R.I.C.E.

The R.I.C.E. protocol: Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation.

Today at the tennis camp I teach at, a girl rolled her ankle during the last five minutes of the lesson. As soon as that happened, I went into R.I.C.E. mode: we got her ankle elevated, and we got an ice pack on her ankle right away. After rolling my ankle dozens of times during my many years of playing tennis (usually due to tripping over the lines on the court... shut up...), I've been exposed to the proper way to deal with these minor injuries. I figured I'd look into it a little bit more just in case there's something I've been missing all these years...

You should follow the R.I.C.E. protocol in situations where there's a pulled or strained muscle, or when there's an injury where swelling occurs.
Rest: As soon as you realize that an injury has occurred, stop what you're doing and rest it. Trying to "man up" or "push through the pain" usually has the potential to make a minor injury much worse. Whether you're on a tennis court and roll your ankle on a ball, or your calf doesn't feel quite right midway through a set of 50 air squats in a WOD, just don't do it. Live to fight another day by resting immediately.

Ice: Get ice, or an instant ice pack, or a bag of frozen veggies, or a gallon of paleo-friendly ice cream (anything cold that you have at your disposal), and put it on the injured body part. I've read differing opinions on how long to ice down the injury for. Some places say 20 minutes every hour that you're awake after the injury. Personally, I've always gone with 20 minutes of icing, 20 minutes without ice, until the swelling subsides. As far as I can tell, the exact intervals don't really matter. What does matter is that you ice down the injury. Ice is excellent for keeping swelling down, as well as acting as a mild pain reliever. Also, do NOT put heat on an injury until the swelling is completely subsided. Doing so can actually increase the amount of swelling and pain you experience.

Compression: If it's available, try to get some sort of mild compression on the injury. Going back to my rolled ankle example, wrapping an ACE bandage around the injured ankle will help manage the amount of swelling around the injured area. If you do have some sort of soft compression wrap available, make sure you don't wrap it too tight around the injury.

Elevation: Get the injured area elevated. Again, if you rolled your ankle, simply sitting on the couch with your feet up on the coffee table isn't doing you much good. The idea is to get the injured body part above your heart. In doing so, your heart pumps less blood to the injured tissue, which in turn helps keep swelling down. Take advantage of your heart's general laziness and inability to pump uphill... Elevate your injury above your heart.

As a side note, adding in some nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (a.k.a. NSAIDs) can do wonders for keeping down the injury's swelling while lessening the pain you experience. NSAIDs are basically ibuprofen, Advil, and Motrin. My personal favorites are the Advil liquigels. They work quick and work well.

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Outkast - Bombs Over Baghdad

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WOD 100707 Wednesday

Rest Day