For years, every time we get injured we’ve been told to ice it. And now, anytime we get hurt our first reaction is to ice it. Everyone remembers the acronym RICE, which stands for rest, ice, compression, and elevation. But did you know that RICE is outdated and isn’t the best approach to treating injuries? Yes, even the person who came up with RICE said it’s not the best approach. In the past couple of years, we’ve developed a new approach to treating injuries, and guess what? Ice is not on the list.

We often correlate the pain we feel to tissue damage. But this isn’t true for the most part. Sure, if you break your arm or have a traumatic injury then yes, you did a lot of damage and it hurts like hell. But for non-traumatic injuries, the hurt doesn’t equal harm.