How to Relieve Muscle Soreness

Words cannot express how sore my body is. My first workout out with my trainer was almost a week ago, and my legs still hurt, and now my arms feel like spaghetti. But hey "No Pain No Gain"! So I did some researching to find some ways other than stretching to help ease the pain. Here's what I came up with!

1. Rest- One of the simplest and most reliable treatment for sore muscles is rest.

2. Ice the Muscles- Treating inflammation with ice application is common, and is also most effective when done soon after the onset of muscle soreness. Applying ice to sore muscles is most effective if done within the first 48 hours of exercise induced muscle soreness (I wish I would have known this sooner!).

3. Active Recovery- This refers to performing less- intense exercises during the recovery phase from an aggressive workout. Active recovery stimulates blood flow to the muscles, improves circulation in the muscles, and it also helps reduce muscle pain.

4. Get a Massage- If you can't afford to go to the spa for a massage you can feel free to massage your own sore muscles. Massaging your muscles helps stimulate blood flow to the sore areas and diminishes swelling within the muscle.

5. Gentle Stretching- This is one of the best ways to prevent and help muscle soreness. And it is also something that I absolutely hate. When stretching becomes painful I tend to stop, which doesn't help the muscle soreness, but I'm working on it.

6. Anti-Inflammatory Medications- If you are looking for a quick fix, anti-inflammatory medications will help relieve some of the discomfort of muscle soreness, but it will not effect the length of time for recovery of the muscle.

7. Topical Creams- If all else fails you can grab a tube of BenGay or IcyHot to relieve some of the discomfort, but just as with anti-inflammatory medications, they too have no effect on the underlying muscles.