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  • Should You Ice Your Injury?

    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.

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  • Sports Massage Therapy Does A Body Good

    Sometimes people dismiss massage as therapy. Actually most of the time people dismiss it as something of a luxury instead of therapy! From the amazing results I’ve seen both in my practice plus my 10 years in a chiropractic office, massage is definitely something more then a luxury. It’s a therapy most people need, especially athletes!  Some of the results I’ve seen have been clients in various types of accidents, injuries and surgery recovery going from a pain level of 8 or 9 out of 10 to 0 out of 10.  In addition, there is the range of motion going from barely being able to move the affected region to full range of motion again.

    author Jack Meagher of the Sports Massage book, claims sports massage gives an athlete 20% more in the areas of performance, injury prevention, flexibility and career longevity!  He further states “comprehensive, therapeutic massage is so powerful because we can identify trouble spots such as adhesions and spams and restore tissue before these conditions become injurious.

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  • Can Popping Your Knuckles Lead to Arthritis?

    We’ve all heard these noises before from someone stretching out their fingers and/or popping their knuckles. People may have warned you that your knuckle-cracking habit can lead to arthritis or other health concerns. This common habit has a simple explanation.

    The joints in your body have spaces between them. This spaces expand when you stretch your fingers out. The pressure in the joint then decreases and the gasses are dissolved into fluids causing a release of pressure, like the sound created by opening a bottle of champagne. The fluid returns to its’ proper place, popping the little bubbles of gas as the joint settles back into place. This is what causes the familiar cracking sound. The explanation also comes with good news: cracking your knuckles has not been shown to lead to arthritis! The movement can even feel good because when you joint stretches out, the nerve endings in your fingers are stimulated.

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