it can encourage.

Instant action.

Instant reward,

Or rather the promise of reward.

Once that seeking behaviour ends, so does our dopamine, and this is the feeling of flatness we feel.

As the dopamine is a "seeking" hormone, it stimulates action, you can feel unfocused but agitated. Our nervous system is saying to DO, but a bit like if we've had too much coffee, we can't get our focus in line to do any one thing well.

But if we take a few slow breaths, easy inhale, longer exhale. If we look up, even better look out the window and take in a panorama If we move and stretch, like your pet dog or cat would do after a period of inactivity Then we shake. Shake the limbs as if "shaking the muscle off the bone" We get a reset.

We reconnect with our physical body, we move, which what the Dopamine is really looking for in the first place. We tone down the nervous system, find a calmer mind set

And now we can find focus.

Once we start our actual activity, we will have an easier time getting into it.

Take regular intervals through your day to "lean on your shovel" no matter what line of work you are in.

Use these moments, to check your breathing.

Small in - longer out.

Shake and / or stretch the body, the word for this is Pandiculation.

Even do a few push ups, or Squats, or reps of your rehab exercises.

These moments help you reset and regain focus.

You will be more productive You will be more focused.

Regards

Dave Hedges www.DaveHedges.net

Pain is a Funny Old Thing

Pain is a funny old thing.

Unless, it’s you that is suffering with it of course.

Pain is an output from the brain. A response to inputs from something.

That something may or may not be an injury.

Consider the common low back pain complaint. In most cases that low back pain has just crept up out of the blue, this wasn’t an injury, an acute incident. But it certainly does hurt.

The opposite of this would be a twisted ankle, or a broken collar bone. A real physical injury.

But even that isn’t simple.

How can one person have an injury and be screaming on the floor, but another, in identical circumstances, carries on like nothing happened?

A perfect example is my wife and I. I walk about the house barefoot, and will on occasion stub a toe against a table or chair leg. My wife seeing this flinches, her leg even twitches, because anytime she stubs her toe, it’s like the end of the world. I barely notice.

What’s the difference?

Perception.

How we perceive the incident, how we perceive the impact, how we perceive potential damage.

A perception that is informed by your history, your experience, your toughness, and so on.

In the toe stubbing context, I grew up practising karate, having my toes hit was par for the course. I don’t perceive it as a threat, so it doesn’t hurt. I’ve also participated in extreme and endurance sports where toughness is a necessary attribute, so jumping to conclusions about sensation coming from my body isn’t part of my thought process. You can become accustomed to telling yourself things don’t hurt, knowing full well that the brain will call your bluff later on.

And it will.

In the moment it may implement a strategy to let you carry on while protecting the damage site. But sooner or later, that strategy brings about its own issues.

And this may well be the non-injury related pain you feel. It may be overload, poorly loaded tissues, compressed joint spaces or something that worked for a while to help you protect one injury, but now starts asking the brain for help, which could result in a pain sensation.

Of course, I’m storytelling here, your shoulder doesn’t actually ask the brain for help…

…or does it…

Pain itself is complex. Your perception plays a huge part in it. But then so does your subconscious posture, movement habits etc.

But if you ever wonder why I’m so interested in all your old injuries, all the injuries you may have forgotten about, it’s because these may tell the story of how you ended up in pain today.

Or did you bob when you should have weaved….

Regards

Dave Hedges

www.DaveHedges.net