Whether it’s due to a new workout routine, putting in a lot of hours at work, or a chronic health issue, everyone is familiar with muscle pain.

It can range from being barely noticeable to interfering with your day-to-day activities. Regardless of the degree of pain, you have options on how to cope with the discomfort.

Keep reading to learn 3 tips for how to treat muscle pain.

1. Stretch

In addition to stretching before and after exercising, it may provide relief to stretch when you have muscle pain.

Stretching elongates muscles. If you’re experiencing muscle pain from overuse, your muscles are likely tight. As such, the muscle fibers are held in a contracted or shortened position.

To relieve this pain, consider light stretching or restorative yoga practice. In either situation, you shouldn’t be pushing past your line of comfort. The goal isn’t to do it perfectly — it’s to elongate your muscles to reduce pain.

Keep in mind that for back and neck muscle pain, you should take extra caution to not overextend and cause further injury.

2. R.I.C.E and Relax

R.I.C.E. stands for rest, ice, compression, and elevation. It’s a series of self-treatment practices often used in response to injury.

It can help with muscle pain as it reduces blood flow and limits swelling.

First, you’ll want to allow the area of concern to rest. Avoid putting strain or pressure on it. For example, if you’re experiencing leg muscle pain, you would want to let that area relax.

Put an ice pack on the painful area for around 20 minutes or as long as comfortable. The application of coldness numbs the pain while restricting blood vessels in that area. When blood vessels are restricted, you’ll experience less circulation and swelling.

The compression part of the equation can happen in two ways. You can either wrap the area of concern in a compression bandage or you can buy a soft brace, depending on where the pain is.

Finally, you’ll want to spend some time with the painful area elevated above your heart.

Unfortunately, this entire treatment won’t help with things like chest muscle pain and lower back muscle pain, as you wouldn’t be able to compress or elevate these areas. However, you can still use the rest and ice techniques for pain relief.

3. How to Treat Muscle Pain Naturally

If your muscle pain is recurring or chronic, you may want to employ natural pain reduction plants.

Topically, you can rub arnica or CBD cream on the affected area. Internally, you may want to ditch the anti-inflammatory prescriptions and opt for kratom.

Kratom is derived from a tree in Asia that’s in the same family as the coffee tree. When its leaves are consumed as a powder or tea, it works similarly to opioids in providing pain relief.

The difference is that to buy kratom in bulk, you don’t need to worry about a prescription. It’s also a natural plant that has less severe side effects than pharmaceuticals.

Start Getting Relief

With these 3 tips on how to treat muscle pain, you can start to find some relief. Try to stretch, R.I.C.E., and use natural pain relievers to gain back your comfort.

Keep reading in the health and fitness section to improve your wellbeing.