6 Ways to Reduce Muscle Soreness, Fast.
Did yesterday’s workout make your muscles cry for help today? Don’t worry, this is a positive sign that you’re on your way to becoming a stronger and healthier version of yourself (even if it doesn’t feel like it yet!).
For the most part, muscular pain and stiffness occurs after a heavy and intense workout. Muscle soreness occurs when the micro-tearing of your muscles drives your body to initiate the repair process, which repairs your muscles bigger and stronger than before. The pain you feel is known as DOMS; Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness.
While sore muscles are an unavoidable part of the journey to getting stronger, it doesn’t mean it’s a pleasant one. However, there are some proven steps you can follow to help with your recovery and reduce the pain.
Ice
Muscle soreness is a sign your muscles are rebuilding. However, inflammation and/or swelling can be an indication you’ve overdone it. It’s always tempting to push yourself to your limits every workout (pain is weakness leaving the body etc), but it’s important not to exceed your limits every time as it will almost certainly lead to long term injury.
If you have major inflation or point pain that’s more than the usual dull ache, an easy way to treat it is to apply ice to the affected area. While icing isn’t the most pleasant experience it is one of the quickest and easiest treatments available. Wrap your ice pack in a workout towel to ensure the contact isn’t too intense. Soaking in a cold bath may also be helpful, but we don’t blame you if you can’t bring yourself to do that!
Heat
On the other side of the coin, heat is ideal if you want to support your muscles in their normal recovery period. Whether you use a heating pad or take a hot bath, the heat will allow your blood vessels in the area to dilate. This contributes to an improvement in blood flow, which therefore helps bring nutrients and oxygen to the affected area. We recommend adding Exalt Epsom salts to your bath to really speed up recovery. The salts are enriched in a range of minerals such as magnesium which is proven to help muscle recovery and relaxation. Plus, who doesn’t love a good bath?
Water
Hopefully you’re already familiar with this life hack! Drinking water helps control your body temperature and transports nutrients to create energy. Furthermore, hydrating during and after exercise ensures that toxins such as lactic acid which are trapped in your muscles get flushed out faster. This is important as these toxins make muscle soreness much worse. Water is crucial to help your body to keep pace with all of its normal functions, and without it you’re going to feel pretty awful and delay the recovery process. Enough said!
Invest in the Flow PRO or Flow MINI
Our flow percussion devices are essential for muscle recovery. The devices offer a powerful sports massage to promote best performance, reduce fatigue, and relieve muscle swelling and tension.
Our massage guns provide accelerated bursts of pressure into the tissues of the body which increases blood circulation, promotes the production of nutrients and fluids and aids quicker muscle recovery. Our Flow PRO can deliver 3200 percussions a minute which helps increase lymphatic flow & reduce lactic acid. Lactic acid can make you feel exhausted, nauseated and have cramp feelings in your muscles. With the help of our Flow percussive devices, lactic acid and other toxins surrounding the muscles can be flushed out.
The devices are light-weight and portable meaning you can use your Flow wherever you want, 24/7. It’s important to ensure that your muscles can get immediate attention post workout to ensure the best results. This is where percussive devices have an advantage over a traditional sports massage, where you might wait hours or days after exercise before treatment. You can get all the benefits of percussion therapy within minutes, no matter when you train.
Light stretching/activity
Stretching can be a great way to relieve the tightness in your muscles and increase your range of motion which can prevent the feeling of soreness. However it is important that you don’t overstretch as it can make your muscles feel even tighter and sorer than before. You should also avoid stretching if you are already suffering from DOMS as you can risk tearing your muscle fibres further and delaying recovery.
Light activity after your workout can also reduce soreness within the muscles. We recommend you carry out a less-demanding workout the day after a tough one as it ensures that your body is increasing blood flow and continues circulating those all-important nutrients.
Use a foam roller
Using a foam roller after your workouts can reduce the intensity of your post-workout soreness as it helps relieve the tension within the muscles as well as improving your flexibility and range of motion. Targeted pressure is placed on your muscles which releases the triggering points where you feel pain. Using a foam roller also promotes blood flow around your body which allows more oxygen to reach your muscles which can aid the natural recovery process. And give you a good excuse for a lie down.
Just remember no one is immune to muscle soreness as it’s a key part of the fitness journey. That being said, following these 6 top tips can significantly decrease your pain and promote your muscle to recovery quicker and more effectively. Spend the time following this advice and you’ll see a big decrease in the time spent being out of action.
