Best 7 Ways to Relieve Sore Muscles After Exercise

Tips to relieve muscle soreness

You can get relief from muscular discomfort without waiting for it to go gone on its own. In order to alleviate muscle pain, try some of these strategies supported by science.

1. Practice active recovery

Static stretching after a workout has not been shown to reduce muscular discomfort. although recovery activity could. Active recovery refers to low-intensity exercise performed after a more strenuous session to aid muscle recovery.

There are a number of strategies to include active recovery in your workout routine:

As you work out: Interval training consists of alternating periods of intense exercise with rest periods of varying length.

After a strenuous workout, your body will benefit from slow, easy activity like walking as part of a cooldown cycle.

Take advantage of your days off by engaging in light exercise like swimming, yoga, or walking.

2. Opt for ice or heat therapy

Icing or heating aching muscles? That age-old conundrum may never be settled. That's why finding consensus on the appropriate approach has been so difficult. Both heat and ice can assist relieve muscle pain, so it's hard to say which is better.

If you want to know if icing or heating is better for your aching muscles, you should know how each one works. Because it slows down blood flow, cold therapy is often used to treat swelling and the pain it causes. It helps with recent aches and pains. Since heat stimulates blood flow, it could help aching, tense muscles relax and speed up the healing process. For chronic pain or injuries, this works wonders.

3. Try foam rolling

Myofascial release techniques, such as foam rolling, are often used for self-massage. There is evidence that doing so can ease muscular soreness, loosen stiff joints, and increase mobility. This method involves massaging the fascia (the connective tissue that supports your muscles, tendons, and ligaments) using a foam roller (a cylindrical tube) or another tool.

When you're done with your workout, try some foam rolling exercises. One tiny study suggested that foam rolling after exercise could lessen soreness and boost performance. The method can also be used as a pre-workout muscle-warmer.

4. Consider massage therapy

According to a paper published in 2012, massage therapy administered 4 hours after high-intensity exercise may help alleviate soreness and boost muscle performance. Another study discovered that when compared to active recovery and contrast hydrotherapy, massage was the most effective form of rehabilitation.

5. Wear compression gear

After an exercise, it may help your muscles recover and your blood flow if you wear compression gear. Endurance runners used compression socks in a small research after running 5 kilometres. The runners felt much less muscle fatigue and were able to maintain their previous 5K times with little to no slowing.

6. Use kinesiology tape

Kinesiology tape has been used by many athletes because it reduces muscular soreness, helps prevent injuries, and boosts performance. The research on its ability to improve athletic performance is inconclusive. Yet research suggests the malleable adhesive could minimise muscular soreness post-workout.

7. Apply essential oils

Essential oils have been used for centuries to treat a variety of ailments, from headaches to aches and pains. Essential oils like lavender and rosemary oil are just two of many that might help soothe aching muscles. Always try to find the most value for your money.

Because of their potency, essential oils can cause skin irritation. Don't put them on your skin undiluted; instead, use a carrier oil. You can use a tiny amount of diluted oil on sore muscles after first doing a patch test.