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There is a series of articles for icing your woes over at Run to Win. Here is a quick overview of everything that you need to know on how to ice properly. To read the full articles, you can begin at this page: http://news.runtowin.com/2006/07/11/icing-your-woes-ice-early-ice-often.html

When you are training for any sport, and specifically for an endurance event such as a marathon, it is normal to have some aches and pains. When the aches and pains get worse, though, it may mean that you are overworking a muscle. Any time you feel more than the normal aches and pains, you should remember to ice your muscles when you finish your cool down. You can not heal an injury by icing alone, but you can help prevent swelling. Icing is a great preventative measure that will allow your muscles to repair themselves before you actually come down with an injury. When done properly, it does not hurt to ice your muscles even if you do not think that you really need it. It can bring some quick, cheap, and easy relief. When in doubt, ice early, and ice often.

So what is the proper way to ice your muscles? There are three basic methods.

1. First, you can use an ice bag. You place some crushed ice into a plastic bag and hold it onto the muscle that is bothering you for 20 minutes or so, and then you remove it for 20 minutes. You can repeat this up to three times. This method requires the least work, but takes the most time.

2. Second, you can give yourself an ice massage. You rub the aching muscle directly with a piece of ice for 5 to 10 minutes. You can create the ice using a dixie cup and peel the cup back as you go, or else use a regular ice cube with a paper towel wrapped around the back to keep your fingertips from getting frost bitten. As with using an ice bag, you should allow 20 minutes between ice massages and you should limit yourself to three of them in a row.

3. Third, you can give yourself an ice bath. This takes the most prep work, and when you first start doing it you will not be able to ice more than a few minutes at a time. Eventually, as you get used to it, you may be able to increase your icing time to 10 minutes. Never go for more than 10 minutes, and you should not do more than one ice bath after any specific exercise session. It is really important to do some gentle stretching afterwards to warm your muscles back up.

Personally, I usually opt for the ice massage method. It seems the most effective for myself, especially since I graduated from college and do not have access to the whirlpool in the trainer's office anymore.

- Contributed article by Blaine Moore, marathon runner and owner of RunToWin.com

Brad Boughman
www.MarathonRookie.com

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