Muscle injuries
 

I have played soccer for many years and have had suffered many pulled and strained muscle injuries over the years. My usual routine of rehab is to ice regulary for the 1st day or 2 to reduce swelling and then to apply heat to increase blood flow to the area. I ususally pop a few Advils inbetween to assist in reducing the swelling in the muscle. This regiment has always worked for me and leads to a speedy rehab of the muscle. I know there are a thousand techniques for rehabing a pulled muscle, like the classic: 20 minutes on - 20 minutes off routine of applying ice, but I was wondering what other people do and what works for them.

RICE:
Rest
Ice
Compression
Elevation

I use Ibuprofen gels and/or pills to alleviate pain and reduce inflammation.

You've probably heard this before, but the best treatment is prevention. Spend twice as much time stretching and more time in the gym balancing out those muscles. I have to spend a ton of time strectching out my shoulder or it will be destroyed.

Aside from that all i know are the classic, cliche treatments

Two words: Icy Hot

You got it all right on the ice for 24 hrs then heat. Icy Hot has been a staple of mine back in High School with various football and wrestling injuries. Still today with running and sports injuries it's never failed. The sensation of cold then hot diverts your attention from pain.

Wouldn't put so much effort into stretching.....more and more research is coming out suggesting that stretching might actually increase the chance of injury. Warming up I think is the best prevention..if you're lifting weights pyramid up to where you want to start lifting heavy(without spending much energy, of course, 1 or 2 reps per weight)....if you're sprinting do light jogging beforehand etc...

Icy Hot eh?? I've never heard of that...........sounds interesting. What is it and how does it work?

I think most of the information you are talking about relates to stretching without warming up first. On the whole stretching is very good for your muscles. Flexibility is key to avoiding injuries. Another great way to strenghten yourself against them is to cross train. I find that my martial arts stuff crosses over into soccer benefits for instance. Swimming is also a great alternative exercise.
Another habit ive gotten into last season was to intensively massage my adductor muscles with oil before the game. My physio friend tells me that there is no proven benefit from what i do, but it seems to work for me.
Good luck with your soccer limey!

I thought about massaging the area also. I thought this might help in increasing blood flow. Think I might give it a shot. Thx.

You have to be careful with techniques that increase blood flow to the area in the period immediately following the indjury. First ice to get the swelling down and to stop any internal damage (ie bruising). Once the initial damage has been stopped, you then begin to encourage blood flow to begin repair. Thus the Ice Compression, Elevation cycle.

Course, I'm not a doctor/trainer/etc, just a former athelete, so I am not professionally trained!

I agree and that's exactly what I do. I know some people get it confused.

STRETCH. This seems to be the biggest theme here. I would have to agree. Warming up and cooling down will also help. If you watch runners, they will tend to fall down after running a marathon but then you see someone coming along to get them back up. If they just stayed on the ground, they would be open to muscle injuries.