Muscles
can often feel sore after exercise or different kinds of activities. Although
muscle pain can be unbearable and keep you from exercising, the good news is
that the more you exercise, the less your muscles will hurt in the long term. So,
here are some tips to alleviate common muscle soreness:
1) Rest: Resting is the best thing you can do for
soreness. Try not to use the muscle for 24-48 hours after exercise.
2) Massage your muscles: When you exercise, tiny tears occur in muscle
fibers. The body's natural response to these tears is inflammation. Massage
helps you to relieve the inflammation. Massage
also seems to increase the amount of mitochondria in your muscle, which causes the
muscles' ability to extract oxygen. Don’t forget, massage therapy is relaxing,
meditative, and healing. You can use your thumbs, knuckles and palms while
massaging your aching muscles.
3) Stretch
the muscles out: Stretching
will also help to get the lactic acid out of your muscles. Stretch after
activity that caused the soreness to prevent becoming stiff.
4) Ice
the muscle indirectly: Icing
the muscle immediately after activity would reduce inflammation and provide
more lasting relief. When icing a muscle, to wrap an ice pack on the sore
muscle area would work the best.
5) Apply
heat: After the first day of
soreness, heat can be used to help blood flow to the muscle. This will help
rebuilding take place and provide some relief for your muscles.
6) Take
pain medication (for adults, not children): Anti-inflammatory drugs such as Ibuprofen
(Advil) or naproxen (Aleve) would work out well. For children, just because
their muscles just start developing, in my opinion, medication intake may be
harmful.
ENJOY WORKING OUT AND TAKE CARE!
GULSEN XX
