Home Treatment for Repetitive Stress Injury

Since ancient Greek times, doctors have prescribed the use of ice or snow as a treatment for injury. Today, nearly everyone has a gel pack in their freezer, ready for use.

However, you can get the benefits of ice more quickly than using an ice pack. If you don’t want sit around for 10-20 minutes a day, watching the icy glaze on the gel pack slowly melt into water drops, you might be more interested in doing ice massage.

Massaging the area with ice can take from two to ten minutes. Here’s what to do:

• All you need is an ice cube, or you might prefer to prepare an ice cup ahead of time. Use a small dixie cup, or cut off the top half of a styrofoam cup, and freeze some water inside. When you use it, peel back the top part of the cup.
• Rub in quick circles around the affected area
• Be sure not to grasp the ice directly with your other hand, since sustained contact can hurt you
• Spend anywhere from one to five minutes, or until the area feels numb
• Stop if the skin starts to feel burning
• Avoid bony parts, like your elbow or spine.
• Once you’re done, rest the area, then slowly stretch as the numbness wears off. If you want, you can ice it a second time after the first application wears off
• You can do this once to three times a day

I found some sources suggesting this is good especially for tennis elbow and arthritis, as well as in larger muscles such as the back. I’ve used it especially on the hand, and the muscles of the forearm. (Initially it was prescribed for my fingers).

Other evidence suggests it is not helpful for certain common kinds of pain, such as delayed onset muscle soreness after exercise. So, just use ice massage to treat acute or chronic injury, not general pain relief.

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