Christopher Ellis says icing doesn't reduce swelling or inflammation like people think. It's fine if it feels good, but overusing it backfires because early inflammation actually helps you heal. He never ices his own injuries.
Now it turns out the effect is pretty mild, the vasoconstriction. So I don't think it's like horribly damaging to ice an injury. It definitely doesn't decrease swelling like we thought. So I tell people, if it makes you feel good, it's probably okay. I wouldn't go crazy icing it like 10 times a day. I think it starts to get counterproductive at a certain point, but it's definitely not the anti-inflammatory that we thought. And at the same time— We don't want an anti-inflammatory. We want inflammation there, at least in the initial stages. I personally never ice an injury.
