When treating severe injuries like sprains, overuse injuries, and contusions, the most vital first steps are taking rest and applying ice to the affected area. Instead of using an ice pack, an excellent alternative is an ice cup massage using homemade ice cups. Ice cups allow you to not only ice the affected area but also massage it, which can help with more drastically decreasing swelling and providing relief. Ice therapy, such as ice massages, includes applying slight pressure to an area of swelling and discomfort. Opting to use an ice massage tool can lower pain and regulate blood circulation. At the same time, the subtle revolving motion aids recovery in a similar approach to a standard massage.
Reasons for Ice Massage
Injuries trigger inflammation as a reflex reaction. This occurs when swollen blood capillaries around the affected area release immune cells like platelets and white blood cells which set off symptoms of inflammation including swelling, edema and pain.
Applying ice to an injury has the inverse effect. In which it shrinks blood capillaries quickly and numbs pain-sensitive nerve points in the body bringing quick relief.
When you suffer from a sports injury, depending on the type of injury one of the best measures you can take is to apply ice. While an ice pack is great an ice massage has the added benefit of stimulating the area you are icing through massage. Ice is effective in helping with minor muscle injuries like strains and other injuries like sprains.
How to Make Ice Cup Massage Tool
You can create an ice cup massage tool to treat your injury by following these few steps:
- Get a small paper cup and fill 3 quarters up with water. Put it inside a freezer and allow it to freeze.
- Once the Paper cup is solidly frozen, take it out, peel out a roll from the bottom of the cup to expose the ice at the bottom.
- Hold the unexposed part of the cup and apply the exposed ice to the area that you need to ice and start circularly massaging the area.
- Concentrate the ice massage on the soft area of the injury rather than the bony areas for the treatment to be effective
- Once the exposed ice has almost melted, tear up another roll of the cup to expose another section of ice
- While massaging, you can experience strong sensations such as aching, intense chillness, numbness, and burning. Once you begin to feel numbness, this is a sign that the massage therapy has reached its conclusion.
Benefits of Ice Therapy in Pain Relief
- Ice therapy can reduce the pain that comes from inflammation on the affected part of the body.
- Ice therapy effectively helps with pain management and swelling of injuries such as sprains, bruises, and other pains like arthritis.
- The use of Ice therapy on the muscles after the gym or other activities can help the muscles repair themselves and recover faster.
- Ice therapy helps in migraine and headache relief
Using ice therapy is an ideal way to help with inflammation, sprain, and bruises. It also is easy and inexpensive to make ice cups at home. If you would rather purchase ice cups online cryo-cups are a good solution.