What are ways to get heal quicker with soreness? Please list them. I know stretching is one, do it before and after work-out. I've heard another way to heal soreness is to lay in hot bath tub for a good 10-20 mins and then take a cold shower. Is this a really good way to do it? If so, which one is the best way to do it, hot first then cold or cold first then hot?

Soreness can be taken away by rest. Soreness is good because it showed you had a good workout, you build muscle during rest.

Edit: nevermind the advice I gave, thats just a myth.

Any advice?

soreness does now show you had a good workout.
Soreness will reduce after a while, you get used to working out, used to different exersices and you wont get so sore. Eating right and resting is the key here, have a propper meal post workout, ASAP, low on fat, high on carbs and protein.

rest, proper nutrition, stretching.

and as Karky said, soreness isn't an indicator of a good workout..in fact being really sore means you did too much...damaged too much tissue, and its going ot take longer to repair it, and its not exactly the whole goal here.

Being sore is just a part of doing what you are doing. Is there any truth to eating bananas? I've always heard they help you get over being sore. I eat 4 or 5 a week but just didn't know if that was true or not.

depends what a banana contains.. if it has lots of protein then it might help repair the damage quickly.. but i dont know.

The pain / stiffness you feel is your body releasing liquides onto your muscle. It does this during the beginning of working out, over time you will not release these liquides. I'm not sure why your body does this when you first start working out, but it does.

Just wait and it will go away.

Bananas are a good source of potassium, good in prevening cramps, not sure how much it would alleviate soreness.

5 posts and nobody answered my question on the hot/cold bathtub?!! Please do that, I would appericate that, thank you.

Being sore for two days after the work-out day is not a good thing? I am just starting out.

Stretching does a lot, but has nothing to do with making you heal quicker (maybe it temporarily makes you feel better, but physically changes nothing). Hot will make you feel less stiff, and icing it may reduce the inflammation which would take away the soreness but do very little physically. Eat right, and time your protein.. theirs also something called active recovery which has to do with VERY light cardio for an hour or two the next day, helping increase blood flow and repair slightly quicker. Nutrition is most important though..


In the beginning you will be sore for an unusual amount of time, this will stop once you've lifted consistently for 2-3 weeks.

i hit the sauna for 30min right after my workout 4x a week...is this god /bad/make a difference at all...i do a bit of abs in there and shadow box for 15 then cool down and another 15 just relaxing..definately feels good on the muscles specially since they still pumped from the workout

Hot tub or jackoozie after workout relaxes muscles. Protein rebuilds muscles. If you stretch after your workout, go in a hot tub for a little while, and eat lots of protein, you will not be as sore as if u didnt do those.

Um....what about getting a hot shower and then cold shower at once? Like spend 20 mins in hot tub and then spend 15 mins cold shower? Wouldn't that help with my soreness?

Here's what I can tell you, Ice or a cold bath is used mainly to stop swelling/inflammation, so it shouldn't help much with soreness, and a hot bath or warm patches/ointments help circulate blood, neither are really meant to help soreness. If you are extremely sore, try some NSAIDs like Ibuprofen or Advil. Either way, you should not get hung up on healing the soreness, because as it has been mentioned earlier, it is really only noticeable when you first start out. Squats will keep you sore after the first week of doing them, but you get used to them. Once you get consistent enough and really get into a groove you aren't even going to be sore the next day unless you go with an extremely strenuous workout, and that will probably only last you a day. So there is no way to stop "heal" the soreness, you can only numb the pain, but your body is still going to need time to recover, just don't stress over it cause it won't even be an issue a month into training.

If you're sore more than a week with rest and all that, probably not sore from the workout, you probably did strained a muscle, and NSAIDs will help with that, but you should probably go to the doctor. I strained my bicep my second week into training and couldn't straighten it out for two weeks before going to the doctor and getting a NSAID to clear it up in a week.