4 Awesome Massage Oils for Post-Exercise Relief

Udumbara Udumbara
Jan 28, 2024 - 04:15 Updated: Jan 27, 2024 - 15:22
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4 Awesome Massage Oils for Post-Exercise Relief

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How do you deal with muscle soreness after exercise? These four sports massage oils relieve soreness and boost mood.

How do you deal with muscle soreness after exercise? In addition to relaxing muscles and promoting blood circulation, getting a good night’s sleep is also an important way to repair muscles. In this article, I will share my four favorite sports massage oils that can relieve soreness and boost your mood.

Have you ever experienced stiff legs or body soreness after exercise? For the delayed onset of muscle soreness, I like to use a roller to activate the Golgi tendon organ (GTO) of the nervous system to help relax the muscles and then massage with essential oils to promote blood circulation, soothe the mood, and get good-quality sleep.
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Benefits of Sports Massage Oil

There are many kinds of products that soothe the body after exercise, including traditional soreness relief patches or soreness relief creams, massage oils, massage bars, etc. I prefer to use massage oils or massage bars for three main reasons:
  1. Relieve soreness and promote blood circulation: Western herbal essential oils and plant essential oils can also help eliminate soreness and enhance blood circulation. Just like Chinese medicinal herbs, those from the Western world can help lymphatic or blood circulation, accelerate the metabolism of waste products, and provide nutrients needed to repair muscles.
  2. Keep the skin moisturized: The skin often loses a lot of water during exercise, especially outdoors during hot weather. Under various conditions, such as intense light, chills, and even low temperatures, the skin will become drier and more fragile. Therefore, it is important to help the skin replenish moisture after exercise. Massaging with essential oils can help replenish moisture to maintain skin health.
  3. Good-quality sleep: Good rest is the most important part of recovering from exercise fatigue. At the same time, a calm mood and mentality can help relax muscles, too. Some essential oils with your favorite fragrance can certainly relax you and make it easier to achieve quality sleep at night.
To relieve muscle soreness, I will also add manual lymphatic massage or use a massage comb to help detoxify and relax the muscles. When massaging the back and inside of the thighs and calves, start pressing from bottom to top. When massaging the outside and front of the thighs and calves, try pressing from top to bottom, all the way to the Achilles heel.

In addition, you can also massage acupoints, such as the Yinlingquan acupoint (SP-9). Yinlingquan is an important acupoint for dispelling water from the body. If you want to increase blood circulation or reduce edema in the lower body, focus on pressing this acupoint. As the liver meridian also passes through the inner thigh, pressing here can feel good and improve sleep quality.

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Yinlingquan acupoint. (The Epoch Times)
Yinlingquan acupoint. (The Epoch Times)

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4 Awesome Sports Massage Oils

1. Erwachen Soreness and Pain Relief Oil

Talking about Western medicinal herbs, the first thing that comes to my mind is Germany. When I was on leisure trips in Germany, I found in drug stores plenty of health products, skin care products, and even health foods made from Western herbal medicines. This “firming and accelerated solution” massage oil is made in Germany. The base oils are mainly arnica-infused elderberry and tamanu.

Arnica-infused oil has been used since the 16th century. It contains 150 medicinally active ingredients, such as flavonoids, carotenoids, and trace amounts of silicon, which can help eliminate bruising due to impact or strained muscles. It has the effect of enhancing blood circulation and removing blood stasis. Elderberry oil is also a common herbal medicine in Europe and is particularly effective in relieving pain and inflammation.

The Erwachen Soreness and Pain Relief Oil has aromatic wintergreen essential oil, which has the effect of soothing and revitalizing joints and muscles. The oil’s refreshing, relaxing smell comes from a blend of red pine and juniper essential oils.

When I first applied the oil, my skin felt a little cool. Then I felt my skin start warming. I had no idea if it was the result of my exercising or if the Erwachen oil promoted qi and blood flow. The effect, in short, was that it worked very well in relieving muscle soreness. However, it is not recommended for pregnant women, postpartum women, children under 12 years old, people with rashes, hemophilia, autoimmune diseases, and epilepsy.

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2. Neal’s Yard Remedies Juniper & Ginger Body Warming Oil

Neal’s Yard Remedies is the largest herbal retailer in the United Kingdom. It provides hundreds of herbal teas, health foods, and skin care products, using 100 percent natural and organic ingredients. The special blue glass bottle is Neal’s Yard’s iconic design.
When I opened the Juniper & Ginger Body Warming Oil, I was unexpectedly greeted by the strong scent of lavender. This is my favorite scent; I have the habit of keeping a lavender sachet beside my bed. Lavender not only relieves muscle soreness but also helps you sleep, which is immensely helpful for muscle repair. In addition, it also contains rosemary, Spanish sage, and juniper essential oils to produce a richly structured fragrance.

Juniper essential oil has the effect of purifying, detoxifying, and releasing stress on joints and muscles. Because I have the habit of massaging my face with juniper berry massage oil before applying a facial mask, I found that using juniper berry massage oil makes the brightening effect more apparent than simply applying the facial mask. That is why I would give extra credit to the detoxifying properties of pine nuts used in juniper berry massage oil. Ginger is traditionally used to promote blood circulation. When blood circulation is good, oxygen and nutrients are delivered to the muscles, helping sore muscles metabolize waste.

I use Juniper & Ginger Body Warming Oil not only to relieve muscle soreness after exercise but also after a day of hard work. When I am tired from work, I will apply it on my whole body and serve myself a round of massage around the neck and the shoulders after taking a bath when my body is still slightly damp. Then I go for a good night’s sleep, surrounded by the rich scent of lavender.
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3. Lush After Magnesium Massage Bar

Lush’s massage bar is also one of my favorite massage products, especially in winter. The rich aroma of Lush products has a magical power that makes the chilly air warm. This After Magnesium Massage Bar has a very cool concept. It has 122 milligrams of magnesium per 5 grams. Magnesium is an essential element our bodies need. If one suffers from low magnesium content, it can cause overall frailty, fatigue, loss of appetite, and even migraines.
This product contains not only magnesium to relieve muscle fatigue and relax the body and mind but also witch hazel and arnica, among others, to reduce inflammation and relieve stress. It also has peppermint and eucalyptus essential oils and horehound essence, which relax the body and mind. Once, after I used a magnesium massage bar on the back of my highly stiff thighs, the pain in my legs was 70 percent to 80 percent gone the next day, although slight stiffness remained.
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4. Lush Wiccy Magic Muscles Massage Bar

Another Lush product, the Wiccy Magic Muscles Massage Bar with aduki beans (red beans), is a product I started using more than 10 years ago. I like its peppermint and cinnamon scent the most, which can cheer people up during winter. The aduki beans massage without the need for additional massage tools. The skin feels smooth and comfortable while using it.

The Lush massage bar looks solid, but in fact, it softens quickly by the warmth of your hands and releases its fragrant essential oils. Moreover, the essential oils can be applied smoothly to the whole body without having to wet the body first. I loved this about it.

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