So you just pulled a muscle because you thought running all out sprints without warming up would go just like it did when you were 16. Guess again my friend! Well now that the damage is done, what comes next is most important, recovery! And we all know the best treatment for an acute muscle strain is RICE (Rest-Ice-Compression-Elevation), right? Wrong!
RICE is a protocol introduced by Dr. Gabe Mirkin in 1978 and if you know anyone that was alive in the 1980s and 1990s, then I can guarantee you have been instructed to RICE every injury EVER. Unfortunately what most people don’t realize is that Dr. Mirkin retracted his support for RICE in 2014 after learning about the important role acute inflammation plays in the healing process!
If not RICE for an acute injury, then what should you actually be doing? There are a few mnemonics that have become popular in the rehabilitation community, at RISE we prefer the PEACE and LOVE approach:
P: Protection - Avoid activities and movements that increase pain during the first few days following injury.
E: Elevate - Elevate the injured level higher than the heart as often as possible.
A: Avoid Anti-Inflammatories - Avoid taking anti-inflammatory medications as they impact tissue healing, ice included!
C: Compression - Utilize elastic bandages or taping to reduce swelling
E: Education - Your body knows best! Avoid unnecessary passive treatments and medical investigations and let nature do its thing!
&
L: Load - Allow pain to guide your gradual return to normal activities. Your body will tell you when it’s safe to increase load.
O: Optimism - Condition your brain for optimal recovery by being confident and maintaining a positive mindset.
V: Vascularization - Choose pain-free cardio exercise to increase blood flow to healing tissues.
E: Exercise - Restore mobility, strength, and proprioception with an active approach to recovery.
This approach shuns the rest and ice in favor of allowing the acute inflammatory process that occurs following injury to run its course. Acute inflammation is a signaling cascade that causes your body to send all the healing stuff to the site of injury while simultaneously sensitizing nerves in the area resulting in increased pain which is your brain’s way of saying to give this area some relative protection in the short term. Acute inflammation often increases pain in the first 24-72 hours following injury and typically resolves in 3-7 days. It is the first step in your body’s natural healing process. Rather than fighting it, allow it to do what it does best and get back to activity faster and better than you would have otherwise.
Questions about a recent injury or an appropriate return to activity timelines? Schedule a free consultation call with the experts at Rise.