Do you know how muscle inflammation occurs?
It arises by exposing body to a certain exercise that it is not accustomed to. Inflammation occurs in response to this effort, and the pain that is then felt is caused by the formation of lactic acid in the muscles. But no matter how unpleasant it is, it is not undesirable and does not represent something that is negative. On the contrary, it is a normal phenomenon, and the body in this way “tells us” that the muscles work, muscles are creating energy in order to burn carbohydrates. Most often in this kind of situations are found athletes and people that do recreational sports but it could happen to any of us e.g. if we lift or move heavy furniture.
What type of inflammation occur in ours body?
Acute muscle inflammation – occurs immediately after physical effort / training or immediately after you have finished the exercise. Then, in our muscles, the amount of lactic acid is highest and pain lasts for several hours to one day.
Delayed muscle inflammation – longer lasting and more painful. Pain begins to be felt only a few days after exercise.
There are various ways to prevent inflammation such as intake of sufficient amounts of fluid, stretching before exercise or other physical work and healthy eating (food with fibre is recommended).
What if muscle inflammation already occurs? What would be the easiest, fastest and most efficient way to overcome? Here are few tips:
- Stretching muscles – Before and after every physical effort, training or exercise, stretch yourself. It helps to remove the
accumulated lactic acid in muscles. - Massage – therapeutic effect of massage has been known since ancient times. Massaging a part of the body under inflammation relieves pain, reduces inflammation and helps muscles relax.
- Heat therapy – warming up the affected part of the body can help reducing inflammation. It encourages blood circulation and makes connective muscle tissue become more flexible. The simplest way is by preparing a hot bath or the most efficient heat produced would be the infrared lamp-heat (no more than 20 minutes a day). Also, there are various gels and creams with the effect of heating. Depending on your preferences, choose what would suit you the most.
- Cold therapy – cooling therapy. For some would be more suitable heating and others would prefer cooling effect. Fill the ice bag with plenty of ice, cover it with a cotton cloth and hold it for some time where you feel your inflammation is most pronounced.
- Taking pain medication – If you’re trying to get an analgesic to relieve pain, you should know that this way may be the fastest but not the best. Drugs relieve pain, but stop the recovery, the muscle remains damaged and you have actually made a counter-effect to what you wanted to achieve.
- Water – Take plenty of fluids. It is not said in vain that water is a source of health 🙂
- Healthy nutrition – We already mentioned it in the introductory part of this text, but it does not hurt to mention it once more. Avoid eating sugary food before training, eat a light meals-salads, include in your daily habits food rich in fibre and if you have a sweet tooth eat fruits after training / exercise.
If you have decided to be a regular member of a gym, or have started to do sports of any kind, muscle inflammation will for a while be a normal occurrence. But do not let it discourage you and ultimately give up. Many well-known athletes will probably give you just one tip – continue exercising. With each exercise inflammation decreases and the body becomes accustomed to effort. If you exercise correctly and you follow these guidelines, we believe that you will not have problems with inflammation.
How about you, do you face similar problems? Do you have tricks to recommend how to overcome muscle pain? Share with us your experience commenting bellow as we would love to hear your opinion.
