Sore Muscles

Whether you ran a little farther than normal or took that two-hour Zumba class your friend talked you into, you're definitely still feeling it in the morning. A little soreness lets you know you had a good workout, but it's not such a great feeling when you're so sore it hurts to walk down the stairs. Here are three ways to alleviate the uncomfortable achiness the morning after an intense workout.

1. Shower power: The power of heat is a sore muscle's best friend. Either hop in a hot shower, soak in a steamy bath, or hit your gym's sauna. If a particular area is sore, like your lower back, plug in a heating pad or use a microwaveable warming pillow and get some relief by placing it on the affected area.
2. Move and stretch: Post-workout muscle stiffness can be relieved, surprisingly, by more exercise. Do some light cardio like walking to improve circulation, and get even more relief by following up with a short stretching session — lengthening overworked muscles does wonders for your achy body. Do any of the stretching sequences below depending on which part of your body is hurting:
   Lower-back and hip stretches
   Hamstring stretches
   Ab stretches
   Quad stretches
   Chest and shoulder stretches
   Calf stretches
3. Get a massage: If you know you're going to be doing a pretty rigorous workout, set up a massage for the morning after. Getting a good rubdown is sure to offer instant relief from pain and stiffness, and it can help shorten the amount of time you feel sore. If you can't afford a massage, make time with your gym's foam roller.

Upon arrival, the Moji 360 Massager Kit ($70) looked like something out of 50 Shades of Grey, but from my first trial, I was hooked. The tiny stainless sphere balls on each of the massagers offer a full range of motion, but the intensity is up to you. If you're hanging on the couch, you can have a little bit more of a relaxed massage; if you're really trying to work through a tough spot, you can add as much intensity as you see fit.

Both massagers were great at relieving tension from hard-to-reach muscle groups in order to give our bodies some extra love and attention. But they offer more help than just soothing sore muscles; the massagers claim to assist in breaking up troublesome scar tissue and to increase circulation.

Want to hear why we loved them? Keep reading to find out.

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar.

If your New Year's resolution to get in shape stalled out fast, you might be panicking right about now since bikini season is right around the bend. Making up for lost time with an aggressive workout routine will likely leave you sore, but begging for more once you see your thighs trim down and take form.

That burn you feel 24 to 48 hours after an intense workout is called delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), and it's enough to make you want to put down the Kettlebell and pick up a cocktail. But press on! We talked to fitness and nutrition expert Harley Pasternak, M.Sc., author of The 5-Factor World Diet, and trainer to celebrities like Lady Gaga, Megan Fox, and Halle Berry, about why (some) pain is good.

"The idea behind resistance training is that you're basically tearing something and creating a micro trauma in the muscle," Pasternak says. "When the muscle recovers, it's going to recover stronger and denser than it was before." So that soreness you feel the day after an upper-body workout—when you're hauling groceries into your car and you can hardly lift your arms—is good.

See Harley's tips for reducing DOMS after the break!

Wouldn't it be nice to end every active week with an intense deep-tissue massage to help ease your muscles? But since we can't always spring for a trip to the spa, here's what we can do — use the foam roll at the gym.

You may have seen people in the gym foam rolling and think it's just for serious athletes or gym rats, but that's not the case. But there are many reasons why massaging out the tight knots in muscles is an important part of your workout routine, even if you already stretch regularly. Why? Because no matter how much you stretch, the build up of fascia that creates muscle knots that won't go away, which can lead to many different problems.

I've been consistently seeing my trainer for a few weeks, and the aftermath is clear: not only am I working new sets of muscles (meaning new ways of being sore) but I'm also realizing how much more I need to be foam rolling. My trainer, Tim Rich at Crunch Gym, says that everyone, avid athlete or not, should be using those long spongy cylinders daily. Read on for why and how you should be foam rolling every day.

• Helps prevent common injuries. One of the most important reasons for a regular foam-rolling routine is to prevent those often too common exercise-related injuries. Many runners, for example, become painfully well acquainted with their IT band if they don't take care to massage the band of tissue. IT band syndrome and other similar flare-ups can be caused by too-tight muscles. Foam rolling every day ensures you are massaging away fascia buildup in your muscles, in order to help prevent those areas from becoming injury trigger points.
• Helps you de-stress. Had a hard day? Foam roll your worries away. Digging for those knots "releases tension that is built up in the connective tissue to keep you less stressed," says Tim. He recommends a simple all-over body routine in order to combat the "desk posture blues" that happen from sitting too long in the office.
• Keeps you flexible. Building up your flexibility is key for any fitness routine, Tim says, which means you constantly should be stretching and doing exercises that'll help you gain flexibility. Stretches that lengthen your hip flexors, for example, can help combat tightness from sitting as well as lower back pain.

The more regularly you use a foam roll on your tight muscles, the less painful it'll be. Ready to roll? Here are five important stretches you should be doing with a foam roll, and a video on how to foam roll your quads and IT band for elongated, flexible, and injury-free thighs and happy knees.

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Motion sickness, tummy problems, and a sore throat: is there anything ginger can't help? Not likely. A new study says that the spicy root also soothes away sore muscles that often come after working out.

In two separate studies, researchers divided 74 healthy adults into two groups — one group of participants were given a daily ginger supplement, while the other group was given a placebo. Over the course of 11 days, all participants performed a variety of exercises that led to the kind of achy, sore muscles that a good workout is prone to do. At the end on the study, the group that was taking the ginger supplements had a reduction in pain of almost 25 percent when compared to the placebo group. Researchers believe that ginger may have anti-inflammatory properties — nature's own ibuprofen! Be sure to read up on other ways to beat post-workout pain.

Getting a massage is not always an affordable option to relieve sore muscles. I use The Stick at home but when I'm on the go it's not something I can take with me. Because of its size, a tennis ball provides on the spot muscle relief wherever you are.

Here's how I've been using mine:

• For leg muscles I sit down on the floor with my legs outstretched and place the ball underneath myself where the thigh meets the butt. I slowly move from side-to-side and let the ball work itself over my muscles, placing my hands on the floor for support. This motion can be worked all the way down leg. After that's done, I turn over and place the tennis ball under the front of my thigh and start the rolling motion all over again.
• For my back, I place a tennis ball between myself and a wall — this works especially well for the muscles near the neck and shoulders. Lean back into the ball and let it roll back and forth over your muscles.
• Use a tennis ball underneath the arch of your foot to relieve tired muscles. Sit down in a chair and place the tennis ball under your foot. Put some pressure on the ball and let it roll up and down the muscles of the foot. This is an easy way to get a great foot massage!

The basic idea is that you can work a tennis ball into a trigger point with just a little bit of pressure. If you need to cover greater surface area, put a few tennis balls into a long sock and tie off the end.