What's wrong with the swelling and soreness in the thigh

So far, many people have experienced uncomfortable symptoms such as thigh swelling and soreness. There are many reasons for this situation, such as after exercise, standing for a long time, excessive fatigue, calcium deficiency, etc. So how to relieve these uncomfortable symptoms? Here are several specific methods for you. You should also get more sun exposure, appropriate exercise, balanced nutrition, eat more fresh vegetables and fruits, and drink more warm water. I hope the following methods will be helpful to you.

Sports medicine divides exercise-induced muscle soreness into two types:

One type of pain is that it occurs immediately after exercise, but disappears quickly. This type is called acute muscle soreness.

The other type occurs a few hours or overnight after exercise, accompanied by fatigue, and even muscle cramps and stiffness. This type of muscle pain disappears relatively slowly, and it often takes 3 to 4 days or even 6 to 7 days to fully recover. This symptom is called delayed muscle soreness or post-exercise fatigue.

The muscle soreness we often talk about mainly refers to the latter type, namely delayed onset muscle soreness.

There is a clear difference between muscle soreness and a strain. In fact, muscle soreness is a normal and positive physiological phenomenon. People often experience obvious muscle soreness and discomfort after strength training or an exercise that they are not used to (such as high intensity of exercise or a new sport). These symptoms will disappear naturally after a period of rest, and when the same exercise is performed again, the muscle soreness symptoms will be significantly reduced or will not occur. However, muscle strain caused by exercise is different. Muscle or ligament strain can cause large-area pathological changes in skeletal muscle, such as cell degeneration, cell necrosis, etc., which not only affects continued exercise or training, but may also bring more serious consequences.

Self-identification of strains and muscle soreness

Muscle and ligament strains occur suddenly due to a damaging movement, while muscle soreness develops gradually. There is a way to distinguish between the two: muscle soreness can be relieved by stretching, but if it is a sports injury, stretching will make the pain worse.

In short, muscle soreness after exercise and muscle (or ligament) damage are completely different in nature. Muscle soreness can be relieved by rest, stretching, massage, etc. Muscle (or ligament) injuries must be solved by medical means.

Why do muscles ache?

The mechanism of muscle soreness is relatively complex, mainly including the following aspects: ① Lactic acid accumulation. ②Muscle spasm. ③ Damage to muscle fibers or connective tissue. ④Other factors. Changes in interstitial osmotic pressure or acute inflammation can also cause muscle soreness.

How is lactic acid produced?

Human exercise requires energy. If the energy comes from aerobic metabolism in the cells, it is aerobic exercise; but if the energy comes from anaerobic glycolysis, it is anaerobic exercise. During aerobic exercise, glucose is metabolized into water and carbon dioxide, which can be easily excreted from the body through breathing and are harmless to the human body. During anaerobic exercise, glucose is fermented into a large amount of intermediate metabolites such as lactic acid, which cannot be eliminated through breathing, resulting in lactic acid accumulation.

Self-treatment for muscle soreness

rest

Rest can relieve muscle soreness, slowly promote blood circulation, accelerate the elimination of metabolic products, and eliminate the supply and repair of nutrients to the sore muscle area, restoring it to normal.

Static stretching of muscles can accelerate muscle relaxation and relieve antagonist muscles, which helps the recovery of spastic muscles. Perform static stretching exercises on the sore area, maintain the stretch for 2 minutes, then rest for 1 minute, and repeat. Doing this stretching exercise several times a day can help relieve spasms.

Paida massage

Massage the painful area to relax the muscles, promote muscle blood circulation, help repair injuries and relieve spasms. Of course, you can also perform self-relaxation treatment, generally focusing on the neck, back, and limbs, supplemented by the head, chest, and abdomen. The specific techniques are:

1. Beat your back: Make fists with both hands and gently beat your shoulders, back and waist. You can also use a patting stick to alternately pat your shoulders, back, waist, and lower limbs. When patting, pay attention to lightly patting the back and heavier on the lower limbs.

2. Massage the legs: Massage the anterior inner and anterolateral sides of the thighs repeatedly from top to bottom.

3. Shake your legs: Stand or sit, relax your leg muscles and shake them, while moving your ankle joints up and down, left and right in a circular motion.

4. Push Yintang: Use the thumbs of both hands to push from Yintang point (center of eyebrows) to the left and right to the temples. Repeat 8 to 10 times. Pause for 5 to 10 seconds between each time. Then spread the five fingers apart and push from the hairline on the forehead to Baihui point 5 to 6 times. Repeat the operation 30 times with 5 to 10 seconds interval each time.

5. Massage the chest and abdomen: Massage the chest from top to bottom, repeat 20 times; and massage the abdomen in a circular motion from left to right, repeat 20 times. Heat

It is the most effective way. Applying hot compress to the sore local muscles can promote blood circulation, improve metabolism, and accelerate the relief and recovery of muscle soreness. Especially when combined with light stretching exercises or massage, it will accelerate the elimination of delayed muscle soreness and promote its return to normal.

How to avoid back and leg pain after exercise

Warm-up exercises

Doing adequate warm-up before exercise, such as low-intensity aerobic exercise or low-load weight training, will relax the joints in the muscle activity area, accelerate blood circulation, and stretch the active muscle groups appropriately.

Step by step

The exercise load and time should be increased gradually and should not exceed the individual's ability.

Avoid eccentric contractions

Muscle soreness is more likely to occur when engaging in unfamiliar or infrequent exercise types, especially repeated eccentric muscle contraction exercises, so eccentric contraction exercises should be avoided.

Avoid unfamiliar sports

Middle-aged and elderly people should try to avoid participating in unfamiliar sports, otherwise they are prone to muscle soreness or sports injuries unless they are guided by a coach.

Avoid excessive exercise

Many people seldom exercise in their daily lives. If they do exercise occasionally, they have to exhaust themselves to feel "satisfied". This will inevitably lead to back and leg pain the next day. Therefore, people who do not exercise often should pay attention to knowing when to stop exercising. Because a lot of exercise at one time not only fails to achieve the purpose of exercise, but is harmful to the body.

Relaxation exercises

It is very important to do relaxation exercises after intense exercise, especially when combined with stretching of the active parts, which can promote circulation and help slow down or even avoid muscle soreness.

Regular exercise

The key to exercise is long-term persistence and regularity. This not only exercises the body, but also improves the body's tolerance and reduces the occurrence of muscle soreness.