The Alpha cold spray is more than a spray to use on a random injury on an athlete on the field. If you read the can, it says “when instant cooling is required for the treatment of myofascial trigger points”. There is a science to the use of cold spray, that will add another skill to your clinical toolkit and improve your clinical outcomes for your patients.

Cold spray was originally invented by Professor Janet Travell physician to the American President, JFK, who relieved his lower back pain with myofascial therapies.

These days in modern pain management, we know that a cold stimulus can override a sensory pain or nociceptive message to the brain. The alpha cold spray does exactly this. The cold message, when sprayed over the muscle whilst it is being stretched AND over it’s  characteristic pain referral pattern, would distract the brain from the pain and stretch message with the cold stimulus instead. The brain prioritises the cold message and ignores the nociceptive message. This effectively allows the practitioner to stretch the tight muscle to its proper resting length.

Raelene Clark B.Sc.M.Sc.Med. is a myofascial practitioner who specialises in the cold spray technique. There is a free online event introducing the stretch and spray of the Quadratus Lumborum muscle. The link to the workshop is below.