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I just wanted to throw in my bit of experience with ice therapy. I severely strained my quad not to long ago and when I was doing physio I would go through the usual ultrasound, massage and stretching/rehab routine followed by ice.

It was explained to me that the ice was used to effectively shrink the heated/loosened muscle back to its original size to prevent re-occuring damage that may occur from using a weakend elongated muscle. Essentially reducing the strain in the muscle to make it more difficult to strain the muscle further than the original strain.

I don't know how this fits into any theory or study and I don't know if there would have been a better approach. BUT my recovery time, from the time of the strain back to 100%, was about a month and a half. And to me the explanation I was given makes sense, it could be bullshit or it could be true, I don't know.

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I'll look into that. Have to think if a Dr. told you that then I would hope he would have a good reason. On the other hand an injured muscle doesn't spontaneously stretch out and lengthen just because it's injured. On the contrary, muscles spasm and contract to act as a splint to keep it from being moved to protect it while it's healing. Anyone that's ever had a bad back can attest to that.

Ice may play a role after the inflamation has done it's job and gone away. (I'm thinking out loud.) I don't know that to be a fact and it really doesn't make sense to me though. Once all the inflamation is gone then healing is complete but the muscle may need to regain fitness and strength depending how long it's been out of commision...still doesn't make sense.

Eric, any ideas?

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I think he was getting at something more along the lines of...if you use the muscle when its heated up and loose, and injured, then even walking or climbing stairs could cause elongation significant enough to hinder repair or cause damage. I'm not saying that walking or stairs would do it, I'm just using those as examples of common things you might do.