No, not the starchy grain that’s delicious with soy sauce. We’re talking here about a method for treating minor injuries, whose acronym stands for Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. While sprains, pulls, jammed fingers, twisted ankles, and other such injuries aren’t quite an inevitability of working out, most people who exercise do at some point hurt themselves slightly. Knowing how to use the RICE method for injuries is a great idea if you’re planning to become more active…or even if you just have loved ones who participate in athletics. RICE may be a home remedy, but it’s recognized by doctors, coaches, and trainers for its effectiveness in bringing down swelling, fostering healing, and reducing pain…without resorting to medications.

The RICE method for injuries has been around since the 1970s, and has been modified only slightly since its advent as new research has emerged that called some of its early assumptions into question. By and large, its key principles are unchanged.

What is a minor injury?

The injuries best treated using the RICE method are…

  • Pulled muscles…When you overwork or overstretch a muscle. This is not the same as normal post-workout muscle soreness but rather an acute injury that takes time to heal.
  • Finger jams…These happen when a finger is struck or pulled in such a way as to cause injury to one of its joints. They’re common in basketball, volleyball, martial arts, football, and rugby.
  • Overuse injuries…Also known as repetitive strain or repetitive stress injuries, they occur when the body part is subjected to similar repeated movements such as swinging a tennis racket or golf club, throwing a baseball, or performing a work-related physical task.
  • Sprains…Many people use “sprain” as a generic term for a minor sports injury, but a true sprain is a stretch or tear in a ligament surrounding a joint. Several joints are susceptible to sprains, but the most common such injuries are of the ankles, knees, and wrists.

Don’t use the RICE method for…

  • Breaks or fractures
  • Organ or soft-tissue injuries
  • Dislocations of joints
  • A knee that audibly popped upon injury and/or can bear no weight
  • Severely painful foot injuries with immediate swelling
  • A muscle strain so severe that you can’t move the affected part or it has visible bleeding

Rest

Even though it seems like the simplest step in the RICE process, it’s one that people often get wrong. The idea is not only to sit out for the rest of the game, but to refrain from the activity that caused the problem until you can do it again without causing new pain. Typically, that’s going to be at least a day, maybe two, maybe more. You should view the pain as a signal that you will cause harm by continuing to use the body part in the same way.

On the other hand, some research suggests that too much rest can inhibit healing, since movement encourages blood flow, which is necessary to clear metabolic waste from the injury. Don’t baby the injury so much that you stay off the sore body part after it’s usable again. Your mentality should be that you’re eager to get back to your activity as soon as you can without causing additional pain.

Ice

Be judicious and careful in your application of ice to the injury site. Put an ice pack or a bag of frozen vegetables on the body part as soon as you can after you’ve been injured. Don’t apply a bare ice pack directly onto your skin. Instead, wrap it in a towel or washcloth. Otherwise, you could cause tissue damage. Watch the clock as you ice. You want to keep the ice pack on for just 10 minutes, spend 20 minutes with it off, then another 10 minutes on. If needed, you can do this up to twice more but then should stop to avoid causing damage. At various points over the next six hours, you can repeat the process, but six hours after injury you should stop icing altogether.

Compression

By “compression,” we mean wrapping, with an elastic medical bandage, which should be part of every first aid kit. A good wrapping job will help keep swelling down and will support the surrounding tissues to reduce pain when weight is put on the body part. Be careful not to wrap too tightly. You want the wrapping to be firm but not so tight that it restricts blood flow…it’s not a tourniquet. Peek beneath the wrap periodically to make sure that the skin has not become discolored (especially bluish), which can be a sign of disrupted blood flow, as can numbness and tingling. If any of those symptoms appear, unwrap the body part and see if they improve. If they don’t, seek medical help. If they do, rewrap the injury site but less tightly this time.

Elevation

Just because this step comes last in the acronym doesn’t mean you need to wait to do it. Even before you apply ice or wrap the part, you can begin keeping it higher than your chest to make it more difficult for the heart to pump blood laden with inflammatory substances to it. If the injury is on a knee, ankle, or foot, you can lie back on a couch with the limb propped up on pillows or the arm of the couch. If it’s on an arm or hand, you can raise the limb and prop it on a stack of pillows behind your head. Keep it elevated as long as is practical or comfortable.

After RICE

You should only use the RICE method for up to three days. If the body part is improving after only a day, great. Carefully put it back in action. During your RICE treatment, keep a close eye on the injury to make sure it’s not something more severe than you’d thought. If a week goes by with no improvement to your symptoms of pain and swelling, it’s time to let the medical professionals have a look.

Related Articles