GeneralHow to Recover from a Muscle Injury

A pulled muscle is no fun to deal with. The problem with pulled muscles is that it can happen with no warning. It could happen anytime, anywhere, and to anyone. It doesn’t matter what your age or fitness levels are. Pulled muscles can strike when you least expect it.

A muscle injury can occur for several reasons. It can happen when you lift heavy objects without using the proper posture or when you lift an object that happens to be too heavy for you. Pulled muscles could happen if your muscles are overused, or it could happen if you haven’t warmed up properly before a vigorous workout routine.

Did you know that you could also be at risk of pulling a muscle if you have poor posture? Yikes! It certainly makes you want to go about gingerly to avoid any kind of injury. While pulled muscles are no fun to deal with, you can breathe a sigh of relief because there are ways to recover from it. Once your doctor has confirmed you’re dealing with a pulled muscle, use physiotherapy treatments to heal your body.

You Need Plenty of Rest

An oldie but a goodie, getting plenty of rest is sometimes the easiest solution to an obvious problem. If you’ve hurt yourself, the only way to recover is to rest until you’re strong enough again. Follow your doctor’s advice and stay in bed until you’ve been given the green light to get active again. If it is a minor muscle strain, you still need some rest, but gentle movements are allowed after a day or two.

Icing the Affected Area

Besides bedrest, it is important to ice the affected area regularly until your muscles have recovered. That is because a pulled muscle is an inflamed muscle, and you need ice to help you reduce that inflammation. Don’t apply ice directly on your bare skin, though. You should either use an ice pack or wrap a towel around it first to make it more comfortable. Apply ice to the affected area regularly throughout your waking hours for at least 20-minutes each time.

Heating the Affected Area

Alternate between ice packs and heat packs to double the speed of your recovery. However, heat packs should only come into the picture three days after your injury. Just like the ice pack, you don’t want to apply these heat packs directly on your bare skin. Always wrap it in a towel first before application. Heating pads can be applied two to three times a day on the days you’re not using an ice pack.

Elevating the affected area is recommended if you’ve pulled a muscle on your legs. If you elevate the affected area, it helps to minimize the swelling and speed up the recovery process.

Compress Your Muscle

Get an elastic bandage and wrap your injured muscle to compress it. The compression effect will help reduce your swelling. If your muscle injury is located in a hard-to-reach area, get someone else to help you. With the compression recovery technique, avoid wrapping it too tightly to the point you cut off the blood circulation. That is not what we want in this case.

Therapeutic Massage Treatments

Depending on how severe your muscle injury is, there are some instances where therapeutic massage treatments could help to aid in the recovery of your injured muscles. When opting for this treatment, it is always best to do it with a professional who knows their way around muscle injuries.

Therapeutic massages could aid in the recovery of the injured muscle by helping to circulate the blood flow in that area. This massage technique could also help eliminate the excess fluid in your muscles, speeding up the recovery even more. To attempt this form of recovery, wait until your injured muscle area is not too sensitive to touch any longer. If you’re not sure, check with your doctor and get the green light before you go ahead.

Prevention Is Always Better Than Cure

Finally, to avoid any future muscle injuries, prevention is always better than cure. Once a muscle has experienced some form of injury, there is always the possibility that it could happen again. Prevention is always better than cure, and keeping any future injuries at bay is easy.

If you lead an active lifestyle, always make sure to warm up before any vigorous activity. When exercising regularly, never skimp on the warm-up and cool-down stretches. There is a reason these are recommended. It can be tempting to skip them and save time, but they are a necessity. Warm-up and cool-down stretches are necessary to help your body eliminate and distribute waste products.

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