We all know the drill – endless practices that end late at night, games that test willpower and emotional grit, and tournaments that feel like they take your kid to the edge of breaking but somehow leave just enough of them in – tact to keep pushing.
You want to lighten their load and ease the muscles that remind them of all the hard work they left out on the field…but you find yourself lodged between offering them products that are “natural” but haven’t really helped in the past, and NSAIDs that further burden their body and compromise their internal health.
There are natural solutions that work. Here are 5 of the go to’s we use often in our house to treat sore muscles in teens and young adults:
1. Break out the heating pad
Better yet, use an infrared heating pad, and ditch the ice: muscles need blood and oxygen to repair.
Think of it in these terms: if you cool a river, its flow slows; if you increase the temperature of the river, it flows more freely. It’s the same way with blood. If you increase the temperature of a sore muscle, blood flows more freely to it, thus optimizing its ability to receive the nutrients and oxygen needed to get back to a healthy state quickly. And let’s not forget, warmth is calming and comforting. Muscles tend to relax more within a body that’s calm as opposed to one which is stuck in fight or flight.
2. Take an Epsom salt bath
It’s good for the muscles and the central nervous system.
Though absorption rates vary from person to person, the magnesium found in Epsom salt baths is known to help relax muscles. As mentioned in the point prior, the heat is soothing to a system that was just in fight or flight during the height of a game heavily invested in. Warmth works to bring the body into a more parasympathetic state which is optimal for repair. And let’s not forget the role magnesium plays in optimal sleep.
Schedule an Epsom salt bath just before bed, and not only are you helping the central nervous system calm as you encourage muscle recovery in the moment, you’re also preparing for deep restorative sleep – an essential time for muscle repair and recovery.
3. Double up on veggies
They’re rich in antioxidants and are proven anti-inflammatories.
In my book, your body is no better than what you feed it. Making sure that your athlete is getting an appropriate amount (or more) of veggies – yes, I’m talking AT LEAST 5 full servings a day, is essential to muscle recovery.
Not a big veggie eater? No problem. Make a smoothie. Opt for spinach as your base to ensure you select a green that’s packed with antioxidants that fight inflammation and is also rich in iron to improve oxygen circulation. Add in a cruciferous vegetable like broccoli sprouts which are loaded with sulforaphane (arguably one of the strongest anti-inflammatory substances within the world of vegetables) and you’ve got a solid base from which to start recovery.
Add some berries, also rich in antioxidants, and a few dark chocolate chips for some additional flavor and sore muscles don’t stand a chance.
4. Break out the silicone cupping set
Lift the tissues, increase blood flow, and provide immediate relief.
Cupping is a recovery modality, developed by Chinese Medicine doctors, that dates back 1000s of years. Not only does it lift tissues to increase blood flow to the various levels between fascia and muscle, but it also helps move blood that is not flowing freely through tight muscle tissue, as it ushers in fresh, nutrient dense blood in.
It’s astounding how quickly this works to relieve muscle soreness. No wonder the approach is now used by Eastern and Western practitioners alike. Keep the cup moving in the direction of tissues, always toward the heart.
5. Open that jar of musclemud
It’s the only topical pain-relieving cream that’s formulated to ease the cause of muscle soreness, not just numb it.
Formulated and dosed according to traditional TCM herbal formulation practices, musclemud uses rhubarb to cool hot, tired muscles first. Secondly, ingredients like turmeric, frankincense and myrrh work to decrease inflammation by moving blood to the site of soreness for optimal repair. And because it’s a pain relieving cream, it does all this while menthol and camphor act immediately to stop pain where applied.
No toxic chemicals. No endocrine disruptors for growing bodies. Just natural pain relief that works to treat the soreness, and its cause, simultaneously.