[eric_b]

In my own experience, ice (either the frozen water kind or the compression and elevation components) doesn't do a damn thing. For soft tissue injury my usual plan is movement movement movement. Getting the blood flowing and using the affected area (lightly) is the best way to get back in the game I've found.

[thinkharderdev]

Yeah, I spent years as a competitive endurance athlete and always found the best way to heal was to stress the injury (lightly as you say) as soon as you can. I suspect part of the issue is that elite-level athletes tend to be quite "type A" and have a high pain tolerance. So the risk with them is that that push too hard too soon and re-injure themselves. But "normal" people tend to make the opposite mistake. They don't stress the injured tissue at all until all the pain is gone so it doesn't get great blood flow and builds up scar tissue.