Handy Tips

We use our hands and arms all day, we massage therapists, so we should be taking the very best care of them, right?

So when was the last time you iced?

I can hear the reply: Oh, I don’t need to ice, I’m in great shape.

Uh-huh.

We are, in a way, baseball players, and we are just as good as our last few at bats. We should, like those guys on the diamond, be icing before and after our intensive activity rather than waiting for pain or tingles.

The cure for chronic inflammation leading to the major cause of massage disability – carpal-like pain in the hands and arms – is right in our refrigerators. Is your gel-pack lonely?

I was thinking about this the other day while reading about cryo-saunas. These are quick-freeze saunas that people jump into for about 45 seconds at 40 or so degrees below zero. The idea is to nail inflammation quickly before the cold does any damage.

The cryo-sauna does the same as the dreaded athlete ice-bath without much screaming. Plus you can buy a really big, cool machine and charge people for treatments.

Yet here we are, our one-time investment fridge ice-packs sitting idle. Ice is so cheap, so effective, so non-addictive, so good for us, etc. So when was the last time you iced?