Everyone remembers being a kid and getting home from a day of school with a scraped knee or cut on their elbow, only to be met with an ice pack from one of their parents. It’s pretty crazy how that ice pack always seemed to make every scrape or bruise feel better, isn’t it?
Well, not really…
There is more and more research coming out that cold therapy, otherwise known as Cryotherapy, has multiple benefits and is one of the best things you can do to make these day-to-day pains go away, such as bruising, swelling, and muscle soreness and can even treat previous injuries!
Cryotherapy works for all kinds of people, too! Athletes, weightlifters and even just regular people who experience pains and sores. It doesn’t matter who you are, it will work!
MBS Fitness and Rehabilitation knows this and offers ice baths for anyone who is feeling these kinds of pain and wants them to stop!
So next time, after a hard workout, do your body a favour and get an ice bath.
Cold Therapy Can Reduce Inflammation
Everyone who engages in physical activity knows the horrible feeling of muscle soreness and inflammation, whether it be weight training, sprinting or playing any sport.
These pains can affect your day-to-day life and prevent you from doing basic tasks such as climbing a set of stairs or even sitting down on a chair.
Cryotherapy can help
By applying cold sources, your body reduces blood flow to the sore and affected parts of your body. This will severely reduce the pain and reduce the swelling you feel as well, and make it easier to be more physically active sooner!
So, next time you’re getting in a good workout at MBS, try our ice bath after and do your body a favour.
Cold Therapy Can Help Treat Injuries
Cold therapy is great for reducing muscle soreness and swelling, such as in your knee, your head or your shoulder, and as a result is usually only associated with these benefits.
But that’s not all cold therapy can do. Cold therapy can help relieve pain from many different kinds of injury including:
- Sprains
- Lower back pain
- Arthritis pain
- Tendonitis
- Muscle Spasms
- Plus more!
Taking an ice bath will help temporarily reduce the nerve activity in the affected area which will leave it numb and as a result, severely reduce the pain.
Cold Therapy Helps With Muscle Cramping
When playing sports such as soccer, basketball and hockey, the worst feeling in the world is a muscle cramp.
Cold therapy after a game can actually reduce that cramp almost right away.
Other Benefits
Cryotherapy/cold therapy is also good for conditions other than muscle pain and injuries relating to physical activity.
Migraines
People with migraines know that they can be incredibly bothersome and challenging to manage. They affect you at all times of the day and make it difficult to do basic day-to-day tasks. Cold therapy can actually help reduce the pain of migraines by constricting the blood vessels and helping to reduce the neurotransmission to the brain that causes pain. And there is plenty of research to back this up!
Several skin conditions
Cold therapy can help reduce symptoms such as
- Itchy skin
- Sore skin
- Dry skin
- Red skin that causes a burning feeling
These are typical symptoms of skin conditions such as dermatitis, eczema and more.
Nerve Irritation
Cold therapy helps to numb nerve irritation and make it much more tolerable by effectively freezing the nerve temporarily.
Can Improve Sleep Cycle
Getting enough sleep is one of the most important things you can do to improve your health. Every medical professional can agree on this. It’s not always easy getting a lot of sleep as some people have trouble falling asleep after a long day of being high energy.
Exposure to extremely cold temperatures will increase norepinephrine levels in the body for a short period of time which will increase your energy level and then, shortly after, put your body in a state of relaxation.
MBS Fitness and Rehabilitation is proud to offer cryotherapy services along with advice from experienced professionals.
For more information, visit the cold/heat therapy tab under “Services” on the MBS Website.
