Best Ways To Relieve Muscle Pain Naturally

If you’re searching for the best ways to relieve muscle pain naturally - you’ve come to the right place!

Muscle and joint pain are both very common ailments that cause distress for the young and old alike. Everyone will suffer from sore joints or muscle pain at some point in their lives.

The good news? 

There are several ways to naturally relieve muscle and joint pain. Truth is - you work hard all week long, and look forward to weekends when free time is abundant and you can play as hard as you want. There’s nothing quite like a relaxing round of golf with the guys, hiking a beautiful trail with the kids, or spending some time at the gym working out to re-energize the mind and body. 

As great as all of that is, physical activity has the potential to cause unwanted stiffness and sore muscles a day or two later. Don’t let muscle pain sideline you again - stay on the top of your game by reading on to find out the causes and natural treatments for sore muscles. 

What type of muscle pain do you have?

If you are experiencing muscle or joint pain, it is important to determine what type of muscle pain is affecting you so that you can best address it and get back to feeling good again. Let’s talk about the various types of muscle pain:

Acute Muscle Soreness

Acute muscle soreness (AMS) is the type of muscle pain felt both during and immediately after strenuous physical activity. AMS pain appears within a minute or two of contracting a muscle, then disappears within three to four minutes, or sometimes up to several hours after relaxing it. AMS may also cause cramps during, or post-workout, with dehydration and/or an electrolyte imbalance often causing these symptoms. 

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness

Often referred to as DOMS, delayed onset muscle soreness is the normal and common muscle soreness that develops during or after physical exercise. It is thought that DOMS is likely related to damage in the form of microscopic tears in the muscle fibers, caused by excessive exercise or stress to the muscle tissue beyond what it is used to. 

What is the difference between Acute and Delayed Onset?

Delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is pain in the muscles beginning after you’ve worked out. Normally, DOMS starts one to two days after you’ve had a workout session. You will not feel DOMS during a workout. 

On the other hand, acute muscle soreness is pain felt during or immediately after a workout session. Have you ever felt a burning sensation in your muscles during a workout? That is due to a quick buildup of lactic acid within our muscle fibers. This burning sensation generally disappears once you’ve stopped exercising. 

What Symptoms are you experiencing?

 

Although both DOMS and acute muscle soreness causes their own kinds of discomfort, these two types of muscle pain manifest different symptoms within the body.  

Symptoms of acute muscle soreness -

As previously mentioned, the symptoms of acute muscle soreness include a burning or stinging sensation in the muscles with a duration of around two to four minutes. Symptoms are felt during a workout session, not afterward. 

Symptoms of DOMS -

Usual signs and symptoms of DOMS include stiffness of the muscles, swelling, dull or slightly diffuse pain, and tenderness, and weakening of one’s muscle strength. 

Best Natural Pain Relievers to Use at Home

There are many pain relievers available on the market today to help aid with muscle pain. Here are the best natural pain relievers to use at home:

Best: MuscleShok Gel

MuscleShok offers all-natural products to help relieve muscle and joint pain caused by sprains, bruises, strains, back pain, and more. Their Sports Gel and Back Pain Gel products are fully organic and offer deep, long-lasting relief. Plus, these muscle pain gel products are odor-free and dry quickly without a greasy feel. 

Good: Consuming Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Antioxidants, and Milk Protein

 

You’d be shocked to hear how beneficial it is to consume an anti-inflammatory diet in regards to healing sore muscles and joints. By choosing the right anti-inflammatory foods to include in your diet, you may be able to significantly reduce your risk of contracting illness, as well as healing your body post-workout. 

Many people who engage in intense exercise will take antioxidant supplements and/or consume a diet rich in antioxidants in order to help reduce muscle soreness post-workout. When vitamin C and/or E, fish oil, turmeric, and ginger are taken before and after exercise, may help alleviate pain from stiff muscles and joints. 

Milk protein is used a lot in the fitness world, both to help gain muscle mass in the long term and to aid in repairing muscles and reducing pain in the short term. The most common way to consume milk protein is to purchase whey or milk protein powder. Several studies showed that protein shakes do, in fact, aid in the muscle recovery process.

Good: Epsom Salt Bath, Hot & Cold Therapy

Epsom salt has been used in soaking tubs for centuries, thanks to its ability to relieve inflammation and ease sore muscles and joints. MuscleShok BATHSHOT soaking bath salt for sore muscles takes Epsom salt to the next level. Featuring all-natural ingredients, including magnesium sulfate - an amazing nutrient the human body needs to stay healthy and well. Magnesium sulfate may help improve nerve function and reduce spasms, cramps, headaches, and muscle weakness.  

Hot and cold therapy is often used in professional physical therapy, due to its ability to naturally reduce muscle pain. When heat is applied to sore muscles or joints, it increases blood flow - which provides that area with additional nutrients needed for muscle recovery. It also helps the body warm-up prior to working out. Cold compressions slow the flow of blood to any given area, reducing both swelling and pain. It is usually best to apply a cold compress to sore muscles or stiff joints for short-term relief. Hot, or alternating between a hot and cold compress, is best for a more serious sprain or injury.

Good: Foam Rollers, Stretching & Massaging Sore Muscles

Stretching before and after a workout is extremely important in order to avoid pulling a muscle or injuring yourself. Foam rollers make stretching certain areas of the body much easier and more efficient. After an intense exercise session, stretching both with and without a foam roller, as well as massaging the muscles helps to alleviate muscle fatigue and DOMS soreness. Over time, these practices may help to improve your muscular performance.

Can Sore Muscles & Joints Be Prevented?

Unfortunately, there is no possible way to completely avoid sore muscles. That said, muscle and joint soreness does ease up over time as you maintain a regular exercise routine and continue moving. In fact, a major part of getting healthier and stronger is enduring sore muscles from strenuous physical activity.

Here are some of the ways you can help ease the level of muscle soreness you’ll experience after a workout:

 

• Warm-up & cool down - Always warm up before a workout to wake up your muscles and increase blood flow throughout your body. Consider doing light jogging, jumping jacks, jumping rope, low-resistance biking or lifting weights to warm-up prior to working out. The same concept goes for cooling off post-workout. Make sure to help your body slow down and get back to a resting state. 
• Stay hydrated - If you want your body and mind to stay healthy and function at peak performance, you have to make sure you’re staying hydrated by drinking plenty of water. Water helps the body control its internal temperature, assists in loosening your joints, and transport nutrients throughout in order to give you the energy you need to finish your workout. 
• Always use the proper techniques - Performing exercises the right way helps to protect your muscles from excessive or unnatural strain and/or injury. If you have questions regarding how to properly execute a particular exercise, how to lift a certain type of weight(s), or how an exercise machine should be used - ASK! You’ll be happy you did.

When Is Muscle Soreness a Red Flag?

Whether you’re a professional athlete or simply looking to lead a healthy lifestyle, it is critical that you learn how to determine basic muscle soreness from injury. 

When to see your doctor for muscle soreness? 

One of the tall-tale signs that you may have an injury is the level of pain and/or soreness you’re experiencing and for how long. Natural soreness associated with physical activity has a fairly short duration time - a few days at most. Over those days, the pain you feel should slowly buff out and taper. 

If you notice that you’re experiencing significant discomfort or pain during rest periods between workouts, or if your muscle soreness has not tapered down for more than five days after your workout, it may be time to see your doctor. Physical injuries should be taken care of as soon as possible. The longer you wait to get a potential injury taken care of, the longer your recovery time is likely to be. 

Conclusion 

Dealing with severe muscle pain and joint stiffness can put a damper on the things we love in life. MuscleShok muscle and joint pain relief products provide a significant reduction in the level of discomfort you may be feeling due to muscle overuse or being new to a particular type of workout your body isn’t quite used to yet. The best ways to relieve muscle pain naturally, are ways that suit your lifestyle and that you’ll be able to commit to long term.