Quiz: If you’ve just hurt yourself — for example, sprained your ankle or tweaked your shoulder hitting a tennis serve  — do you ice the injury or apply heat to it?

Or how about chronic soreness or swelling from conditions like osteoarthritis or lower back pain? What’s more effective: heat or cold?

These are questions many people have, and a surprising number aren’t certain about the answer.

Do you experience aches, pains, or swelling in your joints? You may have osteoarthritis, or OA. OA is a progressive disease of the joints caused by the degeneration of cartilage between bones. 

In our last blog, we explored the ways that swimming can cause back pain. Often, it was from doing front strokes incorrectly. More often, swimming is a great way to exercise because it is so low-impact. Many people turn to swimming when recovering from back injuries or issues.

Swimming is a great way to get exercise and relieve back pain because it is low-impact. It allows you to build muscle mass...