When to ice?

Texan Son has never iced. He has never experience pain or swelling after throwing, so no ice.

You will find two camps, probably with very strong feelings, on this issue. The ice and the no ice.

Discussed icing with a sports ortho doc whose practice handles all the athlete work for a Big 12 university. The doc said that they do not recommend icing in the absence of pain or swelling. Yet he acknowledged that the university ices its pitchers, in spite of that advice.

Not a baseball guy, but son #1 RHP has gone from icing to no ice and claims he feels much better the next day.

Icing addresses swelling by decreasing blood flow. It might also help with pain. Aerobic work (e.g. light jogging or riding an exercise bike) increases blood flow without further taxing the arm. Blood flow promotes healing by bringing oxygen and nutrients to the arm.

The NPA teaches that you should always do aerobic work while icing is optional. If you do both, they claim you should do at least 2 minutes of aerobic work for every 1 minute of icing. Also, your should do no more than 10 minutes of icing on the elbow and 20 minutes on the shoulder.

Good post, RT.

quote:

Originally posted by gimages:
Just played catch with son. We threw the ball back and forth about 60 times. The furthest distance was about 40 feet. Do we need to ice? Every other day we long toss out to about 180 feet.Maybe 40 to 50 long toss throws. Do we need to ice after long toss?

No and No.

No Ice and play catch the next day for about 10 minutes or so

Thanks for the imput. NO ice needed.

gimages

My son has never iced after long-toss, but he always runs after games and long-tossing.

After games of 45+ pitches he runs AND ices when he gets home.

After 24 hours, he ices and heats (using a warming pad) in 10-minute cycles 3 times. He does this to loosen the muscles. He ices and heats one more time before game day.

How soon after throwing does one need to run to help with lactic acid buildup ?

Not sure. Might want to ask Jon Doyle in strength and conditioning forum. My guess is within 2 hours.

Since most games are played in the late afternoon, running the day following your start is more then exceptable. Getting out and running at 9 pm after you pitched at 4 pm game would be a little excessive...

quote:

Originally posted by scissorbill:
How soon after throwing does one need to run to help with lactic acid buildup ?

Recent research has found that lactic acid is GOOD, not bad. It helps muscles function at maximum performance.

As a result, there is no need to try to flush it out of the system.

I don't know what the doctors say, but from experience, I found that when I ran hard the day after pitching a game, things felt better. I would get a real good sweat going and after a shower, my stiffness was gone and my body felt better. The running was no fun, but when it was over I always felt better and would then play some catch.
If I did not run, my body would feel stiff and sore and I would not play catch. When I played, you only had three days between starts and a guy wanted to get his body feeling good as soon as possible, because the 2nd day after your start you would be throwing BP and/or a bullpen.

As far as ice goes, we only used it on an injury. Nobody iced after a game or a bullpen. Koufax was the first guy to use ice after he pitched, and that was because his elbow was injured. After that, some guys started using ice......I think most of them did it hoping they would end up throwing like Koufax.

Im a pitcher and I havent iced in about 3 years and I havent had any issues with pain or soreness. I talked to some coaches and college players and they said if your arm isnt hurting or really sore dont ice. But they did say running after a game is good.

I also do jaeger bands before and after I pitch

quote:

Originally posted by thepainguy:

quote:

Originally posted by scissorbill:
How soon after throwing does one need to run to help with lactic acid buildup ?

Recent research has found that lactic acid is GOOD, not bad. It helps muscles function at maximum performance.

As a result, there is no need to try to flush it out of the system.

First off, there is no such thing as lactic acid in the human body.

There is lactate and it has been proven to not create acidosis in the muscle and not be responsible for delayed onset muscle soreness.

It does however cause the muscle to shutdown once its lactate threshold has been met.

The first part of Roger's post gives the reason why running is beneficial. No need to ice unless there is pain.