Ice Compression – The Evolution Of Sports Recovery Technology

2016 promises to be many things for many people, but for athletes and casual sports participants all over the world, injury continues to hinder their progress in their chosen sport or sports. Just read the following two facts about sports injuries in the USA to truly understand the size of the issue:

– More than 3.5 million children under 14 receive treatment for sporting injuries every year.
– Teenagers and adolescents in high school who play sports account for approximately 2 million injuries, as well as over half a million doctor visits every year.

These statstics are staggering, and they only account for America. So where do we traditionally begin with healing sports injuries? Well, often the first (and easiest) treatments given are Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs). NSAID stands for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, and common example of these are ibuprofen and acetaminophen. Another common way to treat sports injuries is through Immobilization. Immobilization is essentially keeping the injured area of the body still. Examples of immobilization are wheelchairs for leg injuries, casts and splints for arm and hand injuries, and crutches for injuries to the feet.

The problem with these traditionally used treatments is that they often don’t address the root cause of the problem (in the case of NSAIDs) or they take too long to heal the injuries (in the case of immobilization). That’s where ice compression technology comes in. Commonly known as Cryotherapy, ice compression is a highly effective method in treating frequent sports injuries. Where it really excels, however, is in speeding up recovery time dramatically. One of the leading cryotherapy companies in the world in 2016 is Hyperice. As an example, here is how the ice compression technology within HyperIce items works:

Each item is made up of two parts –

– Ice cell with air release technology – The “cold” component is the ice cell located in the center of the product. It harnesses the power of packed ice which must be filled into the ice cell each time the item is used

– Compression wrap – Each ice compression unit is designed to apply maximum pressure onto the cell. Excessed air is pushed to the surface, allowing it to be released from the Ice Cell.

So why should you go for the treatment option of cryotherapy when you sustain a sports injury? Well to begin with, it is hugely effective in reducing pain, swelling and inflammation to any injury if applied as soon as possible. It reduces pain in a far more natural way than any NSAID, by raising the pain threshold and decreasing nerve transmission in your pain fibres. Ice compression also reduces muscle spasms, whilst reducing bleeding and swelling simultaneously.

Ice compression technology looks set to take over in 2016 as one of the leading methods of treating sports injuries. With its focus on natural recovery mixed with modern technology, it’s certainly my choice for injury treatment.

If you want to go for a healthy lifestyle by adding regular exercise but would want to measure your progress anytime you want, you don’t need to bring your own weighing scales for that. A crazy idea, but Nike, the king of sports wear and accessories had crazier things in mind. This time, they did not make conventional products and items, and made a Nike’s version out of it.

Latest technology gadgets: The Nike Fuelband

A year ago we were all introduced to a new innovation called power bands, a type of wristband that changes colors as you do daily activities. Well, Nike has made a better version of that with their latest technology gadgets, the Fuelband.

It’s a simple wrist cuff, lightweight, and promises a lot of good features to help you with your goal in living a healthy life. What it does is it measures every activity that you do everyday – running, lifting weights, swimming, even having sex – every activity is measured by this tiny device.

It’s relatively easy to use, and the best thing about it is you don’t have to remind yourself about it everyday as it keeps track of everything once you have properly set it. You just need to set a daily goal, configure it on the Fuelband, and let it do its magic. If you want to check on your progress and stats, just press on the only button that the band has. It will then display the calories you’ve burned from all the activities that you made, steps you’ve taken the entire day (or before you pressed that button), the time, and the NikeFuel you gained.

NikeFuel? It’s in the technology that the Fuelband has. With an accelerator, it translates specific fitness activities into a NikeFuel number. As an example, if you and LeBron shoots 100 hoops in a routine, no matter if he makes more baskets than you do (which is obviously the result) both of you will get the same number of NikeFuel.

The NikeFuel is a great way to divert your attention from the number of calories lost, but instead will let you focus on the number of NikeFuels you will get in an activity. It also syncs to you iTouch or iPhone’s Nike app via Bluetooth, and to the Nike+ website via USB. With this kind of accessory, it will be added to your list of things that make exercising fun.