Muscle Soreness Cure: Five Things You Can Do To Heal Sore Muscles

An intense workout at the gym usually comes with a price that we all have to pay – muscle soreness. Muscle aches and pains are associated with muscle overuse, tension, or injury as a result of pushing yourself too hard or doing physically demanding work that you haven’t done before. Soreness in the muscle is a common issue after exercise or rigorous sports activity that can happen to both adults and kids and cause mild to extreme discomfort.

Since severe pain is enough to prevent you from carrying out routine activities, it’s only natural that each person wants to relieve the pain immediately the moment he or she first feel it and is looking for an effective remedy that will go to work fast. When it comes to addressing sore muscles, some forms of pain involve more intense therapies, while others require simple home remedies. Keep reading to provide relief from muscle soreness with the following five natural relaxers.

Bath With Epsom Salts

Epsom salt is a high source of magnesium sulfate, which is known as a natural ingredient to relieve sore muscles. The magnesium can help to withdraw the fluid out of the tissue, which triggers pain in the muscles.

Taking a bath with Epsom salt works wonders for sore muscle and may offer double the benefits. Soaking in Epsom salts is related to diminished muscle pain and inflammation. At the same time, a hot water soak is proven to relax the muscles, improve the blood flow to the area, reduce pain, and speed up the healing process.

All you need to do is prepare a bathtub by filling it with warm, not hot water. Add one or two cups of Epsom salts and let it dissolve completely. Soak the aching muscles for up to 20 minutes or until the water cools down. Repeat the process three times within a week. However, Epsom salt baths aren’t recommended for people that are subjected to health conditions such as heart problems, diabetes, or high blood pressure.

Cold Compress

If you have suffered an injury that leads to sore muscles, you can apply an ice compress in the first day or two after the trauma. Ice helps to inhibit bleeding in the soft muscle tissues and prevent swelling and bruising. Cold compresses also have an anti-inflammatory effect, which helps to reduce the temperature in the muscles, speed up the healing process, alleviate soreness, and related discomfort.

The way to make an ice pack is effortless. Simply take a few ice cubes, wrap them in a towel, and apply it directly to the affected calf muscles, arms, thighs, or shoulder muscles. Alternatively, you can freeze some vegetables, put them in a cloth bag, and apply it to the sore area for 15-20 minutes. Re-apply this cold compress every 2 hours between 4 and 8 times throughout a day. Continue to use for 2-3 days to help the affected muscles heal faster.

Water & Anti-Inflammatory Food

Drinking lots of water is vital for the body and also useful for relieving muscle pain after physical activity. In the case of dehydration, your body will feel increased levels of pain in the forms of muscle pain, arthritic pain, back pain, headaches, and more. Be sure to drink enough water daily to prevent muscle soreness and have productive sports activities.

Also, it’s essential to eat and top up your body with the right nutrition to help your organism recover quicker and rebuild muscles more efficiently. Make sure to eat a mix of both carbs and proteins as well as anti-inflammatory foods like cherry juice, pineapple, pomegranate, turmeric, and ginger. Consider adding these components to your recovery shake to decrease muscle pain.

Essential Oils

Various essential oils can also be used for the treatment of muscle soreness. Oils penetrate deep through skin layers into muscle tissue to lower strained and tight muscles. You can try lemongrass, lavender, peppermint, roman chamomile, helichrysum, deep blue, and marjoram essential oils. Add one/two drops of essential oils and mix them with a teaspoon of carrier oils like coconut oil or olive oil, then apply and massage the affected area.

CBD oil is another effective way to reduce muscle pain. CBD is s natural remedy that interacts with the endocannabinoid system responsible for most processes occurring in an organism such as pain, stress, temperature, mood, sleep, immune system, etc. Due to a positive effect on this complex system, CBD can boast many benefits, such as pain relief, reduction in anxiety, stress, and inflammation, faster recovery, healing of wounds and injuries, sleep improvement, and others. What’s more CBD products can be found in different forms like creams, tinctures, ointments, infused patches, and more to solve each specific issue and provide target relief.

As an alternative, you can add a few drops of essential oils to your bathtub. Essential oils will not only boost your mood but also will help to reduce muscle tension and soreness.

Massage & Movement

Not only are massages relaxing, but massage can also beneficial and can help to release muscle tension and improve muscle performance. Massaging sore muscles in a gentle way helps to get rid of knots, decrease stiffness in muscles, reduce swelling, and promote healing in damaged muscle tissue. Massaging also helps to unwind your mind, which, in itself, helps to alleviate muscle tension and soreness.

While a specially trained sports massage therapist ensures targeted pain-relief therapy, there are many self-massage techniques you can try out at home if you have sore muscles after training. When combined with soothing and healing oils, such as the essential oils blends listed above, you can get double improvements.

Additionally, one of the best things you can do for your sore muscles is move. This doesn’t mean come back to intense exercise or a full workout regimen. Try to do whatever you can to be active by having a light walk, small jog, stretch session, swim, etc. Any physical activity increases blood flow, which in turn provides faster healing and sore muscle relief.