I've had conflicting advise from Physio's and Quacks over the years. It does seem that the prevailing school of thought, which has settled for the past few years; is that cooling is the best initial treatment (if applied soon enough). The reasons seem to be that reducing/preventing inflamation as early as possible, help prevent secondary tissue damage around the injury. After that, it depends who you ask. I've tried warming and cooling cycles, it didn't seem (to me) to help or shorten healing time. Now, rightly or wrongly, I find the best approach is to cool it straight away. Rest it for at least a day or two longer than it hurts, Volteren (topical for mild, oral for a bad one) and (I'm almost ashamed to say, as a hard headed engineer) Arnica, rubbed in once a day. I suspect the Arnica thing has more to do with the rubbing than the Arnica itself, who knows? Break it back in slowly, if you tweak it again, I find it takes much longer to heal. I usually keep up the stretching, extending to the point where I know it's about to hurt, not beyond and I find an increase in mobility/extension almost daily..
