How to ice your muscles using an ice bag
Whenever your muscles are feeling a bit sore or overworked, you should remember my motto, “Ice Early, Ice Often.” The first and easiest way to do that is to just grab a bag of ice and slap it on your sore spots. Leave the bag of ice on your leg or joint for 20 minutes, and then take it off for 20 minutes. Put a new bag of ice back on for another 20 minutes if necessary.
In general, you do not want to ice for more than 20 minutes at a time. When using the bag of ice method, you generally do not want to use full ice cubes, since there will not be a lot of surface area for you to use in the ice bag. Crush the ice into smaller pieces first, or else use the old bag of peas method. Take an old bag of frozen peas, and slap them onto your body where you are sore in lieu of ice. They will need to be refrozen after each use, and I recommend labelling the peas so that you do not accidently eat them later. Frozen peas that have been thawed a few dozen times really do not taste very good. The size of the peas is perfect for conforming the bag of ice around your muscle, and they do not require any work other than pulling them right out of the freezer.
The nice thing about using a bag of ice is that you do not need to do anything other than position the bag and then wait. There is no thought needed, there is no effort needed, and you can easily multitask. If you are using a plastic bag, then you generally do not need to worry about frostbite. If it is too cold for you, you can just place a paper towel under the bag to get most of the cold but not all of it concentrated on your skin.
Read all of 'Icing Your Woes': 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Previous: Icing Your Woes: Ice Early, Ice Often
Next Article: How to ice your muscles using an ice massage
- Sore Muscles
- How to ice your muscles in an ice bath
- New Rule #2: Use more than one muscle at a time
- New Rule #1: Use your muscles as they were designed
- Icing Your Woes: Ice Early, Ice Often
July 24th, 2006 at 8:27 am
[...] Remember that unlike when you ice yourself with an ice bag or use a freezer pack, the water will not be trapped and will make a small puddle on or beneath you. If you sit on an easy to clean floor or a towel, then it is no big deal. Just hang up the towel or mop up the puddle when you are done. [...]
July 21st, 2007 at 2:13 am
[...] continued my series on icing with a description of how to ice w/an ice bag. On the topic of injuring yourself, I also shared my thoughts on why you should not use [...]
July 21st, 2008 at 7:16 am
[...] week two years ago, I continued my series on icing with a description of how to ice w/an ice bag. and shared my thoughts on why you should not use weightlifting gloves or belts when you work out. [...]