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Pain Prevention Tips: Ice, Heat & Pain-Relieving Cream
Aches and pains happen – even for those who workout. If you want to continue reaching your goal, you want to have solutions for pain prevention so these minor aches don’t slow you down. That’s when ice and products like Thera-Gesic are great. When I first heard of Thera-Gesic, I honestly didn’t know what to think – or what to expect. I had never tried a pain relieving cream before. When I got my first tube, it took me a while to even break it open because I didn’t think I had any real “pain” to treat. I don’t know what kind of “pain” I thought I needed to have to warrant slathering on a pain-relieving cream, but I eventually changed my thinking.
When I started thinking about it, I realized I had been struggling with tight traps and back muscles for a while. I guess I had just been living with that for so long, I had gotten used to it. So, one night I decided to give my new cream a try. I coated 2 layers (for a stronger affect, as directed on the label) across my traps (tops of my shoulders) and on some meaty parts of my back that were all knotted up. I threw on a night shirt and hit the sack.
As I was lying in the bed, I could begin to feel the heating action of the cream take affect. I literally felt my muscles slowly relax. This soothing warmth was so comforting, it helped me fall asleep.
A few weeks later, I started to develop tendonitis in my left ankle. One day I bumped in to “Dr. Tom” (Tom Harmony), one of our members at Max Fitness who is a Chiropractor Total Health of Vero Beach. I asked him about my ankle and he felt sure he could help so I went in right away. While he was adjusting my foot and applying cold laser therapy to reduce inflammation, I remembered my Thera-Gesic cream and started drilling him with questions.
I had tried it on my ankle, but it didn’t give me the same relief it did when I put it on my back. I wanted to learn more on how to use this cream properly and he really gave me some great information I wanted to pass along to you!
1. Ice inflammation caused by injury. Dr. Tom told me I needed to ice my ankle to reduce the inflammation in and around my tendon. Of course this is not near as fun as using heat, but it would get me up and running again much faster since heat could actually make the inflammation worse. Since Thera-Gesic has a heating element to it, he suggested I not use that cream for my ankle. However, he did want me to loosen up the muscles in my calves and areas around my injury. So in addition to stretching my calves, I could use the Thera-Gesic cream on my calves to help relax those tight muscles.
2. Use heat on chronic pain, not due to injury, like arthritis. When my muscles are tight or a joint is inflamed from a chronic illness, heat is comforting. This is when Thera-Gesic is helpful. I remember my grandmother, who suffered with severe arthritis in her back, was always sitting against a heating pad. Heat was extremely comforting for her. However, if your joint is inflamed from acute injury (like pulling your pack out of whack), heat should be avoided and ice should be used. He also explained that there is a lot of blood flow to big muscles, and that is why those areas warmed up so nicely in my back, which was great for my aching muscles. Knowing that made me want to put it on every single muscle in my entire body! ha 
So, my regimen was to use cold laser therapy and ice for my joint injuries and use Thera-Gesic on my tight sore muscles – a winning combination!
Cool Tid-Bit: Don’t want to smell like mentol? Don’t worry, I discovered that after you let the cream penetrate completely, you can wash your skin without decreasing the effectiveness. After testing it out, it looks like I will be keeping a tube of Thera-Gesic around our house!
TIME TO WIN! WIN! WIN!
Win a grand prize of a $100 Visa Gift Card and a 6 month supply of Thera-Gesic. PLUS 2 runners ups will win a 6-month supply of Thera-Gesic!
All you have to do is:
- Leave a comment here on my blog with your favorite form of exercise
- Follow Thera-Gesic on Facebook - and/or on Twitter
Winners will be selected at random, and prizes will be fulfilled by Thera-Gesic. This is a sponsored post brought to you by Thera-Gesic. The opinions expressed here are my own.
HEROES: Fitness After Pain & Injury
Pain or injury may not be an option, but recovery is.
I was talking with a member of our gym who was having some health issues last week. She was extremely discouraged about what she believed to be the inability to workout due to her latest ailment. I could see despair in her eyes. In this particular case, the only exercise she knew to do was the bicycle. This was extremely difficult for her to accept after many years of exercising and taking aerobics classes. She was basically ready to give up.
So many people allow an injury to set them back for life. Instead of slowing down, or changing up their exercise plan to work around their issue, they just quit. Quitting isn’t an option.
The thought of my member’s discouragement rocked me. I wondered how many other people have had the same thoughts and problems but didn’t ask for help. It is easy to use an injury or health problem as a good excuse to quit exercising. In my experience, most people really honestly believe they have no other choice but to give up.
If only the general public knew there are ways to work around health issues – and even improve them. Many times there are specific exercises which can help someone recover, or at least better cope, with their condition – ultimately improving the quality of their life. If this wasn’t the case, physical therapist wouldn’t exist.
Know Limits = No Limits
In this member’s situation, there were still plenty of exercises she could have done. Often times, even someone bound to a wheelchair can still do some type of exercise, working around their limitations. We have a member who comes in regularly, in her wheelchair, to train with one of our trainers. He has her doing laps down our sidewalk, and numerous other exercises, to keep her heart and lungs strong and her active body as fit as possible.
Unfortunately, when our body begins to break down, we mentally break down. We quit believing in our own ability to perform – or even survive. We allow our own doubts and lack of knowledge to dictate what we think we can and cannot do. When we experience pain, we are afraid to try anything in fear of making things worse. Ironically, the reality is there is even more risk in giving up and staying sedentary.
I am here to tell you fitness believes in you. I believe in you. Let me encourage you. Even if your body gives up on you, never, never, never give up on your body.
6 Stretches to Relieve Common Aches & Pains
1. Quadriceps Stretch - Helps relieve knee pain
2. Hamstring Stretch - Helps improve posture while sitting and low back pain
3. Buttocks Stretch - Helps relieve sciatica and leg pain
4. Calves Stretch - Helps relieve pain from plantar fasciitis (heel pain)
5. Chest Stretch High - Helps reduce back and shoulder pain due to forward posture
6. Side Neck Stretch - Helps improve neck pain and tightness
They Never Gave Up – When there’s a will, there’s a way
Most of us will find our ailments are small compared to these success stories:
Aaron ‘Wheelz’ Fotheringham (has spina bifida and has been in a wheelchair since he was 8 years old)
Jillanna “Mel” Curry, 49, who has won both gold and silver medals in United States Tennis Association Wheelchair Tennis Championships (lost her leg after discovering blood clots
Nadya Vessey had a mermaid tail crafted for her so she could swim after having both her legs amputated.
Bob Siudak lost leg to cancer.
Catherine “Cat” Hammes, 45yr old woman lost her leg in a motorycycle accident
Amy Purdy had less than a 2 percent chance of being diagnosed with Bacterial Meningitis. After losing both legs, getting a kidney transplant, and battling other life-threatening health issues, Amy pledged to move on and attain goals even people with 2 legs struggle to achieve.
Now what’s your excuse?
FREE WORKSHOP
Reserve your spot in our Free Pain Prevention Educational and Interactive Workshop: Tuesday, February 28th at 11:00am with Steve Pfiester at Max Fitness Club, 970 14th Lane, Vero Beach, Florida 32960. Call 772-778-7867 to make your free reservation and walk away with more hope and knowledge.
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Get Fit Now: Why Procrastination Stinks
“We all have garbage to deal with. You can chose to handle it now or later – the choice is yours.”
Desperate paparazzi catches poor Jessica Biel in her robe taking out the trash. Wow. Are we really shocked that stars have garbage too? We seem just as surprised when they have other life problems as well. Ironically, garbage and our physical, as well as mental, problems have a lot in common.
My dad once gave me some great advice about life, and not handling the “garbage” we carry. He said, “It’s like trash. You can just let it pile up and packing stuff on top of it, but eventually it’s gonna start to stink and you’ll have to deal with it.”
Life is truly like that – especially with our health. We can ignore the trash in our lives – our weight, health, weakness, tight muscles, poor diet and inactivity. No matter how we cover it up with nice clothes, fancy cars, money, pretty make-up and a fake smile, eventually you won’t be able to hide it, and life will start to really stink.
It is so easy to procrastinate. It’s so easy to push it back and let something else take priority. But, our bodies talk, and believe me, it will start screaming at you eventually. We can fool ourselves into thinking our back pain will go away, our weight will come off, and “we’ll kick this”, but what exactly are you really doing about it today? Are you just covering up the stench or are you really dealing with it? So often we do things to mask the problem, or to help us live with the problem, but we aren’t handling the problem.
4 Steps to Dealing with the Garbage Affecting Our Health:
1. What stinks? As you read this, what things come to mind that you know you need to get a grip on? Make a list. Is it your weight? Is it pain? Is it confidence? Is it your overall health? Is it a lack of discipline to maintain a consistent fitness regimen? You can’t fix it until you know what needs to be fixed.
2. How do you handle it? Some trash isn’t stinky, but it sill has to be taken out. On the other hand, some trash stinks so bad, you need to get it as far away from your house as possible. How bad is the “garbage” you have to deal with? Can you deal with it yourself or do you need a hazmat team to contain the situation? Some things can be handled on your own, but other issues require a pro. Beware of trying to handle heavy stuff alone.
3. How long will you commit to maintaining it? We all know that taking the garbage out once is not enough. We get NEW garbage that will have to be delt with too. It’s really unrealistic to think this will be a simple fix and not require maintenance. As you work on one problem, don’t be surprised if another problem pops up. Just add it to the list and work on it too, knowing in the end result will be a clean bill of health.
4. What are things that need to be tossed out? A lot of us have extra garbage we deal with because we are not letting go of crap that clutters our lives. Not only will you need to work on stuff that stinks, but sometimes things need to go that are either getting in the way, are useless, or are hindering you. The first step is to “clean house” of food, people, bad habits, excuses, etc. that will interfere with your plan. Just like cleaning house, it’s constant. Success will require a continual cleaning and straightening of priorities.
Don’t Procrastinate:
Don’t wait for the perfect conditions, the perfect situation, more money, more time, less pain, more energy, more motivation, friends, kids to grow up, workload to get lighter, or anything else to start working on your health.
“Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant.
If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.”
Ecclesiastes 11:4
Note on Pain: Many aches and pains are due to weak and tight muscles. Unfortunately, many people avoid exercise in fear of making it worse. Pain rarely goes away on its own, and often gets much worse. Even many skeletal issues are due to muscles pulling you out of whack. As you strengthen weak muscles and loosen tight muscles, your skeletal system won’t have all these tweaked muscles yanking on them. There are SO many pains that would go away just from stretching alone, but the combination of strengthening and stretching literally can be a miracle worker.
5 Simple Pain Prevention Tips
Pain is a very powerful thing. It can change your attitude, bank account, happiness, focus and entire lifestyle. Although you may not be able to completely control the actual pain itself, you can often control what causes it.
Poor posture is responsible for a large majority of neck and back problems. People hunch over the computer, and slouch on the couch for hours. After extended periods of time back muscles begin painful spasms, which pull on other muscles and vertebra. Before you know it you’re running to the doctor for help.
Here are 5 simple tips to becoming pain-free: Read the rest of this entry
