When Adrian Heath played in the top flight of English soccer in the 1980s, the star midfielder didn’t hop in an ice bath after a game to immediately start regenerating his legs after running miles upon miles.

Heath, now Minnesota United’s coach, said that therapy wasn’t around back in his playing days — much less the influx of new-age remedies available to the Loons players.

There was one thing involving cold liquid he did do during his 18-year career: “After the game, a few pints with your mates,” he shared in his British accent.

About 20 years later across the Atlantic Ocean in Major League Soccer, rookie midfielder Sam Cronin would dip in warm and cold baths in Toronto in 2009. But that, plus some stretching and spinning on the exercise bike, were the extent of techniques he recalled to help propel players into the next game.

Now, up-and-coming forward Christian Ramirez’s postgame ice bath is only the first step in a multifaceted approach to try to gain a competitive advantage and return to matches quicker and fresher.

Loons players log about six to eight miles in an MLS match and up to 18 miles in a week’s training load. To relieve that pounding, players can undergo a therapy called dry needling, which is similar to acupuncture. Some players slide their legs into Game Ready air compression sleeves with adjustable cold settings. The club loans the sleeves, which resemble slim sleeping bags and cover from foot to hip, and the control box to some players. Others have their own.

Ramirez, the Loons’ leading scorer with 11 goals, is the club’s frontrunner on regeneration efforts. Ramirez, whose godmother is an acupuncturist in his native California, has added dry needling treatments on Mondays and has a near-daily devotion to the Game Ready sleeves. So when he pulled his left hamstring in the 4-0 win over D.C. United on July 29, he channeled that attentiveness into his rehab. Related Articles Houston Dynamo scores twice in 2nd half to tie Minnesota United

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After playing in 117 of 118 games since joining Minnesota in 2014, Ramirez is expected to miss his second consecutive game when United plays the Seattle Sounders at 7 p.m. Sunday at CenturyLink Field. He traveled with the club to the Pacific Northwest to continue his rehab and aims to play in the majority of the Loons’ final 10 games.

Back in Blaine, Ramirez’s rehab has him arriving at the Loons’ training grounds at 8 a.m. and leaving about 3:30 p.m. most days. When the first team trains at the National Sports Center stadium, he’s been heading to a quieter, adjacent practice field with other rehabbing players.

“I feel like I’ve lost my mind a little bit just because this is my first-ever muscle injury, and I’ve been pretty blessed to be able to take care of my body and help myself through this grind,” Ramirez said.

Ramirez has added cupping, a therapy made famous by U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps in last summer’s Olympics, and NormaTec, another branded device to reduce swelling on specific areas.

United assistant athletic trainer Stacey Hardin encourages players to use the new-age techniques as a complement to old-fashioned work. Injured players like Ramirez have required treatment and rehab sessions.

“The science continues to tell us that despite all of this great technology that we have that just getting the body moving is the best way to recover,” Hardin said. “You get people on a bike, you do a little foam roll and a stretch, that is going to set them up nicely for the rest of the week.”

Ramirez heeds that call. He posts Instagram stories of him chilling on the couch wearing the sleeves as he’s watching TV, and he also mixes in shots of himself on the exercise bike in his apartment building in Minneapolis.

“If I’m laying around all day, I will feel heavy the next day,” Ramirez said. “That has been a thing that I’ve done the last year and a half, I will go downstairs and get on a bike and get my body moving.”

In Heath’s playing prime, he would mix in tennis, squash and golf on top of the soccer training. “I was fortunate to play until I was 36,” he said. “Then, I went out overnight. There was no intention of retiring; the body retired me.”

As Heath has watched the game evolve over the decades, he’s grown a bit concerned at the higher level of focus on new regeneration techniques.

“I think there is a happy medium somewhere in between,” Heath said. “We have to trust the player, they know more about their body than they ever have. But sometimes it gives them a get-out-of-jail card.”

Cronin has amassed 251 appearances in his nine-year MLS career, with aspirations to reach the 300-game milestone.

“He is about as professional as they come,” Hardin said. “He knows exactly what he needs to do to take care of his body.”

When Hardin has been at the training facility doing paperwork or unpacking on an off-day after a game, Cronin will come in for surprise regeneration sessions. He has dabbled in dry needle sessions and has used the branded compression sleeves, but he agrees with Heath’s big-picture view.

“I think a lot of it is good, but you see where guys are so picky and think they can’t perform unless they have x, y, z,” Cronin said. “At the end of the day, you have to step on the field and out-compete the guy you are going against — whether you dry needle during the week or not.”