Strip off tie and grab your running shoes, golf clubs or baseball mitt! The weekend has arrived. You look forward to extra time on Saturday and Sunday to enjoy your favorite sport. And you probably cram in as much activity as possible before Monday morning rolls around. You’re a weekend warrior! If you find yourself nursing a painful knee or strained muscle at office, you are in company of gladiators.
Favored gladiators were considered sports heroes of their day. If a gladiator survived serious injury, they were attended to by sports physicians for common problems such as sprains, torn ligaments and muscle strains. The first doctor to gain notoriety for treating gladiators was Galen, acclaimed as father of sports medicine. Living from 129 to 199 BC, Galen traveled throughout Rome bandaging-up gladiators. Although Galen used a form of traction to set bones and was considered way ahead of his time, he was not aware of simple principle of R.I.C.E. (rest-ice-compression-elevation) to treat sports-related injuries.
Today, it’s easy for weekend warriors to take care of minor sprains and strains using recommended technique of R.I.C.E. According to Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, “more than 10 million sports injuries are treated each year in USA. Athletes and non-athletes share many similar injuries…Immediate treatment for almost all acute athletic injuries is R.I.C.E.”
Here is four-part method for using R.I.C.E.: