subject: How To Avoid Muscle Strain And Sore Muscles [print this page] Preventing muscle strain and soreness is a concern of many people who regularly do their workouts. A strain is an injury to a muscle or tendon in which the muscle fibers tear as a result of overstretching. A strain is also colloquially known as a pulled muscle while a sprain is a tear in the ligaments around the muscle.
To avoid muscle strains, make sure that you get a proper or good stretch of at-least 5 minutes before you start your workouts. Also, avoid using more weight than you can reasonably move. Pay attention to your body. Your body knows its limits or capacity and try to communicate this to you. If you are lifting a weight that you feel you need to exert a lot of force than you usually do, then switch to a smaller weight. It is very important to save you muscle than try to impress others. Practice proper form is another way to prevent muscle strains. Be very cautious when using heavy weights because if you push yourself too far, you can end up with an injury that you will never recover from.
If you do happen to develop muscle strain, use the RICE method to ensure a relatively quick and easy recovery. RICE stand for Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. Rest is vital to protect the injured muscle, tendon, ligament or other tissue from further injury. Resting the injured part is important to promote effective healing. Try not to use the strained muscle at all. You may also place an ice on the area, but use something to create a barrier between ice and your skin such as bag or towel and never leave ice on an injury for more than 20 minutes at a time. An ice massage is another extremely effective way to direct cold to the injured tissue. Cold provides short-term pain relief and also limits swelling by reducing blood flow to the injured area. Compression means putting pressure to the area. Compression helps limit and reduce swelling, which may delay healing. An easy way to compress the area of the injury is to wrap an ACE bandage around the swollen part.Elevation means keeping the strained area lifted. Elevating an injury help control swelling. It's most effective when the injured area is raised above the level of the heart. Another way that you deal with muscle strain is to take light pain medication.
Sore muscles is caused by lactic acid build up. When you are working you muscle past their limits, then you are increasing the amount of oxygen your tissue needs and therefore going to anaerobic state. Lactic acid builds up causes your muscles to become sore. You will have to rest and ensure that you take in a good diet of carbohydrates to allow your muscles to recover.
In conclusion, the most effective way to avoid muscle soreness and muscle strain is to listen to your body. Know the limits when it comes to working out. You don't have to push yourself to the edge in order to get results. Protect your body, not your pride.
