August 20th, 2020

// How to Avoid Inflammation After Workouts

How to Avoid Inflammation After Workouts

Inflammation is nothing new for those who hit the gym regularly. When you work out your muscles, they get surrounded by blood as they try and heal. This inflammation can be painful, but fortunately there are ways to reduce the swelling and pain. Here are just a few ways to reduce or avoid inflammation after a hearty workout.

Ice It Down

When it comes to reducing swelling in the body, ice is the key. Having a cold temperature on the area helps to restrict the blood flow to your muscles. The trick is ensuring that you don’t spend too much time in the cold. It’s only recommended to do a maximum of 20 minutes with ice on a specific body part. After this time frame, your body will start to go into protective mode thinking that it’s getting frostbite. This will have an adverse effect that actually causes the body to purposefully cause inflammation in order to heat up. To avoid this, simply stick to 20 minutes maximum for any icing session.

Use A CBD Product

With the wide emergence of CBD in the United States market, more and more studies have been conducted on its overall health benefits. While many are still in the debating phase, one thing has been shown to be proven true about this substance. It works great for reducing inflammation in the body. You can get CBD into your bloodstream in multiple ways such as hemp CBD lotion, pills, edible gummies, and tinctures.

Get A Massage

When you find yourself in the hours after a tough workout, you want to do everything possible to reduce the amount of inflammation that your body undergoes. Getting a massage is one great way to alleviate muscle tension and allow blood to freely move throughout your body. You’ll want to pick the right type of massage to encourage healing and not induce inflammation. A Swedish massage is more preferred over other techniques like a deep-tissue massage.

Use Anti-Inflammatories

Anti-inflammatory medications can be utilized to reduce the amount of swelling that happens in your body and joints. These include over the counter medications like naproxen, ibuprofen, and aspirin. While these aren’t recommended for daily use, they can be extremely helpful when you’ve undergone a very rough workout.

Working out is a great way to keep your energy flowing and your body in shape. However, inflammation can put a real damper on your workout regimen. That is unless you utilize the tips outlined above to avoid post-workout inflammation so you can get back into the gym more often.

Brooke Chaplan is a freelance writer and blogger. She lives and works out of her home in Los Lunas, New Mexico. She loves the outdoors and spends most of her time hiking, biking, and gardening. For more information, contact Brooke via Facebook at facebook.com/brooke.chaplan or Twitter @BrookeChaplan

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