Oh boy, I was at the gym tonight, and while doing ninja rolls as part of my class, I jacked-up my neck. It actually feels like neck shoulder pain – the pain starts in my neck and runs down to my shoulder.
I have a feeling the injury is going to lead to stiff neck pain, and I immediately thought what can I do to prevent a neck muscle spasm. So, what’s involved with stiff neck treatment or just muscle pain relief in general?
First, as soon as I got home (or close to it anyway!), I took 4 tablets of OTC ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil) – 4 tablets of OTC ibuprofen = 1 tablet of 800mg ibuprofen which is prescription only. I’m going to take this amount of ibuprofen no more than 4 times a day (about every 6 hours, that’s the max).
VERY IMPORTANT PART HERE: I do not recommend taking 800mg of ibuprofen without seeing your doctor first; it’s just what I do. The OTC directions for ibuprofen are take 1 to 2 tablets by mouth every 4 to 6 hours, no more than 6 tablets per 24 hours.
Ibuprofen helps treat my pain and decreases any swelling caused by my injury.
I took the ibuprofen right before I was about to eat dinner. You definitely want to take ibuprofen with food to avoid stomach pain.
Next, I decided it would be a good idea to ice my injury to keep it from swelling and to help the muscle heal. You want to place a towel or cloth between your skin and the ice pack (I used a bag of frozen fruit – hey, whatever works!).
Ice should be applied for no more than 10 minutes, 3 to 4 times a day. Icing for longer than 10 – 15 minutes can do more harm than good.
You should do the ice treatment until the swelling goes down or for a maximum of 12 to 24 hours.
If you have a more serious injury (like an ankle sprain), maximum swelling may occur up to 48 hours after the injury. In this case, you may need to continue the icing process for 48 to 72 hours (2 to 3 days).
I would not use heat at this point in my recovery because it can lead to more swelling and further tissue damage. For my kind of injury, where muscle stiffness and spasm may be likely, I will start to apply heat about 48 to 72 hours after my injury occurred.
Don’t get me wrong, heat is good in a lot of cases – it helps the muscle heal and keeps muscle spasms to a minimum, but it probably should be avoided in serious injuries like ankle sprains.
When I get to the point where it’s okay to start using heat, I will apply the heat for 15 to 20 minutes three to four times a day.
I should probably rest my injury for about 2 to 3 days (yeah right, let’s see if that happens J), and then start doing some physical activity with it to get it moving and working right – one of my goals was to keep my muscle from getting stiff!
I think that just about sums it up!
Definitely leave a comment to tell me about your injury and what you did to help it heal. I hope you enjoyed my video – don’t worry, the videos will get better with a little practice!
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