What a pain (part one)

What a pain (part one)

In the next five blog posts, I will be covering pain management. To begin, we must first classify the types of pain that are most common. Soreness, tension, pinching or stabbing, dull and achy, and compression. These are the types of pain that we will be covering. Although there are several others, these are the ones that I see most often.

 

Today we will be talking about soreness. Soreness occurs in the body when a muscle is held in tension and then released. This causes the muscle to have microscopic tears in it. As the muscle rebuilds these tears, it grows and becomes stronger. This is called muscle hypertrophy. Therefore, the soreness you feel are tiny tears throughout your muscles. These can be caused by lifting heavy objects, going through strenuous exercise, or releasing trigger points. 

To combat soreness, you must remember that we are encouraging our body to heal these micro-tears. The first thing you want to do is drink lots of water. If your body is dehydrated, it is harder for your blood to carry nutrients to your muscles. So stay hydrated!

Second, sit in a bath with epsom salt. Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate, which when absorbed into the body, helps it to heal muscles. If you decide to do a warm bath, it will increase blood flow and get nutrients to the muscles quicker. However, it will intensify to soreness over the next day. If you choose to take it in a cold bath, the soreness will fade due to the constricting of blood vessels. This however is a temporary fix, as it is harder for your body to absorb the magnesium sulfate in cold water. You must decide for yourself which is better suited for your soreness. 

Lastly, keep it moving! I know it may hurt, but you don't want to baby your muscles too much. While it is repairing, you body is very venerable to picking up bad habits. Make sure your everyday actions are not changing due to soreness. Some actions that tend to change with soreness are change in gait, flexion of appendages, and disuse of arms or legs. As your body begins to heal just make sure you are still walking normal, and using your body as you would any other time.

Let's get affiliated with our bodies!!