Muscle soreness is part and parcel of fitness training or when you do back-breaking work at home or in the office. Sometimes the pain can be mild or severe especially when you have strained yourself too much. Most of the time we just rest up or take pain killers to alleviate the pain somewhat but if you want to speed up the healing process, you might want to look for alternative treatments instead.
The good news is that there are several steps that you can take to banish muscle soreness and some of these are:
Foam rolling. Nowadays, people tend to use foam rollers to massage sore muscles after they workout. The foam roller is basically a cylindrical shaped object that you can roll forward and backward to address the muscle pain found deep within your inner muscles for relief.
Gentle stretches. Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) basically tells you that your muscles are damaged due to your workout and that you need to reduce their usage to give them time to heal. If the pain that comes with muscle soreness is causing you discomfort, gentle stretches may help ease the tension on your muscles which can also expedite healing.
Ice bath. Schools often promote ice bath for their athletes as the cold temperature can relieve the pain in the muscles and joints. Basically, you will just fill a tub or bucket with water and ice. You need to prepare yourself for the initial contact because your body will react to it but soon your body will get used to the temperature. This is one of the best treatments that you can do to reduce swelling in your muscles and joints.
Warm bath. Aside from having an ice bath, soaking in a tub of warm water can also help relieve muscle soreness in no time. The increase in temperature actually boosts blood circulation. What this means is that there will be more oxygen and nutrients getting delivered to your aching muscles which result to reduced muscle soreness and quick healing.
Exercise. Although this might sound counterintuitive, doing light exercises can actually benefit your sore muscles. Light exercises like jogging, lunges, and the like can actually reduce the pain that you are feeling. This is due to the fact that your blood circulation is getting a boost from your light workout which, like it was mentioned before, can promote healing. You might be a bit skeptical about this but you should try it first before you discount it.
Sore muscles can be a problem, it’s true, but it doesn’t have to cause you more discomfort than is necessary because you can treat it as soon as possible. The methods mentioned above are just a few suggested practices especially after an intense training so that you can keep muscle soreness at bay. And because these steps are all natural, you don’t have to worry about any side effects at all.
