Should I use heat or ice to relieve muscle stiffness?

Should I use heat or ice to relieve muscle stiffness?

Jerry Pryde, MD, MPH, CIME (Clinical Chief, Department of Rehabilitation, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center) gives expert video advice on: Why is exercise so important?; How can exercise keep my blood pressure under control?; How will exercise improve my stamina and overall energy? and more...

For muscle stiffness, you can use either ice or heat. In general, we say that for an immediate injury or an immediate muscle soreness, you would want to use something that is cold and avoid heat. For chronic problems, if you have arthritis in an ankle that hurts you when you run or you bicycle, you may find that heat for a problem that you have been dealing with for a long period of time may relieve the pain better than cold does. But if it is a brand new injury, something that has just happened to you, think ice. If it's a long-term issue that you are dealing with, think heat.