Muscle Pain and your Body

Sprains and strains to your muscles and joints happen to the best of us. They are a painful reminder (excuse the pun) to be a little more careful with our bodies. Actioning now rather than later can help your body heal faster and may prevent further injury or prolonged pain.

Strained or ‘pulled’ muscles often happen when we over-exert infrequently used muscles, train without warming up or push our joint’s natural flexibility. Sometimes we feel the pain straight away, while other injuries may cause pain later on.

What can you do?

Use the RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation) technique, which assists to relieve the pain and start the healing process

Rest: Reduce the offending exercise as soon as you feel pain. This is usually your body’s way of telling you that there is something wrong and needs prompt attention. It can be normal to feel a little sore after exercising for a day or two, but if it is more than this, pushing through the pain is seldom beneficial.

In saying this, movement can also stimulate the healing process, so stay mobile if comfortable to do so. Try to keep joints moving through a comfortable range of motions, without forcing them to the point of pain. This will help encourage blood flow and keep your joints flexible while healing. This particularly applies to back pain as gentle exercise, such as walking, can help. You should slowly build your activity levels up as soon as you are comfortable and able to.

Ice: Using an ice pack to cool an area helpss reduce swelling and pain. Wrap a thin cloth around the area to avoid direct skin contact and apply ice pack to the affected area for 10 – 15 minutes. You should repeat this several times per day for the first three days. This will help to control the inflammation, making it easier for your body to get blood and nutrients to the area and resolve any injured tissues.

Compression: Gently applying compression dressings may help to temporarily support the injured joint and reduce swelling. Remove if there are signs that this is reducing the circulation to the area (numbness, pins and needles, the skin turning white or blue etc).

Elevation: If the injury is in the lower limbs, elevating the area a little can make it easieryou’re your body to drain the fluids that might accumulate around the area. For example, if you’ve hurt your knee, sitting down with the knee raised on a low foot stool may ease the pain.

If you have pain that can’t be controlled with over-the-counter painkillers, or you can’t put weight on the injured limb, – seek further medical assistance