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Ice vs Heat for Treating Muscle Pain![]() When dealing with muscle pain it's hard to know what treatment will work best for you. You might be wondering if ice and heat will work for you. Or maybe even which will work better - ice OR heat. Icing and heating are 2 of the most natural treatment options available. Compared to medications, surgery and other treatment methods - icing and heating have been around for centuries and have always been used for muscle injury healing as a means to soothe and heal. We understand that it can get pretty confusing to figure out what conservative treatment method will work best with all of the treatment options available to you today. To get started, you should think about the benefits you'll get from using these therapies. What's Better to Treat Your Muscle Pain - Ice or Heat?Ice and heat are the best treatment combination for you if: ![]()
Combining cold and warmth is a simple yet effective way to get immediate pain relief and promote long-term healing. In your lifetime you've probably had your mom, family doctor, nurse, surgeon or physical therapist tell you to use ice right after you're injured and something warm from time to time once the swelling's gone down. It's a simple yet very effective way to relieve pain and promote healing in your injured, sprained, strained, torn, pulled or spasming muscle. Muscle injuries can happen to anyone, and right now there are thousands of doctors and physical therapists dealing with patients that require a solution to treat their strained / pulled muscle fast and heal it (where possible). If you want to be proactive about properly dealing with your muscle pain, speak to your doctor about adding conservative temperature treatments to your recovery with AidMyMuscle's system using a Cold Compress or Ice Pack and Deep Tissue Regeneration Therapy with a TShellz Wrap. Superior TechnologyWhen It Comes to Soft Tissue Injury Treatment, a T•Shellz Wrap® is Superior to Heat; so instead of talking about heat, lets talk about the T•Shellz Wrap® Use a T•Shellz Wrap®, NOT HeatThe idea of using heat was to try and get your body to circulate more blood into your injured tissue. The problem is that most heat doesn't get down below the sub-dermal skin layer - as such it is largely ineffective. This is why our DTR Therapy wraps are superior to heat. Each DTR Therapy Wrap emits a uniform wave of healing electromagnetic energy over the entire treatment area. This energy travels deep down to your muscles and tendons, stimulating the blood flow in and around the treatment area - just the same as a heat application was intended to do - only T•Shellz Wrap® does it better. The electromagnetic energy is CRUCIAL to the healing process. ![]() Electromagnetic energy waves (EMR) are not Heat Waves. When they are emitted from the T•Shellz Wrap® they penetrate right through your skin and fat layers until they get to denser soft tissue such as your ligaments, muscles, and tendons. EMR waves are absorbed by this dense soft tissue and this absorption of energy results in increased bloodflow .... that's Enhanced Healing Power (EHP) -right at the location of the injury. The use of ElectroMagnetic Energy is the only way that will provide the DTR Therapy effect deep in the body where it is needed. The TShellz Wrap is a flexible, therapeutic wrap that can significantly increase bloodflow at the source of your injury! The Deep Tissue Repair process is something you will find nowhere else. Electromagnetic Energy => Increased Blood Flow => More Oxygen, More Nutrients and Less Toxins => Faster HealingUsing heat when the energy is only pushing into the top layers of the skin won't give you deep tissue healing. In this case, the blood is actually rushing AWAY from deep tissue in the body, up to the surface of your skin - exactly the opposite of what we want. You can easily see this when applying surface heat to your skin - it gets red - this means that blood is rushing to your skin to try and disperse the heat before it goes deeper. If you try and heat deep tissue from the surface, you will find that little, if any, heat will reach deep. The skin and fat layer below the skin are very efficient insulators - they protect extreme temperatures from penetrating. There's even a condition for overuse of a skin-level heat source called toasted skin syndrome, hot water bottle rash, fire stains, laptop thigh, or granny's tartan (reference: 1 - opens in new window). Click HERE to Go To Our Online Store We take all major credit cards and Paypal. Note: If you have an Acute (recent, inflamed) Soft Tissue Injury, Do Not Use Heat.Your doctor knows that the sooner cold is applied, the quicker you can reduce inflammation and achieve real pain relief. This will help reduce the chance of a much longer lasting chronic injury. Heat and inflammation are a bad mix and should not be used together. Heat is good at the spa - it will help your body relax, but when it comes to an injury that is swollen, it is not a good idea (unless your physician specifically recommends otherwise). When To Use Cold:A Cold Compress or Ice Pack work best to relieve pain, swelling and inflammation for new injuries, re-injury and during immediate post surgery recovery. Cold therapy should also be used during the first 24 - 72 hours of treatment, combined with resting your injury.
When to use a T•Shellz Wrap® (HEAT):
Here Are Some Examples For Using Cold (Ice) Vs. Heat:You Have A Strained Quadricep Injury That's Been On-Going For Quite Some Time.You haven't felt any pain in the area for the last week or so. You're having a "good day" (your injury is feeling fine) and decide to head out for some grocery shopping. You realize afterwards that was a bad idea because your quadricep is now quite painful. Use COLD on your quadricep to stop further damage/micro-tearing in the muscle and help ease inflammation and pain. Before getting active next time, do light stretches and apply a Leg T•Shellz Wrap® treatment to the affected area 30 minutes to 1 hour before undergoing strenuous activity. It will help limber up the area temporarily and lower the risk of re-straining the injury during this period. You Pulled Your Calf Muscle A Couple Weeks Ago And Just Tweaked It AgainIf pain persists and there is swelling, then apply a Cold Compress or Ice Pack as needed to reduce the radiating pain and any potential inflammation. If there is no inflammation and little pain but you feel like the area is tightening up, use the T•Shellz Wrap® treatment when getting up in the morning or before undertaking activity. Use cold after any sort of activity causes you inflammation and/or on-going pain.Use a T•Shellz Wrap® before activity and when you notice stiffness to 'warm up' soft tissue and stimulate healing.When Should You Use A T•Shellz Wrap® (Deep Tissue Heat) To Treat Your Strained Muscles?![]() DTR Therapy treatments work best to increase blood flow circulation and stimulate healing for older (chronic) injuries, re-injuries (after swelling has been reduced) and during long-term post surgery recovery. DTR Therapy should not be used directly after an injury, as you must wait for swelling to drop. DTR Therapy treatments should not be started for a least 2 weeks after surgery because inflammation levels will be very high as the healing process starts over again. Any use of DTR Therapy should also be combined with gradual movement to stretch out your hips and increase range of motion. If you have a chronic soft tissue injury that keeps getting re-injured or tight muscles due to spasms, it is recommended that you use a TShellz Wrap before activity to loosen up soft tissue (making it more flexible). Deep Heat is shown to increase the elasticity (flexibility) of the soft tissue in and around the treatment area, making it more pliable for activity and less likely to re-injure. Sometimes we feel pain while doing a certain activity - should you still use DTR Therapy? Using a TShellz Wrap in the morning before you start your day or before activity can help to boost blood-flow and reduce risk of further strain or injury. Use cold part-way through your day after you have been active so you can decrease pain and inflammation from the flare up. Using a T•Shellz Wrap® is a good long-term plan as this deep heat will not only stimulate healing (via enhanced blood flow) - it can also be used on a preventive basis to relax constricted soft tissue (increased elongation & flexibility of muscles, ligaments and tendons). DTR Therapy indirectly enhances the local blood circulatory system, increasing the flow of nutrients your soft tissue needs to heal - oxygen, nutrients, anti-bodies and energy. What Makes the TShellz Wrap Different?![]() The TShellz Wrap is a wholesome healer! Instead of having the heat energy force itself into your body by heating up the skin first, the T_BWs emit an electromagnetic energy (EMR) that penetrates through the skin layer, and is absorbed deep down in your injured muscle. This means that instead of trying to heat from the outside in, you're using another method to to get the energy straight inside; EMR energy passes right through the skin and is absorbed by deep dense tissue - exactly where it is needed. What exactly has changed the way heat therapy works? With modern medical advancements, electromagnetic energy is used to generate deep tissue heat for healing with Deep Tissue Regeneration Therapy (DTR Therapy). The deep heat provided via regular use of the TShellz Wrap means that:
Our high quality wraps are registered with the FDA as medical devices which meet high manufacturing standards. The way to get Deep Tissue Therapy is through use of a T•Shellz Wrap®. As we mentioned before, other methods (like hot water bottles, hot baths, etc) increase blood flow on the surface / skin level. These methods need a LOT of time to even reach your deep tissue. And even if you were to use them this long, your skin would heat up to an uncomfortable level and you might even get burned! How to Use Ice and Heat to Relieve & Treat Your Muscle Strain/SpasmSoft tissue injuries can quickly become debilitating. At a minimum, they will impede your ability to continue your activities like you did before your injury. When dealing with shoulder, knee, wrist, hip and ankle injuries - they often seriously interfere with everyday tasks like getting dressed, driving, working or reaching for anything. ![]() When it comes to using ice and heat for treating a soft tissue injury, it's important to keep in mind that both ice AND heat are very effective ways to relieve pain and heal. Most people will think one is better over the other from their own experience or what a doctor / physical therapist has previously told them specific to a previous treatment plan. The only difference between using ice and heat is that 1 is better for you at a specific time in your healing cycle. Ice is used first, right when you get your injury, to decrease pain / swelling and inflammation. Once swelling has reduced, we then focus on heat based treatments to increase blood flow circulation in deep tissue which will stimulate the body's healing response. ![]() Each temperature therapy has its own unique benefits for healing of soft tissue, and when used together they provide a powerful advantage to long-term healing. You may already know that ice or heat feels better on your injury, and this could influence your decision too. The bottom line is that ice and heat are exceptional, natural, pain relievers and healers for soft tissue injuries. When we say soft tissue, we are talking about muscles, tendons, ligaments, cartilage and bursas. There are cases where some hip injuries will respond better to 1 temperature over the other. We want to help clear up the confusion so you know which is better (icy cold or gentle heat) and how to get the most from your treatment at home. How Do You Use Ice / Cold as Pain Relief for Your Muscle Injury?![]() COLD (ice) is used to treat injuries or conditions that are red, hot, inflamed, swollen and suffering from tissue damage (a tear or recovering from surgery). Cold therapy is a natural / organic pain reliever that numbs pain right at the source of your injury. While doing this, the cold also stops cellular break-down and reduces the amount of scar tissue forming (this is very important after surgery). When cold is applied to muscles, tendons and ligaments, soft tissue in the are will constrict and squeeze on the blood vessels to slow down your blood flow. This in turn clamps down on the amount of fluid leaking into your injured tissue, decreasing swelling. This is why cold is used immediately to treat acute (recent) injuries or re-injuries - basically, newly damaged soft tissue. The cold slows down your body to reduce the amount of damage happening to soft tissue and decrease the swelling. This cold also has a nice side benefit of numbing nerves in and around your injury, further decreasing your pain. In the medical world this is something called 'Vasoconstriction'. Cold can Make Your Soft Tissue Injury Worse - How? Applying cold can restrict blood flow and stiffen / tighten soft tissue. Cold is NOT a good treatment method for soft tissue tears or strains when the tissue is already tight and constricted, because the cold will just stiffen the tissue further. Instead, use a therapy that will increase blood flow, like the T•Shellz Wrap® (Deep Tissue Therapy) to increase localized blood circulation, and relax / elongate soft tissue, making it much more pliable. When to Use a Cold Compress or Ice Pack to Treat Your Muscle Tear/Strain/SpasmCold compression works best to relieve pain, swelling and inflammation for new injuries, re-injury and during immediate post surgery recovery. Cold therapy should also be used during the first 24 - 72 hours of treatment, combined with resting your injury. If you've been suffering for some time with a chronic soft tissue injury you should only use cold after activity causes you more pain or triggers more inflammatory response symptoms (red, hot, inflamed, swollen).. This would be when your the problematic area starts to hurt at the end of the day after you've been active. When used at this time, cold compression becomes a natural / organic pain reliever, targeting the localized site where you feel the pain. Sometimes we feel pain while doing a certain activity - should you still use cold? Too much cold therapy can reduce your ability to heal correctly, because cold is a short term pain reliever, not a deep tissue healer. Cold Therapy slows nerve and cell function - reducing swelling that blocks blood vessels from doing their job. This is important because once blood vessels are blocked or damaged, they can no longer carry oxygenated blood through the tissue and tissue cells begin to break-down. Without cold therapy, cellular break-down and tissue damage continue as cells don't get the oxygen they need to survive. By limiting the amount of damage done to your hip, you also limit the amount of healing that needs to occur. This is an important step to heal soft tissue injuries faster and with less pain! Not Sure How to Use Ice and Heat
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There are approximately 639 muscles in the human body Muscle aches and pains are common and can involve more than one muscle Muscle pain also can involve ligaments, tendons, and fascia, the soft tissues that connect muscles, bones, and organs Oral medications can mask the pain but do not aid in the healing of a muscle injury. Anti-inflammatories and pain killers can cause muscle related injuries to worsen Muscle pain also can be a sign of conditions affecting your whole body, like some infections and disorders that affect connective tissues throughout the body Most common cause of muscle aches & pains:
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