Soak It!
In the constant battle against my own muscles which are apparently trying to kill me of late, I had forgotten about one of the most wonderful tools in my arsenal – Epsom salt baths!
Now, I have to say first of all, I have *no idea* if there is any scientific evidence to support Epsom salt baths ((I did a half-assed Google search and came up with nothing)) being good for relaxing tight muscles. It’s entirely possible that just sitting in a hot bath for 20-30 minutes without the Epsom salts would have the same effect ((And I can’t really do a blinded study on it, because you can feel the salt in the Epsom bath.)). But I know that my muscles feel eleventy times better after an Epsom salt bath. And I also know that I stay in an Epsom salt bath longer than I would stay in a non-Epsom salt bath because I’m nothing if not a cheap, cheap woman, so when I get in an Epsom salt bath I think, “I better soak in this bath for a long time, to get my money’s worth!”” ((Despite the fact that Epsom salt is dirt cheap. Did I mention that I’m a cheap, cheap woman?)).
So anyway, I did an 18 km run after work today, as I couldn’t do it on the weekend, what with being in a class all day long and all, and despite having increased my stretching and taking up foam rolling ((Blog posting to come. Can you guess what the title of that posting will be?)), my IT band still wasn’t 100% and my calves were very angry at me. But partway through my run, the thought of an Epsom salt bath popped into my head and knowing that such glorious treat was waiting for me helped me get through the ouchiness.
The post-run foam rolling made me yell out in pain, but the Epsom salt bath made it all better. Also, I did some homework reading in the bath, so I didn’t even have to feel guilty about “wasting” time ((As anything that’s not work or homework is tinged with guilt from Jan 2012 to May 2014!)).
Image Credit: Posted by Creative Tools on Flickr.
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Time it!