Quote Originally Posted by zencentury View Post
I'm not so sure about that ice. Ice is used for immediate injuries to reduce swelling. Ice tightens things up. Think of gum on the sidewalk in January and then in July. You want your muscles to relax. Maybe hot baths and stretching.
In my case, it was an immediate injury as well as an ongoing/current one. The ice has to be used correctly, or yes -- it will start to be a negative thing (reduced circulation to the area, etc.). The correct way (in my case - your doc may direct differently) is 15-20 minutes on, 15-20 minutes off until you feel relief (i.e. no swelling). Taking Ibuprofen is beneficial, as well, if needed.

You're right, Zen, that the muscles have to stay relaxed, and that's one reason to take off the ice after a few minutes. But also, what people don't realize is that when you've injured your spine, your back muscles are doing double and triple the work they usually do to keep your spine stable. In essence, from the moment of the initial injury to the spine, your muscles have continued to be tensed and stressed until they finally tell you "enough!!" and that's when you get the diabilitating back spasms. The ice is necessary to get them to a relaxed state again (to stop spasming). Then the ice is needed to stop the inflamation in the tissues around the spine to allow them to repair and heal.

Hot baths did NOT help and only worsened the pain because the area needed to be cooled, not warmed. Muscle tiredness and general aches and pains -- yes on the heat. Spinal and other bone injuries and resulting spasms -- use ice.

RM, I've found that those velcro packs are a pain in the a$$, as they are only good for so long before you have to stick it back in the freezer again to refreeze. I've found my preference is that the good ol' fashioned ice bag is the best, because you can just dump out the melted ice and refill it with fresh ice, and the ice water stays colder longer than the freezer packs (hence, you don't have to keep getting up and down). Only thing is sometimes they spring a leak and you don't know it!