For years, coaches and sports rehab professionals alike have run for the icebag after an athlete suffers an injury. Although this has been a staple in sports rehab, recent evidence has advised against this long-standing practice, leading athletes to ask the question: Should I ice after an injury?

 🧊Icing After An Injury: Don’t Do It

To understand where we are, we have to ask where we were. It’s all too common that we hear advice passed down generation to generation and never curiously question: where did that come from?

So, where did the concept of using ice after an injury come from?

It did not come from best practice for common sports injuries, it came from a boy whose arm was severed and then re-attached. 

From Top-Selling Book Hope Not Nope Pg. 95 “Following this success, Dr. Malt and his team travel around the world explaining the surgery. In a press conference a reporter asks “if we encounter a person with a severed arm, what should we do?” He replies, “Don’t panic, place the limb on ice, stop the bleeding by using a tourniquet, and elevate it above the heart.” This then becomes known respectively as rest, ice, compress, elevate.”  

A physician named, Dr. Gabe Mirkin, then coined the term in 1978 and recently (if 2015 is recent which I think is generous to say but in any case) stated, “Coaches have used my ‘RICE’ guideline for decades, but now it appears that both ice and complete rest may delay healing, instead of helping.”

DESPITE Dr. Mirkin recanting the term he coined and our best efforts, athletes use RICE – a principle that may delay healing vs help.

🥶Why Ice may delay healing

Inflammation is not the villain – it is the first natural process that needs to occur in the healing process. The inflammatory process brings immune cells to clean up the injured tissue and stimulates healing.  Yet, we’ve been fooled into believing that we need to get rid of inflammation ASAP with ice and anti-inflammatories. 

Modern science is showing that suppressing inflammation too early can interfere with muscle regeneration and prolong recovery time. While ice can temporarily relieve pain, it may come at the cost of slower long-term healing

A new acronym has been proposed to replace RICE called the PEACE & LOVE principle (it’s much more up to date, but admittedly harder to remember what each letter stands for)

• Protection, Elevation, Avoid Anti-inflammatories, Compress, Elevate & Load, Optimism, Vascularization (blood flow to the area), Exercise.

💡Final Thoughts

So now, when an athlete asks, “Should I ice after an injury?” — we can confidently say: No. The science is clear, and it’s time to move on from outdated recovery methods.

Instead of slowing the healing process, let’s shift focus to strategies that actually support recovery and get you back to full strength faster.

Want to know what to focus on after the most common sports injuries instead of icing? 👉[Click here.]

Author: 

Dr. Dillon Caswell, PT, DPT, SCS

Hope Evangelist | Top-Selling Author & Speaker | Human Performance Expert