How do you ease muscle pain after a workout?

Question

I Got a terrible pain in my triceps, upper back around shoulders(Rhomboids), part of my upper chest, and on the part of my back just below the arm pits after paticipating in a battle of push-ups with a co-worker of mine. I struggled through the last push-up to even the score and tryed to do one more for laughs but had not an ounce of strength to do it. Just afterwards my arms felt like heavy lead weights and now 3 days later I am still experiencing pain. It is most severe when I am not moving, such as during the night.
does anyone know how to ease the muscle pain!!!!!!!!

Answer 1

Rest! I know it sucks, but its really the only way. It will take a few days, but just make sure you have plenty of protein so your body can repair your muscles.

I hope you know the difference between a good pain and a bad pain while weight training. I am guessing this is a "good pain" and you are just rebuilding muscles. In which case, follow the above advice. Especially if its been a while since you last lifted, your muscles will feel more sore - but after the second, it will go more smoothly.

If not, if this is a bad pain - you are probably working out TOO hard or you really pulled something seriously. Either way, rest up for a few more days, and dont do any lifting. If things are still seriously hurting, you may want to ask a professional (a trainer at your gym or your family doctor) just to make sure you didnt do serious damage. And when you start lifting again, dont work quite so hard - decrease your weight/reps and slowly increase (you should be doing this anyway)

Answer 2

Certian people produce more lactic acid than others, it's not a bad thing but can be painful as you've mentioned. The only sure fire way to reduce the amount of lactic acid is to decrease the amount of dairy you eat and massage the muscle vigorously, to release the LA back into the blood stream. You can apply a heating pad also, that will cause more blood to rush to the area and, in fact, transport more of the LA out of the muscle.

Answer 3

It sounds more like tendonitis or bursitis than muscle pain. Muscle pain can be eased through heat (hot bath or shower, heating pad) massage, and light stretching. Light use of the muscles that are painful can aid in getting rid of the lactic acid. I'd recommend taking a regimen of OTC anti-inflammitories at max dose for a week. Ibuprofen, naproxen, etc.

Answer 4

You've got so many good answers above me that I wouldn't know where to begin. Sellmetheinfection's got a truism there in that you may have overdone it, but then, you didn't ask why you were hurting so bad. You asked what to do about it. Stillbay and others' recommendations of massages are great, but to find anyone who really knows what they're doing and won't cause further pain from just rubbing hard on you is a good task in and of itself. Y?'s comments about lactic acid is excellent, and having been a very avid bicycle racer and long distance rider and runner makes me very familiar with such issues. In bicycle racing, as you may have noticed if you've ever watched the Tour de France on tv, has cyclists pedaling at different rates of speed on the same part of the course. It astonishes me that racers at that level, especially Jan Ullrich, formerly of the T-Mobile team, would put their cycles in the hardest gear and pedal that way all the way through the stage of almost 100 miles all day. If you ever noticed Lance Armstrong in his pedaling, he pedaled in a much lower gear and a lot faster than Jan Ullrich, and never tired, and that's because he pedaled at a rate that didn't allow the lactic acid buildup in his muscles as much as Jan Ullrich's. Jan may have been nicknamed "The Big Diesel", but diesels don't win the Tour de France. Turbos like Lance Armstrong do. All that is to suggest that you develop methods of exercise that don't promote the lactic acid buildup so quickly, and therefore you can do more and not suffer so much. Jan Ullrich lost his team captaincy, and his place on the team, because he could NEVER beat Lance Armstrong, and no one saw the reason. Keep It Simple's got a great suggestion in a hot shower, but that's a lot of hot water on the skin for minimal effect. A combination of massage and hot shower may be the best bet, as Keep It Simple suggests. Crickettmc2001's got a good idea in a hot bath to soak in, and that often has better effect than a hot shower. A good hot soak in a whirlpool would be very good, but all these hot water remedies need to be used with caution since you're body temperature is already excessively hot and we wouldn't want to go into a stroke while in a bathtub or shower, or anywhere for that matter. One recommendation I would make here, and one that has not been made by the answers I've read, is to rotate relevant body parts before and after the exercise. Even rotation during the exercise is good, if possible. Do it gently since you don't want to cause a cramp or dislocation of a joint. You'll definitely regret that. The bicyclists I rode with always rotated the head/neck region before and after the ride, and that made worlds of difference.

With respect to muscle pain during the night, I have to state the obvious and that is that your muscles are cramping or just stiffening after such an intense workout. DO NOT sleep under a fan (ceiling or otherwise) or intensely cool airconditioning. I know that may be obvious but in our desire to cool down we sometimes overlook the most blatantly obvious issues. I have, in that area particularly, so I felt more free to pass that on to you. It might be good to have even a light sheet over you just to keep the night air off of your muscles. Again, you don't want to overheat, but then cramping isn't any fun either, so, use some judgement there as to how much cover you may need at night. Have several layers of sheets and/or blankets on the bed for you to adjust your amount of cover throughout the night as your body temperature drops and your muscles get colder, and stiffer, and more painful when they do get too cool.

But, of all the recommendations I've read, and made myself, the ones that say "don't overdo it", and get a massage, and warm bath, and stay covered at night are the best ones. You can consider yourself blessed if you can get a good masseuse, but it won't hurt to do light stretches and rotations of your muscles and joints, get a warm bath after you're cooled down a bit, and then stay in a robe before bedtime and at least under one sheet, if not more, throughout the night. Thousands of miles of serious bicycle racing and riding have taught me these things. God Bless you.

Answer 5

If you have no one to massage those muscles, a nice hot shower will relax them enough to ease the pain some.

Answer 6

Take warm baths, this will help blood flow which will help move the toxins that cause the pain.

Also make sure you get more protein for the next while or it'll take even longer to heal.

Answer 7

Try cherry juice-it works! My cousin's in the military, and they do up to 1,000 pushups a day. Don't drink more than two glasses though-it starts to act like prune juice after that.

Answer 8

Moist heat, and creams like bengay or icy hot. A long hot tub bath helps a lot..

Answer 9

Go for a full body massage if it still does not work try the doctor

Answer 10

Try taking a hot shower.