No athlete wants to be injured – especially during the middle of their season. To promote recovery and heal inflamed muscles and tissues, you can utilize certain rehabilitation methods to get back on the field as soon as possible. Using cold therapy and hot therapy to heal an injury is a common method for elite-level athletes to heal quicker.
Cold therapy helps restrict the blood vessels around the injury, preventing inflammation and cramps. Hot therapy does the opposite, bringing blood to the area to help with muscle fatigue and soreness. Depending on the injury you have, using cold therapy can be the cure-all solution for your problems.
The best cold therapy machines available in 2023
1. Polar Care Kodiak
This versatile system is intuitive and compact, making it a good therapy choice for small spaces and teams that are on the go. Patients can use this system for post-operative pain, arthroscopic procedures, chronic joint pain, muscle fatigue, recovery from general surgery, reconstructive procedures, and physical therapy.
With a reliable system with proven efficiency in treating chronic pain and muscle fatigue, this system is easy to use, customized to control the temperature to your specific needs and provides treatment for 6-8 hours without failure, click here to learn about Polar Care Kodiak.
2. Ossur cold rush therapy system
This small and compact system makes it easy to move around, making it a good choice for teams who need to travel to away games. Featuring insulated walls for higher cooling, quiet operation, and four power settings, this system works well for those on the move.
3. Polar products active therapy ice system
This therapy machine is specifically made for athletes in post-surgery when patients need sudden and strong relief from pain in a certain spot, whether it be a muscle or joint. This ice therapy machine works well for knees, shoulders, calves, back, and other body parts.
4. Aircast cryo/cuff cold therapy
This cold compression system helps deliver ice-cold water directly to the spot of trouble via cryo/cuff, providing maximum compression and reducing the chances of tissue damage after an injury.
5. Vive cold therapy machine
This machine is designed specifically to target pain relief post-surgery. This machine can help target knees, ankles, hips, and shoulders for those who have chronic joint pain and inflammation after working out.
6. Aqua relief cryotherapy and hot water therapy system
Combining cold therapy and hot therapy, this machine helps soothe your aching muscles and joints. By adding compression to the injury site, you can use this machine effectively on any joint or muscle area that suffers from chronic conditions.
10 Benefits of Cold Therapy
1. Recover from surgery
Post Surgery you will find that almost everything is sore and hurts – but cryotherapy can help fix that. Cryotherapy for post-surgery rehabilitation is a great way to control swelling, reduce inflammation, and achieve quicker tissue regeneration.
2. Regenerate muscles after a hard session
Have you ever had a really tough gym session and feel extremely sore for the next 24-48 hours? This delayed onset muscle soreness is a common phenomenon for most gym rats. To promote recovery and get back in the saddle quicker, athletes use cryotherapy to help repair muscles and better prepare for the next session.
Cryotherapy has been proven to reduce muscle pain by as much as 80% when used in a regular post-workout treatment plan. When athletes use cold therapy after a hard gym or training session, it can reduce recovery time, reduce muscle fatigue, and improve future performance in the upcoming days.
3. Soothe inflamed areas
Using cold therapy is a proven method to reduce inflammation in athletes muscles, joints, and tissues. Whether you had a hard workout and you are very sore the next day, or you had a traumatic incident, cold therapy can help provide relief. Cryotherapy helps with bruises, sprains, and sore muscles by reducing the swelling that can cause direct pain.
4. Reduces migraine symptoms
Using cold therapy can bdo more than just soothe aching muscles – it can help your brain. The extreme coldness of cryotherapy can help reduce the debilitating symptoms of migraines by cooling the blood passing to the carotid arteries.
5. Helps treat mood issues
Those with mood disorders, whether it be anxiety, isolation, depression, or social anxiety, may benefit from using cold therapy. The cold and compression alters the hormonal responses of the individual, changing the amount of endorphins released into the bloodstream.
6. Reduces nerve inflammation
For those with nerve disorders or irritation, cryotherapy and cold techniques can help treat injuries and numb pain. The cold can help prevent pain coming from the nerves by numbing the area and relieving pain from pinched nerves or tumors.
7. May help reduce the prevalence of tumors
Targeted cryotherapy may be used as a cancer treatment to freeze dangerous cells and target low-risk tumors.
8. Treats dermatitis
Atopic dermatitis is a painful and chronic inflammatory disease that creates dry and itchy skin. Cold therapy can successfully treat this skin condition by reducing the appearance of acne by soothing the overworked glands that are producing excess oil and moisture.
9. Reduces arthritis pain
We know that cryotherapy helps reduce chronic pain and joint issues – so it is no surprise that cold therapy helps with life-long arthritic pain. Localized cryotherapy helps more so than aggressive physiotherapy in terms of rehabilitation and pain management.
10. Can help prevent dementia
There are theories that cryotherapy can help reduce the chances of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s. Whole-body cold therapy can produce anti=inflammatory effects that are beneficial to the stress responses of the individual.
Conclusion
When looking for the perfect cold therapy treatment, you need to browse the various choices that each have unique benefits to an athlete’s or patient’s life. Whether you need a system for post-surgery recovery, muscle aches, joint pain, chronic issues, or fatigue, choosing the right cold therapy treatment is crucial to getting back on your feet.
By browsing the wide selection, ranging from the Polar Care Kodiak to the Vive Cold Therapy Machine, you can make a personalized smart decision to your specific injury or problem.
