Regenerative Ice Massage — About Cold Compression Therapy

Most athletes are familiar with the RICE method for post-injury recovery, which stands for Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. Cold compression, also known as an ice massage machine, refines the RICE approach and helps not only athletes but also people recovering after surgery.

Cold compression therapy

Cold compression therapy — which combines cold therapy and compression therapy — offers benefits enjoyed by both athletes and patients.

It can be used for

• everyday sports activity: to stimulate muscle recovery after training or competition stress
• acute muscle and joint injuries to relieve pain and swelling and to support the healing process
• post-operative rehabilitation (e.g. knee ligament or shoulder surgery) and to speed up muscle recovery.

The benefits of cold compression therapy include reducing pain, swelling and edema, accelerating muscle recovery, and by increasing blood flow it helps heal injuries and restore muscle function. Studies have shown that combining cold therapy and compression therapy produces faster effects than using either treatment alone.

Cold compression machine

It can simply be called an ice massage machine. It combines the functions and advantages of cold therapy and a compression unit.

• A compressor inflates the cuff to the desired pressure, holds it for a set time, releases the pressure, and then inflates again.
• Intermittent pressure has been proven more effective than static pressure because it stimulates circulation more efficiently, helping to reduce swelling.
• During compression, a pump circulates icy water from a reservoir into the treatment cuff and slowly circulates it.

Compression by itself is effective in reducing swelling and edema. Active compression, the intermittent squeeze, pushes the swelling from the injured area toward healthy tissue so it can be removed via the lymphatic system. This type of compression helps stimulate the body's blood flow, delivering more oxygen to the injured area and accelerating healing.

Cold therapy has been proven to reduce pain and swelling, making recovery faster and more comfortable.

Ice massage and muscle recovery

High-intensity training causes microtrauma in muscles that does not necessarily limit function, but the body responds to muscle fiber injury with an inflammatory self-defense and healing reaction. This normally lasts 2–3 days. Only after this does the real healing process begin.

Cooling helps reduce this inflammation, while the aforementioned circulation-improving effect immediately triggers healing processes. This increased circulation also has further beneficial effects: it speeds up the clearance of lactic acid from the muscles, which causes fatigue and stiffness.

That is why cooling is used in many sports: track and field athletes, cyclists, triathletes, combat sports, and after team ball game training sessions as well.

The ice massage treatment

Medical recommendations suggest a continuous 20-minute cold therapy session on a given area, followed by a rest period at room temperature.

The therapeutic temperature is between 5 and 10°C, so the assumption that “colder is better” is not true!

Summary

Studies show that pairing active compression with cold therapy increases blood flow, reduces swelling, edema and muscle spasm. Cold reduces post-injury pain. Therefore, cold compression therapy results in faster healing.

This therapy can be used for minor joint pain and in post-operative rehabilitation (e.g. recovery after ACL surgery).

Active athletes can use cold compression therapy after everyday training to speed up post-exercise muscle recovery. Overworked, stiff, sore muscles fill with blood and oxygen under the influence of cold and compression, swelling and excess fluid (edema) disappear, lactic acid (and other metabolites) are flushed out. As a result, regeneration accelerates and you can be ready for the next load sooner.