Especially if you’re experiencing muscle tension from your workouts or stress, learning how to relieve sore muscles is an essential lesson.
After all, with the right home treatments, you can ease this pain, loosen the muscles, and encourage repair to get you feeling normal much sooner.
Want to learn how to relieve sore muscles easily? You’ve come to the right place. In this blog post, we’ve covered everything you need to know about soothing tight, aching muscles. Find out more below.
What Causes Muscle Soreness?
Let’s start with the basics - what causes muscle soreness?
Tight, sore muscles can be triggered by several factors, though they’re most commonly brought about by overuse in exercise, minor injuries, stress, or tension.
Luckily, it’s easy to soothe and repair your muscles at home - especially when this soreness is localised to specific areas. This aching should only last between 2 to 5 days and can be treated with cold/ heat therapy, rest, therapeutic massages, or gentle stretching.
How To Relieve Sore Muscles
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s dive into the nitty gritty. Learn how to relieve sore muscles with these 5 simple tips below.
When it comes to relieving muscle pain, cold therapy can go a long way - especially if you’re dealing with sudden tension or a minor injury.
Cold therapy involves applying an ice pack to the affected area to restrict blood flow which can help manage any swelling and inflammation. In turn, this helps to reduce any pain you might be experiencing in the muscle.
This therapy is designed to be used for 1 to 2 days after a flare-up or injury for 15 minutes, followed by a rest every 3 hours.
Heat therapy is another great way to help manage muscle pain and promote healing. This particular therapy involves using heat packs on the affected area to stimulate blood circulation and promote healing, loosen the muscles, and reduce pain.
Cold// heat therapy typically goes hand-in-hand, especially if you’re dealing with muscle soreness and minor injuries.
After 1 to 2 days of cold therapy, heat therapy is typically used to reduce tightness and boost blood flow to the muscles. Heat packs are used for about 15 to 20 minutes at a time, followed by a 3-hour rest period.
Another great way to help ease soreness in the muscles would be to begin gentle stretching.
By stretching after a workout session, you can promote blood flow to these specific muscles. This process helps to break down any lactic acid build-up to relieve any tightness or pain.
That being said, it’s crucial to take a gentle approach here to avoid doing any further damage to the muscle - don’t push your stretching too far.
If you’re looking for a relaxing way to ease your muscle pain, you can’t go wrong with a therapeutic massage.
Massaging sore muscles helps to support circulation in these areas and deliver nutrients and oxygen to promote healing. This practice can also clear any knots to stop any spasms and ease built-up tension.
A gentle pressure for about 30 minutes post-workout will help to manage any pain and support muscle repair.
Sometimes, one of the best things you can do to ease muscle soreness is to just take a break and focus on your rest.
Proper sleep is crucial for muscle repair. When we sleep, our body produces great amounts of essential hormones required for muscle repair. To help ease much soreness, you should be aiming for around 8 hours of quality sleep each night.
So, if your muscles are feeling quite tender, consider taking a few days off from the gym, getting a massage, gently stretching, and focusing on your sleeping habits. Before you know it, you’ll be back to your former glory in no time.
Therapeutic Weighted Neck & Shoulder Wrap
If you’re hunting for ways to ease muscle pain in your neck and shoulders, we’d recommend getting your hands on this Therapeutic Weighted Neck & Shoulder Wrap by Therawrap.
There’s a lot to love about this wrap. Firstly, it’s filled with weighted clay beads to provide deep tissue stimulation - helping to relieve any tension, muscle pain, and joints while promoting relaxation. Not to mention, it can be used as both a heat and cool pack by heating it in the microwave or cooling it down in the freezer.
But our absolute favourite thing about this product would have to be the comfort-fit design that conforms to your neck to provide full coverage. This means you can use this product wherever and whenever you need it, without worrying about it falling off.
In other words, this isn’t your standard heat pack.
Head to the online store to shop now!
*The information in this article should be considered as advice only and is designed for those with no healthcare issues. Before implementing this advice, we recommend speaking with your healthcare professional.