Icing Runners

Today the topic of Ice has been running through my head. I am a big Dallas Cowboys fan and the last two weeks they have lost due to their kicker being iced.  If your not a football fan and have no idea what it means to ice the kicker I'll explain.

When I said ice the kicker, did you picture the other team dumping a bucket of ice on the kicker? Well what they do is call a timeout right before the kicker kicks the field goal playing with their nerves, and the last 2 weeks it worked against the Cowboys.

So today I thought I hit alittle on the benefits of ice for runners.

I read alot of running blogs and you'll always see distance runners slide into a ice bath after a long run.

How Does it help?

Here's the science from Runnersworld.com, Cryotherapy ("cold therapy") constricts blood vessels and decreases metabolic activity, which reduces swelling and tissue breakdown. Once the skin is no longer in contact with the cold source, the underlying tissues warm up, causing a return of faster blood flow, which helps return the byproducts of cellular breakdown to the lymph system for efficient recycling by the body.

So basically if you ice your muscles after a long run it will allow you to run longer and healthier. You can always use ice packs or frozen peas but a ice bath generally produces a greater and longer lasting change in deep tissues and is more a more efficient means of cooling large groups of muscles simultaneously.