When I was in high school (oh so long ago), the school’s athletic trainer’s famous words were “ice it.” No matter what the injury was, he always told everyone to ice it. It became the running joke with all the athletes of the school. Fast forward waayyyy too many years later, a lot of research (and a lot of easy access thanks to Google) and we’ve had a lot more information come to light.

Some things about icing you may not know:

  • Icing (or heat) on an injury for longer then 20 minutes could counter the positive effects you want and make it worse. You could damage the tissues and cause lack of blood flow to the area.
  • You can get frostbite from icing an injury.
  • Ice an injury to reduce swelling, decrease inflammation and/or pain in the affected area.
You can read more on this article in Runners World.