Contrast Therapy for Painful or Swollen Ankles, Knees, and Elbows
A practical recovery protocol for using hot and cold exposure around joint pain and swelling.
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Contrast Therapy for Painful or Swollen Ankles, Knees and Elbows
Introduction & Context
00: 00 if you heard a joint or a muscle especially if there's swelling do this one thing for quick relief that's faster and better than popping a pill without the negative side effects then add part two of our protocol and you'll know exactly what to do the next time you hurt yourself to get on the fastest path to recovery [Music] hey it's gochi here from Precision movement and today I'm going to share our two-part protocol for when you hurt yourself and you're looking for something to get you out of pain and this protocol we've used for years I've used it personally on many different body parts and I've recommend it to a lot of different clients and generally it's been very very successful and everybody reports positive results definitely no negatives to it now if you like practical science-based advice make sure you hit the Subscribe button and turn on that notifications Bell because we're uploading videos every week to help you move freely and without pain now this video came about the idea for
01: 00 now this video came about the idea for this video came about because Yusuf are operations guy on Friday or Thursday he messaged both Dr B and I and said I popped the outside of my knee and he's crying and screaming in agony and what happened was Dr B and I independently recommended the same advice and because we recommend this all the time we wanted to break it down for you and share it with you in case you suffer an injury so that you know what to do right away to get on the complete path to recovery so part one of the protocol right here it is contrast therapy now you might have heard of this before maybe not also goes by the name of contrast baths or alternating hot and cold therapy and we use this directly on the joint that's affected and I personally think that it's more beneficial if you injure your knee that you do this right on the knee as opposed to do it for the whole body
02: 00 to do it for the whole body how do you do it we're cutting right to the chase here because if you're in pain maybe you want to do this right now just pause the video and do it right away it's very simple we recommend five sets times 30 seconds hot followed by 30 seconds cold and both hot and cold you do it as hot as possible and as cold as possible obviously you don't want to burn yourself and burn your skin or get frostbite but if you're doing it in the shower generally it's pretty safe because you're not going to get boiling water coming out of the shower so as hot as possible as cold as possible switch between the two as quickly as you can so kind of really overshoot it as well if you can and then bring it back down to as hot as you can bear and when you're doing it make sure that you breathe and this is because of the mechanisms that we're going to talk about but if you're in pain right now whether it's your elbow your knee I've used it on my shoulder my elbow my knee
03: 00 used it on my shoulder my elbow my knee my low back my hip I've used it on my groin not very fun kind of reminds me of the Seinfeld shrinkage episode well I just got back from swimming in the pool and the water was cold you mean shrink it yes use it wherever wherever you're hurting give it a shot and rate your PIN before move it around move your joint around a bit whatever is injured and then rate your pain and move around a bit after and you could be your own lab rat in this case and you'll get your own results and you'll see for yourself now after you do this common benefits include increased range of motion decreased pain and you just feel better and what I've found is even with doing nothing else I play hockey late at night so I don't typically like to do exercises or anything the next morning I wake up and I just feel better if I tweak my knee or injure
04: 00 feel better if I tweak my knee or injure something so those are very typical benefits that people report after doing just one round of contrast therapy now why does this happen I used to recommend this and I never looked in through the science but basically if you think about it cold constricts vessels hot dilates vessels or expands vessels and what do tissues whether it's a muscle ligament or a tendon what do tissues need to repair and recover they need blood flow that brings oxygen and other nutrients for those processes so by pumping and going constriction expansion you're pumping more blood flow through your increasing circulation so you're bringing oxygen and you're bringing nutrients in that theoretically would help facilitate recovery and repair well actually for this video I did a
05: 00 well actually for this video I did a little bit of a literature review went through PubMed read through a bunch of studies and I found a good study that studied the physiological mechanisms that take place from contrast therapy the title of the study is contrast baths intramuscular hemodynamics and oxygenation as monitored by near infrared spectroscopy and it was published in the Journal of athletic training in 2018. the protocol they used is they immersed the subject's lower leg in hot water for 10 minutes and they alternated to cold water for a minute followed by four minutes and hot and one minute and cold for another three reps and the studies are shown in this graph now the black bars are the contrast bath condition and the white bars are the control condition the first pair of bars shows tissue oxygenated and you can see that the contrast bath condition has much more tissue oxygenated compared to the control the next set of bars is hhb and this is tissue deoxygenated and there's no change here now a THB is
Key Insights & Applications
06: 00 there's no change here now a THB is total hemoglobin and you can see a big difference way more total hemoglobin in the contrast bath compared to control and the final pair of bars there is TSI which is the tissue oxygen saturation level and there's a greater tissue oxygen saturation in the contrast bath versus the control and from this study the authors conclude that the effect of contrast bath application and improving the tissue hemodynamics and oxygenation that are considered essential mechanisms of tissue repair May therefore support the therapeutic use of contrast bath and Rehabilitation and sports medicine so that right there is a very clear result as to why this works basically increased blood flow equals equals increased nutrients and the factors needed for recovery every tissue needs oxygen and other nutrients to recover and by increasing
07: 00 nutrients to recover and by increasing blood flow you're bringing more of those things into that area and you're taking the waste products out so that's part one of our protocol now this is really good and this can take your pain from kind of a Sharp really really severe annoying you can't think of anything else pain down to a level where it's there but you can get on with your everyday life part two is what you need to ensure that you have a full recovery and what we like to do right away in part two is isometrics isometric muscle contractions and this is where you're Contracting the muscle but there's no joint movement so if you have an injury then because you're not moving the joint you're putting very very little stress and strain through that joint but by getting the contraction of the muscle you're preventing atrophy of that muscle and
08: 00 preventing atrophy of that muscle and further weakness from occurring you're also telling your brain hey this muscle's still working so we don't have to kick in other compensatory mechanisms you might have seen or you might have experienced yourself if you ever had an ankle sprain or a knee problem where you're limping around you might be fully recovered but you're still limping somewhat you're still changing the way you're moving and when you start to contract the muscle and use the injured area as soon as possible after an injury you're going to help to prevent those long-lasting pen story effects from really taking hold and affecting the way that you move for the long term now I'm not going to go through every joint and how you can perform isometrics there but basically if I'm looking at my arm and isometric is simply Contracting all the muscles around the elbow joint here so if I injure my elbow I do contrast and then I do isometrics and we can ramp it up we like to ramp things up so that you can get to a level before you get any sharper sudden pain
09: 00 before you get any sharper sudden pain hold it there for 10 to 15 seconds and then you ramp it down and you want to try to restore range of motion it might not be possible but if you can try to restore if it's the elbow try to restore full elbow extension now go slowly do a rep here do a rep there then do a rep there and keep going if you don't have any sudden or sharper scary pain keep going until you get that full extension if you can if you can't get it within the first 24 hours make sure you get it as soon as possible so isometrics is part two of our protocol and we use this to make sure that you get on the fastest path back to recovery now this isn't all that you need to do you need to address the injury but you also need to address the root cause of the injury and for wear and tear injuries that accumulate over time and I might be running and you tweak something and you might think oh I just landed funny but usually those types of injuries are wear and tear the tissue is
10: 00 injuries are wear and tear the tissue is already broken down and it's just that one way that you moved that was the straw that broke the camel's back so you've got to get to the actual root cause and what we've done is put together our pen solution programs that get to the root cause and address all of the factors and areas that need to be addressed to ensure that you don't incur the same injury over and whether your injuries are at the neck thoracic spine the shoulders elbows the wrists hips low back knees ankles or feet we got you covered so what you could do is you could click the link that has appeared down here to be taken to an image kind of like that but a little bit better where you just tap on what hurts and that'll take you to the appropriate program to get you the full recovery the best that we have to offer we've also got another video that popped up for more information on swelling from Dr B that's a deep dive so you can check that
11: 00 that's a deep dive so you can check that out thanks for checking out this video you can use this now for the rest of your life for the next time you get hurt and keep moving
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Transcript auto-generated by YouTube. Verbatim — duplicates intentionally preserved.
For readers building their own contrast therapy, the value is in applying the idea with patience and clear boundaries. Contrast Collective approaches this through calm, repeatable practice: contrast therapy as a ritual, not a stunt.
A simple recovery idea
This piece is about a practical use case: what do you do when a joint or soft tissue area feels painful, irritated, or swollen? The Precision Movement approach uses contrast therapy as a way to change sensation, encourage circulation, and support the early stages of recovery.
It is not a replacement for diagnosis. Sharp pain, major swelling, instability, loss of function, or a suspected serious injury should be assessed properly. But for minor irritation, a structured hot-cold approach can be a useful recovery tool.
Why contrast can help
Cold tends to reduce sensation and calm an irritated area. Heat tends to relax tissue and increase blood flow. Moving between the two gives the body a clear sensory signal and may help the area feel less guarded.
The important part is control. The temperatures should be tolerable, the exposure should be brief, and the joint should feel better afterward rather than more reactive.
Pair it with movement
Contrast is only part of the recovery picture. Gentle movement, range-of-motion work, and progressive loading usually matter more over time. The hot-cold sequence can create a window where movement feels easier.
That makes it a bridge, not the whole bridge. Use it to support the next right step.
Practical Takeaways
Contrast therapy can be useful for minor joint irritation and swelling.
Cold calms sensation; heat encourages relaxation and circulation.
The protocol should make the area feel safer, not more aggravated.
Use contrast alongside appropriate movement and medical assessment when needed.
Want the source context? Read the full transcript , the key takeaways , or Wim's Wise Words .