Here’s Why You Should Be Stocking Your Shelves with Hot and Cold Pack Products in Football Season 2021
As football returns to schools, communities, and stadiums across North America, preparing for inevitable injuries is critical in this high contact sport. In 2018, over 5 million individuals over the age of 6 were playing the sport with numbers only increasing since then. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, more than 3.5 million kids under the age of 14 are injured from the sport with more than 40% of them requiring hospital-level care. Injuries can be sustained at any time and at any age, so it’s important to make sure that players are prepared to handle them. Here’s how Rapid Aid’s hot and cold therapy products can help injured players during this football season.
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What Type of Injuries Can Happen During Football Season
Because football is a contact sport, the types of injuries that players sustain can vary. Some of the most common injuries are:
- Knee injury: Knee injuries can happen frequently because of a player’s sudden movement. They can occur in the anterior cruciate (ACL), posterior cruciate (PCL), medial collateral (MCL), and lateral collateral ligaments (LCL). Other injuries to the knee can be equally as devastating to a player’s health, such as a hamstring pull (which spreads through the upper leg and down to to the knee).
- Ankle sprain: A widespread injury in many sports, ankle sprains are one of the most common causes of injury in football. While they can heal and be treated easily, some of the more severe sprains can take up to 4 months to fully heal.
- Achilles tendonitis: This injury affects the back of the ankle and is extremely painful, limiting a player’s mobility. The recovery time can last anywhere from 4-6 months.
- Shoulder injury: Any part of the shoulder can be injured, especially since it is one of the most used body parts in the sport. From dislocating a shoulder to spraining it, throwing the ball can cause players a lot of pain. Recovery times range from a few weeks to a few months.
- Concussion: Caused by force to the head, concussions can lead to headaches, dizziness, disorientation, nausea, and more. They are perhaps the most common injury for football players and require constant monitoring by a medical professional.
Treatment for these injuries can range from rest to requiring significant surgeries. However, incorporating pain relief strategies is one of the most important things you can do for an injury at its onset. We offer solutions for pain relief that can help injured athletes during football season.
Hot vs. Cold Therapy
There are many options available that cover nearly every injury type and body part, but it can be difficult to know when to use hot versus cold therapy. Applying the wrong heat source can cause more damage to the affected area so it is important to know the difference between hot and cold therapy and when to apply them.
Cold therapy should be used for acute injuries that come on suddenly, such as a hard fall (like a tackle!), bump or bruise. The cold works by constricting the blood vessels. This helps to numb the pain while reducing swelling and inflammation to the affected area. The sooner cold therapy is applied, the quicker the user will experience pain relief and reduced bruising to the area.
Hot therapy is generally used for more chronic pain or injuries such as a pulled muscle, pinched nerve or joint pain. The heat works by boosting circulation and blood flow. It does this by allowing oxygen and nutrients to refuel the joints and muscles in the body. This is especially helpful to athletes whose bodies are subject to ongoing distress. The application of heat can help increase the blood flow in the affected area, creating a faster recovery. The damaged tissue will heal quicker because of this stimulation. It is often advised to apply heat therapy prior to a practice or game as the heat increases flexibility to the joints and muscles.
Although hot and cold therapy effectively treats bumps, bruises, aches, and pains, it is always recommended that players seek medical treatment for more severe injuries or ailments. See the infographic for a quick reference.
There are products designed for every body part
The NFL places a large emphasis on using preventative measures to stop injuries. However, because injuries aren’t always preventable, they stay up-to-date on the latest medical research and technology to treat injuries. Hot and cold therapy, which is technology developed at our company, is an incredibly effective solution for reducing pain, even in more severe injuries.
One of our most popular products for sports injuries is our instant hot and cold pack. They help to relieve pain immediately as they do not require freezing or heating. You simply fold the pack in half, wait for the “popping” sound, shake, and apply to the affected area. They are conveniently sized so that they can be taken to football games and practices.
Here are some other products we offer:
- 3-in-1 Instant Cold Wrap – Like the instant cold pack, the 3-in-1 cold wrap uses cold therapy to help reduce pain and swelling. It also comes with a convenient wrap to hold everything in place, making it easy to use on-the-go.
- Multi-Use Joint Pain Pack – Since joint injuries can be difficult to heal due to their odd configuration, it’s essential to make sure that you have robust pain relief mechanisms. The multi-use joint pain pack is flexible enough to work with hard-to-cover injured areas like the knee and elbow.
- Foot Pain Cold Pack with Wrap – This cold pack molds to the foot with Contour-Gel technology, allowing the cold therapy to help reduce the pain. It can help with injuries like sprains, spurs, tendonitis, or a torn ligament or muscle.
- Reusable Hot and Cold Gel Compress – This compress can be used with almost any injury as can be used for either cold therapy (acute injury) or heat therapy (chronic injury or pain).
- Clay Wrap – This large wrap, ideal for use on the back, stomach or legs, is filled with all-natural clay that delivers deep, penetrating heat or cold therapy to soothe sore muscles and joints. It features a soft deluxe fabric that is ideal for direct to skin use and includes a wrap for ease of use.
To view our full product line, visit here.
How Rapid Aid Can Help
As football season is in full swing, many players, their families, and coaches will be looking for ways to provide easy pain relief for injuries. Our products can help! At Rapid Aid, we have the capacity to manufacture over 10 million units per month at our facilities in Canada, China, and Vietnam. Our global reach provides our clients with an uninterrupted distribution of our products while reducing issues to their supply chain. We’ve been doing this for nearly five decades and are highly responsive and flexible to our customers’ needs. We pass our experience blended with modern, high-end systems on to our customers to meet any application need. Our tireless efforts over the last half-century have allowed us to improve our clients’ supply management, making it less complex, time-consuming, and costly.
For those interested in carrying our products, we also offer white labeling and private labeling services.
Contact us today if you are interested in our all-natural and highly effective pain relief products. You can also call us at 905-820-4788. Our customer service representatives are standing by to help you with your hot and cold therapy needs.
**This article is not meant to replace seeking medical advice from a primary care physician or doctor.