Why We Cling to Outdated Practices

Despite mounting evidence that ice doesn’t help — and can actually hurt — injury recovery, if you tweak an ankle or pull your back in your gym or on the sports field, you can bet that someone will bring you an ice pack and tell you to avoid walking on it for a few day.

Why do we continue to default to this protocol even in the face of evidence that it doesn’t help, and can actively hurt recovery?

Several reasons.

• Lack of education. Many “experts” rely on what they learned without ever updating their knowledge. They don’t keep current with the science.
• Global entrenched beliefs are sticky. When something becomes a common accepted belief, it’s hard to abandon it.
• Authority bias. We trust what the “experts” say, even when our own experience contradicts it.
• Comfort in the familiar. When we’re used to doing something a certain way, it’s easy to keep doing it that way.
• Consistency bias. We assume that if something has been a certain way for a long time, it must be for a good reason.

In short: we don’t question the established dogma.

Another reason: it does have limited utility.

Everything exists on a spectrum. It’s not that ice is always “bad.” Icing injuries has proven to be effective at alleviating pain, and sometimes, we just want out of pain. If the ice helps us feel better, that might might feel like a good enough reason to use it. (Which is ok, in limited doses.)

A Universal Pattern

Every industry has its version of the RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) protocol: an approach that’s been “the way” for as long as anyone can remember.

These protocols, methods, or systems become entrenched as the default approach, even if they no longer meet our intended outcomes. Nobody questions whether they are still relevant, useful, or supportive — or if they ever were in the first place.

Some examples:

• the guidance to not expose babies to certain foods with common allergens
• the commission model in the real estate industry
• yoga breathing cues that are taught as “the one correct way”
• the 9–5 workday that doesn’t align with how the brain actually functions
• productivity hacks that don’t fit with modern workflows or with certain types of brains

Where Are You In Default Mode?

It take courage to look at why we do the things we do, and to consider that there might be a better approach.

But that’s the process of evolution. What once worked may no longer work.

Progress requires identifying your outcome, being constantly attuned to what’s working, and why, and being willing to change your approach.

Where are you still operating in default mode, even as evidence points you in a new direction?