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Many people are skeptical about the concept that icing is bad. The true test of what is best is what the top players in the game are doing, whose arms are literally worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And the top pitchers no longer ice, and Gary is largely responsible for proving this shift. Both Cy Young winners this past season no longer ice and use a muscle activation device called the Marc Pro.

Over 250 (out of 390) MLB pitchers are using the muscle activation for recovery instead of ice. All 30 MLB teams (and their minor league affiliates) plus over 200 colleges have abandoned ice.

Gary insists this is not his message, he is simply a reporter of what he has found, and icing does not aid recovery.

Gary likes the word “Heal” over “Recovery”. Healing is what we want to do.

Ok, stay with me, this can get technical. The healing process consists of damage, then the immune systems responds by sending the repair and clean up crew. Then bad stuff needs to evacuate. So good stuff comes in to take the bad stuff out.

Three steps to healing: Inflamation, Repair and Remodel.

Too often we fight inflamation….and yet we cannot get to the second step without inflammation! Inflammation has gotten a bad name by pharmaceutical companies who sell anti inflammatories.

Putting ice on damaged tissue doesn’t stop inflammation...it delays it.

Why would you want to slow down the nourishment of the inflammation? Or the evacuation of the damaged tissue by icing?

RICE protocol (rest, ice, compression and elevate) is the training everyone follows, yet it was created for a severed body part protocol and made it’s way to sore muscle treatment.

Dr. Gabe Merkin founded “RICE is nice”, now admits that his protocol was wrong and research shows ice makes an injury worse (Dr. Merkin also wrote the foreward to Gary’s book). Still so many people have not heard about his recant and are married to the ice treatment.

When tissue warms up the inflammatory response resumes regardless. Actually putting ice on damaged tissue creates MORE fluid swellling than if you had left it alone.

Running poles after pitching would work if you ran with your legs.

What major leagues use is the Marc Pro which activates the muscle - without causing further injury - which clears out the waste.

Often a sore lower/opposing back has a lot to do with a sore throwing shoulder.

Pitchers are using the Marc Pro everyday

(Side note: Sam Briend from Driveline and the entire Driveline team love the Marc Pro, and reported in his session that many top pitchers like Trevor Bauer actually use the device between innings when they pitch).

Foam rollers and massage is breaking down the muscles more than activating muscles to move the waste.

An alternative to the Marc pro would be perhaps to use light weights that can cause tension without “training”. We’re not training so don’t let it be intense. Running poles does *something* because your arms move a little and there’s some gravitational forces helping but It’s just a very inefficient way to do things.

Icing isn’t a worse way, it’s not a way at all. It literally does nothing.

Gary insists he doesn’t have an anti-icing message, he just shares the facts.

If you think you’re going to outsmart your immune systems intelligence and “speed up” recovery but you can sure slow it down! Best way to slow down: sit down and don’t do anything, put on ice, and take anti inflammatories.

Gary has been called upon by the President of the United States personal physical therapist.