Confession: I don’t “ice” sore muscles as often as I should. I prefer a hot shower, some deep stretching, and extensive foam rolling to take care of my aches and pains. But sometimes I can’t avoid grabbing that old bag of peas from the freezer and slapping it on my knee for an hour or so. In the past, I’ve played soccer and the peas were always good to me. My knees were always the first part of my body to take a beating playing the sport. Running has taken priority over any other sport in the past couple of years and, in January, I started training  for several races in preparation for my first marathon at Chicago 10.9.2011. And…I haven’t been icing. But when Fleet Feet Chicago selected me to become a tester for a new product, the Moji One, I was interested (and more motivated to ice/heat my joints).

In one word, the Moji One is convenient. The fusion cell can be chilled in the freezer or warmed in the microwave within a short period of time. As some of you may have experienced, a bag of frozen peas doesn’t stay a bag of frozen peas for long. (Once you allow the peas to defrost & place the bag back in the freezer, the whole operation becomes a block of ice.) The Moji One is also designed to be used on twelve different body parts: shoulder, groin, knee, ankle, hip, hamstrings, calf, achilles, piriformis, quad, shin, and foot. And while I haven’t tried the Moji on all of these parts of the body, I have no doubt that it could stretch and strap easily to all of them. The design is pretty genius. The Fusion Cell, as they call it, attaches to the stretchy brace by velcro. Once you place it there, it doesn’t budge. The top half of the brace is longer than the bottom half and is especially comfortable when fitting it over your knee. The brace is extremely stretchy and you don’t have to work hard to make sure that the fusion cell is applied as directly to the skin as possible. I have used the Moji on my knees several times now and I like how it creates a cooling effect around my entire knee without being uncomfortably cold (my knee wasn’t frozen solid like it would be with a bag of peas :-)) Manny has probably gotten more use out of the product than I have. As a new runner, his knees are certainly taking a beating. He’s used it both to warm and cool his knee and I think it’s helping.

My only (picky) gripe about the Moji is that it doesn’t stay cold or hot for as long as I would like. My bag of peas provides lasting relief for an hour at least, but I find the the Moji returns to room temperature after about a half hour. I still find the Moji One very impressive. If anything, it’s motivated me to make sure I’m rehabbing muscles to prevent injury in the future. Plus, I can’t pack a bag of frozen peas in my suitcase for vacation to Mexico, but the Moji One will most likely make the cut if I have some extra room in there!

*I was not compensated for the above review, nor was it a requirement of participating as a Moji Tester.

-J