We’re not talking about food, R.I.C.E. is the basic method for treating a large number of sports related injuries.

If you’re involved in running, aerobics, weight training or other good health-related activity, you’re doing wonderful things for your body however you’re also at a higher risk for sprained joints, strained muscles and other minor injuries. Fortunately, giving yourself proper care in the first day or two after injury can reduce the time you’re on the sidelines healing.

In the event you suffer a sprain, strain, pull, tear or other muscle or joint injury, treat it with R.I.C.E.- that’s an acronym for Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. Using the R.I.C.E. can help relieve pain, limit the swelling and can protect the injured tissue, and all of these combined will speed healing of your injury.

Each component of the R.I.C.E. method works with the other parts to help your body heal as quickly as possible from injury.

* Rest: Resting your injured body part is vital to protect the injury from being further or re-injured during the healing process. Additionally, resting gives your entire body the energy needed to do complex repairs and heal completely.

* Ice: Use the power of cold to give yourself short term pain relief. An additional kiss from the use of cold therapy is that it will limit the swelling. Use in short periods as needed rather than one long use of a cold pack as over use can cause skin damage. A good rule of thumb is 15 minutes on and 20 minutes off as needed for pain and swelling.

* Compression: The use of compression limits swelling, which you don’t want to happen because along with pain, swelling slows down the healing process. Depending on the type of injury you have, many people report that they experience pain relief from compression as well. This is especially true for people suffering leg injuries. The easiest way to compress is simply to wrap a bandage firmly over the injured area. The compression should be firm but not constriction, if discomfort is experienced - loosen a little.

* Elevation: Another magic element of healing and reducing swelling is to elevate the injury. It’s especially effective to raise the injured body part higher than the heart.

After a couple of days of R.I.C.E., your injury will begin to heal and your body will take its natural course for repairing the damage. If your pain or swelling doesn’t alleviate after 48-hours, contact your physician or go to the ER and get your injury looked at to rule out a larger issue.

Otherwise you should be back in action in a very short period of time and just remember to start slow and use the 10% rule on your affected body part and increase your activity participation by 10% a week and along with gentle stretching and rehabilitation exercises for the injured part, you’ll slowly but surely be back to 100% in no time at all!