Tips for Dealing with Muscle Pain

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Whether you’ve over-exerted yourself when you’ve been exercising, or you’ve woken up in pain, muscle pain can be unpleasant. However, if you know how to deal with muscle pain, you can find that you suffer a little less and recover slightly quicker. 

Let’s take a look at some tips that can help you to deal with muscle pain:

Don’t Rely too Much on Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory Drugs

Many people will tell you to take some non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) if you have muscle pain. However, you should not be too reliant on them as prolonged use could cause gastrointestinal issues.

By all means, take some NSAIDs if you have muscle pain, just try to limit your use if you can. Tylenol might be more effective depending on the cause of your pain. If you’re not sure what you should do, please speak to your doctor or pharmacist.

Use Heat Therapy

Heat therapy can help to soothe those painful muscles. You can use heat patches if you wish, but try to stay away from ointments/creams that claim to use heat. Studies have shown that they don’t work very well to help with the pain. In fact, heat ointments/creams work in the same way as the ones that claim to offer cool treatments.

Heat patches can work well, just make sure you don’t apply them directly to the skin. Heat patches can help to reduce pain and inflammation. In addition to this, they can help to reduce stiffness.

You could also get into a nice warm bath, or use a warm damp towel to treat the pain.

Speak to your Doctor

If your pain is particularly bad or it’s not getting better after 2-3 days, you should speak to your doctor. You could have damaged your muscle or you might need more specialized treatment. If your pain is severe, you might be asked to see an orthopaedic surgeon if there’s a chance you need surgery. However, it’s important that you deal with the symptoms now and work on getting some pain relief.

Use a Foam Roller

You might have noticed some athletes using foam rollers after they’ve played sports. However, it’s not always clear what they are for. Foam rollers are a great tool to use as they can help to relieve pain. In addition to this, they offer you a mini-massage. Massages can help with muscle pain because they encourage the body to heal.

Simply place a foam roller on the floor and lay the sore muscle on top. Roll that area of your body over the foam roller slowly to get the maximum benefits.

Muscle pain can be quite uncomfortable, no matter how it is caused. If you’re struggling with your pain please speak to a doctor. If you’re slightly uncomfortable, you can use the above tips to help relieve pain and reduce swelling. Once you’ve found a tried and trusted technique, try to use it again the next time you have pain in that area of your body.