the injury man wrote:
ive been dealing with an injury for a while and been icing after all my runs, and multiple times throughout the day and for a while at night about 40 minutes at a time. is there a moment when icing doesn't really help anymore but instead piss the bone off more than its helping inflammation around the tissue?
i ask this because i started cutting back on the lengthy ice sessions and feel better since doing that.
Yes icing only seems to be productive during a short period of time after the initial trauma.
If you sprain your ankle, ice as soon as possible - within minutes if you can, and cold water is fine. Alternate 15 minutes of cold with 15 minutes of elevation. This will drastically improve healing times but with exponential dropoff, so not worthwhile after 2 days or so.
After initial icing periods, the inflammation has been minimized to as low as icing can help. Then its important to get the blood flowing as much as possible without further significant increases in inflammation or damage. So it's usually best to move as much as possible without reinjury and don't ice after a couple days.