Everybody who suffers from back muscle pain could warm up to the notion of soothing sore, painful muscles with heat.

Even if ice temporarily feels bad, keep in mind that it could do wonders for back muscle pain, especially when you have 'burning pains' or marked inflammation. Ice also alleviates certain types of chronic back pain, especially for individuals with irritation of the nerve root. Most therapists who suggest using ice will advise you to apply it right away after you've strained a muscle on your back. After the first 24 hours to 48 hours, don't stop. Use this method on a regular basis as long as there are contractions that continue to cause the pain in your back muscle.

The simplest and easiest way to perform cold therapy at home is to have a packet of frozen ice. Cover it with a damp tea towel and place it on the area that is aching for over 20 minutes. While doing this, you must check the skin condition throughout. Reminder: Don't lie on the ice packs; the pressure can give you an ice burn.

Why Ice For Pain in Back Muscle?

Cold, like heat, could counteract irritant, so you have the tendency to feel the cold not the pain. Furthermore, when ice is applied in a long period of time, it numbs all sensation.

Cold minimizes bruising and swelling, and slows down nerve conduction, which consequently slows down the pain signals that passes through your body.

Ice or any cold object shocks a muscle contraction into relaxing. They reduce tenderness from muscle damage, which alleviate back muscle pain and could end the pain spasm cycle.

How to Use Ice

Normally, patients used an interval of 5 minutes ice application. 5 minutes on, 5 minutes off, 5 minutes on technique. A total of 10 minutes application is repeated every 2 hours.

Patients under the supervision of a physiotherapist or medical doctor usually apply ice for ten to twenty minutes at a time and done two to three times a day.

What to do?

If you are using ice to minimize the inflammation and swelling of a newly acquired back muscle pain, perform ice cube application covered by a plastic bag up to ten to fifteen minutes at a time, application should have an interval for at least 2 hours for the first 36 hours.

o If you are using ice to cure chronic muscle spasm, you can apply an ice bag for ten to fifteen minutes and must be performed two or three times each day.
o Instead of ice massage, go for an ice pack. To perform this, a company and a paper cup is needed. Fill water in the paper cup and freeze it. After that, tear off 1 inch at the top of the cup and let somebody massage the affected area. The massage should be in a circular motion and always moving towards the heart. Let him/her massage you for 15 minutes

Reminder: With ice application method, risk of ice burn and even frostbite might be encountered
so never apply ice directly on the skin except somebody is continuously moving the ice from an area to another.

If you are going to use the ice application or Cryotherapy always cover them with a cloth or place them in a bag. If your skin turns red, white or numb, that is a warning that you must discontinue application

If you have arthritis or another medical condition as well as your back muscle pain, don't use ice unless it is recommended by a specialist.