Muscle strain is a common problem that many runners face when running. Muscle strain is a condition in which the muscle bundles are stretched too much, beyond the tolerance threshold. For runners, muscle tension can range from mild (common) to severe, if there is a lack of timely care and recovery measures, it is easy to lead to injury, pain, and mental impairment. , training and competition performance. In this article, runners can equip solutions to prevent and restore muscle tension, maintain performance, maintain competitive spirit and practice throughout.
Muscle strain can occur when muscles are overworked, continuously. This phenomenon is very common in runners, gymnasts, football... Muscle strain will reduce the flexibility of muscles, increase the risk of injury (tear muscle, tear ligament ...) and cause injury. pain for a long time. The cause of muscle tension when running is due to the repetitive movement of a part of the muscle that puts pressure on the joints and nerves, the muscle bundles are overloaded due to poor blood circulation, lack of nutrients and oxygen needed for the body. intense and continuous muscle activity. Especially, people who are just starting to run or increase the intensity of exercise often happen that the muscles become tight, tired, reduce flexibility and the ability to perform other movements.
Muscle tension when running is also caused by stress factors, mental health, anxiety before practice or competition. Stress and anxiety can lead to disturbances in the process by which the brain transmits nerve signals to the muscles. The nervous system has an important regulatory role in regulating the pressure on the blood vessels to increase or decrease blood flow to the muscles. Therefore, stress can affect slow or disordered nervous system response, which can easily lead to muscle tension.
In addition, muscle strain can occur when a runner slips or loses balance, using excessive stretching that causes a sudden overload of muscle bundles.
When you have a muscle strain, you will notice quite obvious symptoms such as tight calves, swelling or pain when you continue to exercise. In case of muscle strain you must stop moving almost immediately. If you continue to exercise, it will cause bad consequences such as muscle fiber breakage, muscle tear, it is difficult for the muscle to recover to its original state.
The usual running strain is also not severe, and usually occurs in the calves. Treating muscle strains in most mild cases can be done at home. First of all, you need to apply cold immediately when you are tense to prevent the progression of inflammation and reduce pain, then you need to relax, avoid working the tense muscles. Muscle relaxation is essential for the muscle bundles to quickly recover to their original state.
Cold therapy has been shown to be optimal in general injury management and effective in managing muscle tension while running. For optimal results, cold therapy should be treated as soon as a muscle strain or injury occurs, as soon as possible. You can use ice packs, cold towels, cold foot baths or cold sprays, cold gels are more specifically designed and are always available to carry. The principle of cold treatment is to constrict blood vessels, block the area of stressed or injured muscles. Ice should be applied no more than 48 hours after muscle strain or injury.
Warm up well before running. Should perform thorough warm-up movements for all muscle groups in the body when moving. For running, muscle groups of ankles, wrists, knee joints, elbows, shoulder blades, thighs, hips, back. The warm-up should be done for enough time for the muscles to warm up. You can use essential oils to warm up, or massage muscles to increase the effect of warming up muscles.
How to run with correct posture. It is necessary to learn and practice the correct running posture to reduce the risk of muscle strain and injury. Practicing breathing in accordance with running helps the body to relax and increase the amount of oxygen to increase blood circulation.
Keep the mind at ease, avoid stress when practicing or competing. Staying positive is the key to increased achievement and performance. Have a reasonable exercise plan.
Practice rest and healthy eating habits. You should not stay up late or take stimulants. Because it will make your body tired, the amount of toxins exists on the muscles continuously and accumulates gradually. This is also one of the main causes of muscle tension when running that we talked about above.
In fact, the method of "ice application" has many limitations. Due to the large size of the lesion, human adipose tissue and muscle diameter are very thick, so it is difficult to cool deep into the muscle bundles, and "ice application" only works for a short time and the effect will be reduced. In addition, the "cold water immersion" method has a positive effect on recovery, but a Some studies show that regular use of this method will adversely affect the fitness of the training process, requiring careful preparation. Therefore, cold water immersion should only take place after intense training or competition sessions that are mainly professional athletes. These cooling methods also have many risks such as causing frostbite, short-term effects, and difficult to support muscle recovery to the best state.
Based on the need for an effective cryotherapy to treat trauma, STARBALM experts from the Netherlands have introduced a solution of cold spray bottles and cooling gels based on the universal principle of cryotherapy to treat muscle tension and cramps. and cooling relax muscles, effectively prevent and treat muscle tension, shorten recovery time by more than 80%. STARBALM essential oil ingredients create the necessary cold temperature, just enough for cold therapy to achieve optimal effect. STARBALM aims to be user-friendly and does not contain chemical ingredients, so STARBALM can be considered as conventional “cold pack” therapies that are more effective, safe and convenient.
STARBALM cold spray and cooling gel has gradually proven to be a useful remedy in dealing with muscle tension in running. In fact, STARBALM has joined the medical team in most major races, and is also increasingly trusted by runners, as a solution to treat muscle strains and injuries quickly. lacking for runners in particular and sports in general.
