The best muscle relaxant creams for post-exercise pain relief (2023)

FAQs

What is the best topical muscle relaxer? ›

Over-the-counter (OTC) pain medicine, such as a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) like ibuprofen (brand name: Advil). OTC creams and gels (brand names: IcyHot and Aspercreme) that contain menthol or capsaicin can ease muscle soreness.

Pain relief; muscle relaxants

“If you've overworked your muscles, swelling, redness and heat are signs of inflammation,” says McCue. Methocarbamol (Robaxin) is a muscle relaxant that blocks nerve impulses sent to your brain. “These are useful if you have a muscle that tightens up or spasms and causes pain,” McCue says.

Methocarbamol works as a muscle relaxer by blocking pain sensations that reach the brain. Together with physical therapy and rest, it effectively provides pain relief with less sedating effects.

They work by causing the skin to feel cool and then warm. These feelings on the skin distract you from feeling the aches/pains deeper in your muscles, joints, and tendons. Some products should not be used on children younger than 12 years without a doctor's advice.

Naproxen. Naproxen (Aleve) is the most powerful anti-inflammatory pain reliever available without a prescription. It is especially effective for sprains, sunburns and arthritis and other conditions.

Voltaren Emulgel helps with the relief of localized traumatic inflammation and pain such as muscle pain. Sports injuries and strains due to overuse are the most common causes of muscle pain. Here we look at how to identify and treat muscle pain.

It relieves pain to help you get moving again. Voltaren Emulgel can be used for the relief of body pain, inflammation and swelling in: Soft-tissue injuries: trauma of the tendons, ligaments, muscles and joints, due to sprains, strains, bruises and backache (e.g. in sports injuries);

“Magnesium is a natural muscle relaxer and in a salt form, it pulls excess water and lactic acid buildup away from the injured tissues and reduces swelling,” she explains. After your next intense strength training workout, fill your bathtub with warm (not hot) water and pour 2 cups of Epsom salt in.

What medicine for muscle relaxation after workout? ›

1. Chamomile. Chamomile is an ancient herb that's used to treat a variety of ailments, including muscle spasms. It contains 36 flavonoids, which are compounds that have anti-inflammatory properties.

Taking about 10 minutes to stretch before and after intense activity helps prepare your body to adjust to changes in demand, and has been linked to reduced inflammation in some studies. Stretching should focus on the areas you find become inflamed, as well as areas connecting to them.

Sore muscles after exercise

It can affect people of all fitness levels, particularly after trying a new activity or pushing yourself a bit harder than usual. Usually your muscles will stop aching in 2 to 5 days and you won't need any medical attention.

What's more is that this soreness can hang around for a while. "Usually you don't actually feel sore until about 24 to 72 hours after your workout, and then this soreness can persist for up to three days," says Dr. Hedt. "This is why it's called delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS."

Succinylcholine. Succinylcholine is the only depolarizing muscle relaxant.

Traditionally succinylcholine has been the most commonly used muscle relaxant for this purpose because of its fast onset and short duration; unfortunately, it can have serious side effects.

Are there over-the-counter muscle relaxers? There are no over-the-counter (OTC) muscle relaxants in the United States. But some OTC medications can help muscle issues (like soreness), such as NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) and acetaminophen.

Lidocaine is an anesthetic and works by blocking nerve conduction to numb the feeling of pain. This makes the lidocaine versions of Aspercreme, Icy Hot, and Bengay better for nerve pain than Voltaren.

Lidocaine can be used to treat backaches, muscle soreness, mild joint pain, itching, hemorrhoid irritation, and nerve pain. Generally, lidocaine cream takes around 30-60 minutes to start working and may last for 1-3 hours, depending on how long the cream stays on the skin.

Does Bengay really work? ›

Does Bengay help arthritis pain? A person can use analgesic creams such as Bengay to temporarily relieve minor aches and pains. A 2016 study found that applying topical analgesics containing menthol, one of the active ingredients in Bengay, improves skin blood flow.

Acetaminophen. Acetaminophen is usually recommended as a first line treatment for mild to moderate pain.

What is the strongest anti-inflammatory medication? Research shows diclofenac is the strongest and most effective non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicine available.10 Diclofenec is sold under the prescription brand names Cambia, Cataflam, Zipsor, and Zorvolex.

Capsaicin is used to help relieve a certain type of pain known as neuralgia (shooting or burning pain in the nerves). Capsaicin is also used to help relieve minor pain associated with rheumatoid arthritis or muscle sprains and strains.

Biofreeze contains menthol, and like other menthol-containing products, it alleviates pain via counter-irritation, specifically cooling the surface of the skin. Voltaren instead treats pain by temporarily blocking the production of pain-signaling chemicals called prostaglandins.

World's Most Popular Painkiller Raises Heart Attack Risk : Shots - Health News Diclofenac — sold under the brand names Voltaren, Cambia, Cataflam and Zipsor — raises the risk of a heart attack by about 40 percent.

Bottom line… it is not advisable or safe to take anti-inflammatories or NSAIDs prior to a strenuous workout. Taking an NSAID before exercise will increase inflammation, put your gut at risk, your heart at risk, your kidneys at risk and it will have no effect on your recovery.

You should not use Voltaren Arthritis Pain gel if you are allergic to diclofenac (Voltaren, Cataflam, Flector, and others), or if you have ever had an asthma attack or severe allergic reaction after taking aspirin or an NSAID.

Now, you may be asking, “Why can't I use Voltaren gel on my back or shoulder?” This is because it hasn't been well-studied on these body areas. More research is needed to see if Voltaren gel is safe and effective for these uses.

What are the top three muscle relaxers? ›

One side effect of this drug is relaxation of the skeletal muscle, which will lead to sedation and less general motor activity. This can help someone who is recovering from a musculoskeletal injury. The sedation leads the patient to rest, which will lead to better healing during the initial time after the injury.

Workout Wrecker: Muscle relaxers

That can help ease painful muscle spasms, but it can also cause side effects like dry mouth and blurred vision, explains Dixon. As a result, you'll feel more dehydrated, which could make it harder to push yourself through your workout.

Topical analgesic heat rubs include Aspercreme, BenGay, and IcyHot. These medications are called counterirritants and do not actually warm the muscle, but rather cause the sensation of warmth and/or cooling of the skin. These rubs have no effect on the muscle and do not change the temperature of the skin.

Magnesium plays a major role in the tissue and muscle health in any part of your body. While calcium helps generate contractions in the muscles, magnesium is in charge of helping muscles relax after said contractions.

Inflammation after exercise is simply blood rushing to the area to heal irritated muscle," says Cady. "In this case, inflammation is one of the earliest stages of the recovery process to building a stronger, fitter, leaner body."

When we workout, we damage our muscles. Then, our bodies repair them and grow back even stronger. Inflammation comes into play during the repair process when the body increases blood flow to the affected area to replenish oxygen, fuel muscles, and clear out waste.

"Muscle soreness occurs because muscle and the connective tissue around it get damaged during exercise," explains Dr. Hedt. "This is completely normal and nothing to worry about, though. In fact, it's needed for muscle growth, since muscle is built back stronger during this repair process."

Soreness is considered normal if it occurs between 24-72 hours after a workout, and if it does not prevent you from completing normal daily activities. If it lasts longer than this, or is so intense that it prevents you from functioning normally, it could be a sign of significant damage.

What is a home remedy for muscle pain? ›

Home remedies for muscle aches

Rest: Rest the affected area and discontinue the activity that caused the injury. Ice: Use an ice pack or bag of frozen peas to help relieve pain and reduce swelling. Apply ice to the area for 15–20 minutes three times a day. Compression: Use a compression bandage to help reduce swelling.

Take over-the-counter pain relievers (aspirin, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, naproxen). Try complementary therapies, such as massage, meditation or acupuncture.

After the Workout

Within the first 48 hours following leg day, you will most likely experience delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) in the muscles of your legs which may make it hard to walk, sit, or extend your legs.

You've got a lot of choices, but the best picks for muscle pain are ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, store-brand) or naproxen (Aleve). Muscle soreness generally stems from inflammation and relieving inflammation pain what these two do best.

In conclusion, cold and heat therapies are both effective for enhancing muscle recovery and reducing muscle damage with heat being superior immediately after exercise and cold at 24 hours after exercise. Cold is superior for pain relief immediately after exercise and at 24 hours.

Your ReNue pharmacist can work with your physician to create the best topical muscle relaxer or analgesic to address your specific pain needs. Delivering the right medication directly to the point of pain means less medication can be used to achieve the necessary pain relief with fewer side effects.

Dantrolene works directly on the muscle. Cannabis extract works on the brain and spinal cord as well as the muscles. Because dantrolene only works on the muscles, it is thought to have fewer side-effects compared with other muscle relaxants.

CryoDerm's formula has a concentration almost double that of Biofreeze, clocking in at 10%. While this can mean faster results, products with a higher menthol concentration are more likely to irritate your skin – so people with extremely sensitive skin may want to keep that in mind.

It delivers relief from: Muscles strains and sprains. Shoulder and arm discomfort. Arthritis.

As an occlusive moisturizer, emu oil does a fantastic job of improving hydration and preventing water loss. In fact, a lotion with emu oil as a base may penetrate and help your skin better than pure emu oil. Studies also suggest that emu oil may have fewer side effects for people with dermatitis and eczema.

What is the longest acting muscle relaxant? ›

Muscle relaxants (also called skeletal muscle relaxants) are a diverse group of medicines that have the ability to relax or reduce tension in muscle. Some (such as baclofen, methocarbamol, and tizanidine) work in the brain or spinal cord to block over-excited neuronal (nerve) pathways.

Some muscle relaxants (baclofen and tizanidine) can be used in older persons, again accounting for kidney and liver function. Opioids have limited use in common spine-related pain, but can be used with caution in cases that don't respond to treatment.

“Naproxen [Aleve] and ibuprofen are better for inflammation and muscle strains. A bonus of Naproxen is you can take it twice a day versus every 4 to 6 hours like with acetaminophen. This can be more convenient for many people.”

Metaxalone

Taken as 800 mg tablets 3 to 4 times a day, metaxalone (Skelaxin) has the fewest reported side effects. It's also the least likely of the muscle relaxants to make you sleepy. It may work better for chronic lower back pain that is flaring up, rather than for pain that is new.

Among all the muscle relaxants available, succinylcholine is the only one with a fast (approximately equal to 1 min) onset and a fast recovery. Therefore it is still the most frequently used muscle relaxant for rapid-sequence induction despite its well-known side-effects.

Muscle relaxants used properly can provide effective pain relief. While taking them, you should avoid alcohol and operating any heavy machinery until you know how you will respond to them.