My dad was a great athlete growing up, and a common way that athletes deal with pain is to rest for a while and then gradually return to exercise.
As he got older, he followed the same routine, except like many aging Americans, he basically stopped exercising. Whenever he had pain, he would rest the affected area, but there was never a return to exercise.
Every muscle/skeletal problem he had seemed to become chronic as the muscles got weaker and weaker. I could tell he was nervous to exercise because he didn't want to injure himself and he wasn't in very good shape, but it was obvious that rest was doing him no good whatsoever, but to his last day, he thought that if he just rested, he would start feeling better.
What's surprising to me is how often rest is recommended as treatment for people whose entire existence is characterized by a lack of intense physical movement.
It's tricky right, because if you are an active athlete, then you may make an injury worse. In martial arts this was a common issue where someone would have a minor injury, aim to "work through it" and make it much more severe.
At the same time, simply sitting around binging Netflix is probably the wrong call in many situations.
What my reading of the current research indicates (and, this stuff tends to evolve regularly) is that a short period of rest (two or three days) followed by light activity for a short phase tends to be the best course of action. To the extent that RICE (Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate) has become MICE (Move, Ice, Compress, Elevate).
This is the standard recommendation for many injuries. Are there any controlled studies which demonstrate that injuries treated with ice resolve more quickly than without using ice?
The modern view of it seems to be that none of it is needed and can even be counterproductive. Compression can sometimes be useful to reduce swelling. Swelling can be unpractical, but is not bad in itself. Rest, ice and elevation will in general make recovery slower.
Let's stipulate that this reader is an idiot who didn't think to do that before asking. Is there a single reference you can provide from the exhaustive entries?
Is there a single reference you can provide from the exhaustive entries?
I didn't think so.
Though no doubt not as thorough and exhaustive as your putative literature search, this humble reader was able to discover at least a few NIH publications which suggest that the issue is not completely settled. Viz.:
"This review explored the effects of ice treatment upon pain, swelling and range of movement after acute soft-tissue injuries. The authors found little evidence that adding ice to compression increased its effectiveness." [1]
"The aim of this study was to examine the effects of icing soon after muscle contusion injury on subsequent inflammation, angiogenesis, revascularization, and myofiber regeneration. Our study is the first to demonstrate that icing delayed and/or attenuated the expression of proangiogenic factors and changes in vessel volume in regenerating muscle in the first 7 d after injury. Despite these differences, capillary density and the cross-sectional area of myofibers did not differ significantly between the icing and sham groups. These findings suggest that, although icing may mildly suppress inflammation and some aspects of angiogenesis/revascularization, these effects are not sufficient to retard muscle regeneration after contusion injury."[2]
"The use of cryotherapy in the management of acute soft tissue injury is largely based on anecdotal evidence. Preliminary evidence suggests that intermittent cryotherapy applications are most effective at reducing tissue temperature to optimal therapeutic levels. However, its efficacy in treating injured human subjects is not yet known."[3]
So there are a lot of comments here about it, but going to give one of my own -
I've had back pain for the past year. Still trying to figure out the right treatment. But what ALWAYS helps, is a Lagree fitness class (and by extension I'd say pilates would too). Some of hte moves help more than others, but I can go with my back hurting, and I quickly get to where I don't even notice it in the class (because everything is engaging muscles and taking pressure off my back), and by the end of the class I feel great. Two days later it will be back, but, that's also when I take the next class. Still trying to figure out what to do on off days to keep it from returning, and so hopefully able to heal, but, yes. Find something that will keep your back protected, but still work it (and the rest of you).
As he got older, he followed the same routine, except like many aging Americans, he basically stopped exercising. Whenever he had pain, he would rest the affected area, but there was never a return to exercise.
Every muscle/skeletal problem he had seemed to become chronic as the muscles got weaker and weaker. I could tell he was nervous to exercise because he didn't want to injure himself and he wasn't in very good shape, but it was obvious that rest was doing him no good whatsoever, but to his last day, he thought that if he just rested, he would start feeling better.
What's surprising to me is how often rest is recommended as treatment for people whose entire existence is characterized by a lack of intense physical movement.