Overcoming Constant Burning Leg Muscle Pain
Every time you exercise, your muscles are injured, say sports medicine practitioners, the world over. Overcoming constant burning leg muscle pain is one of the most difficult to treat say doctors, let’s see how!
Some Basic Facts
It ideally takes 48 hours for muscles to heal from exercise. Soreness means damage, and you should stop exercising when you feel sore. Of course, you don't have to be running a race or playing a hard tennis match to injure your muscles. Working in the yard, walking around the zoo all day, or simply sitting in an unfamiliar or awkward position, or in the same position for a long time, can cause muscle problems. This is generally coupled with “constant burning leg and muscle pain”, especially if you thought that completing more repetitions than is required can get you the fitness that you were aiming for then you are sadly mistaken.
How much rest you should give your muscles depends on the severity of the injury and the situation, say experts. A cramp may require only minutes of rest, however, a severe strain may require days or even weeks. But sometimes you might just not have the luxury of resting the muscle as long as needed. In such times you might feel the “constant burning pain in your legs”, especially so as this requires some sort of resting period. For example when you strain a muscle (which is the same as experiencing a muscle pull), you need to rest at least for a couple of hours.
Generally for "constant burning leg pain" rest is still the first line of defence against the developing swelling and should be taken care of immediately after injury. Along rest, an ice pack is highly recommended. According to the severity of the muscle pain, its best if you use an ice pack or wrap ice in a towel or plastic bag before applying it for 20 minutes at a time throughout the day.
It is strongly recommended that you could keep the ice off the affected area for at least as long as you keep it on. Meaning if you’ve kept an ice pack for 20 minutes, keep it off for 20 minutes too. The ice constricts your blood vessels and it's best not to allow that to happen as this can clog your blood vessels for too long a time. You could also kill the viable tissue in that area as well if you are even a wee bit negligent. People with heart diseases, diabetes, and vascular diseases are especially vulnerable, and they should use ice with caution and only with the consent of their doctors.
Types of Pain
A sudden muscle cramp, strain, or even extreme soreness can launch you into the pain galaxy. Sometimes it hurts so badly, you think you'll never come back to earth. Most of the time, the pain is a lot more serious than the injury. But of course this may not be always the case.
Cramps for example, could be the result of a nerve injury. In rare cases, it could also be the result of phlebitis—or inflammation of a vein. Phlebitis can get serious if a deep vein is involved, but since this is typically not all that serious when the inflammation is located in a superficial vein. In such cases when you have been afflicted with “pain”, it’s best if you can raise your feet to a considerable angle. This is especially so if you have injured your foot or lower leg. Specifically raise the injured body part higher than your heart. This not only prevents the blood from pooling but can also help prevent any swelling.
In case you are a thyroid patient who feels cold really fast, and if you’ve got fed up with the ice pack procedure, you can switch to heat to remove all symptoms of acute soreness or strain. Typically people like heat better; it's warm and more relaxing. The heat also helps in dilating the blood vessels and promotes faster healing.
The only important point here is that it’s best if you don’t switch from ice to heat too soon, or the injured area may swell up again. And in case you can bear up with the ice pack, you can stay with ice.
Leg muscles require immense attention as they importantly hold on to your complete body’s weight. So don’t simply ignore them as although they are silent workers for your body, they have the knack of catching your immediate attention. The same can be said about your arm as well.
What you could also add in; is some amount of simple stretching. Its best if you make stretching a regular part of your life to avoid overall injuries.
You could talk to doctors, athletic trainers, and physical therapists to help you keep your attention on work and play, and take their suggestions on avoiding muscle pain. Some of the exercises that doctors mention so often can be done within your home too. Here’s how you can go about it.
Some pain-free exercises
Grab a towel. Hold it with your toe and then to stretch and strengthen ankle muscles, sit on the floor and loop a towel around the ball of your foot while holding the ends of the towel in your hands. Alternately point your toes up and down while stretching the towel toward your face and keeping your legs straight. Repeat several times with both feet.
Toe the towel again. Only this time don't move your toes, Lean back with the towel looped around your foot until you feel the stretch in the calf muscle. Hold 15 seconds and repeat several times.
Stand tall. To strengthen calves, stand and slowly raise yourself on your toes, then gradually lower yourself. Do this at least ten times.
Get into bed. Actually, sit with one leg stretched out on the bed and hang the other leg over the side. Then lean forward until you feel the stretch in your hamstring (the back of the thigh) and hold 10 to 15 seconds. Repeat several times, then switch positions and stretch the other hamstring.
Interestingly you can also do an exercise while you’re at work. You could do the keyboard lift. It is important to strengthen those muscles that get a workout on a keyboard all day. Sit at a table and hold a light weight, says 3 to 5 pounds, in your hand with your palm up, your forearm supported on the table, and your wrist over the edge. Life the weight up slowly, flexing the wrist. Repeat with each wrist 10 to 20 times.
In conclusion
A little precaution and lots of stretching thrown in can help you eradicate pain of any kind; it’s just a matter of perseverance and practice! Moreover, any kind of pain according to Ayurveda is nothing but roaming gases within your body. We’ve discussed the way you can eradicate pain and also why do we get this burning pain in the first place. It’s important that we make the best with the exercises at hand so that we can keep pain of any kid at bay for longer periods of time. Following the exercises mentioned above and also a way to mould your lethargic life is perhaps the best way you could avoid pain of any kind and have a painless life!