Easing Muscle Soreness for Pilates
Jul 22 2007
I have two GREAT tips to ease soreness from your previous pilates workout, early evening jog, workout in the gym, etc. I keep these contents in labeled and recycled glass jars in my bathroom for easy access.
The key to easing soreness is to rest, hydrate, and replenish your body with healthy nutrients.
Post Pilates Workout Bath Soaks
Ginger Soak
- Two parts baking soda
- One part ground ginger
- Stir the parts into the water
- Soak for at least 12 minutes
- Baking soda helps pull out toxins
- Ginger warms and relaxes the muscles
- Start out, with a smaller amount of ginger and add as you like
- Too much ginger makes the water seem too hot
- Rinse tub when finished - ginger will leave orange tint if you don’t rinse crystals away
You can find baking soda at any drug store or grocery store and it is quite inexpensive. If you do not have a health food store near you, consider ordering from Amazon.
Ginger can get quite expensive and this is the best price I have been able to find, even comparing to a health food store!
Lavender Soak
- Add anywhere from 1/2 cup to 1 and 1/2 cups of Epsom Salt
- Add 10-20 drops of lavender essential oil
- Add the contents to the bath and stir the bath so that the Epsom Salt crystals dissolve
- Soak for at least 12 minutes
- Lavender helps relax the muscles
- Epsom Salts alleviates soreness
- Amount of lavender and salts you add depends on how much water you put into the bath and how much you like lavender
Epsom Salt is found at local drug grocery stores and is inexpensive. It is not the same type of salt that we consume. Lavender essential oil can be found at a health food store.
These are two great brands of lavender oil that I have used and think are excellent! The Aura Cacia brand is a little better quality but a little bit more expensive for the amount. The Now brand is still a high quality of oil and a little less expensive for the amount.
In these two products the Now brand contains 1 fluid ounce and the Aura Cacia brand contains .5 fluid ounce. Both of these prices are quite low, comparable to stores.
Peace.
Still finding that you get painful muscle cramps during or after workouts? Check out these tips on alleviating muscle cramps.
