Home remedies · Back, muscles & joints
No home remedy here replaces treatment, and none is talked down. What has done good for generations does good — even if no one ever measured it. Where something is well studied, it says so. Where it is only experience, it says that too.
Move gently, shower warm, drink enough. Go easier for two to three days, then back to normal — full recovery can take a week.
Sore muscles are tiny tears in the fibres after unaccustomed effort. They heal on their own; warmth and circulation feel good meanwhile.
Stretching before or after does not prevent it — that is well studied. Massage shortens it slightly at best.
Not to be confused with pain that came on suddenly during the effort, or with dark urine after extreme exertion — the latter needs assessing at once.
Have it assessed rather than treated at home: back pain with numbness in the saddle area, disturbed bladder or bowel function, weakness or fever. A joint that cannot bear weight after an injury, or is deformed. A one-sided swollen, warm leg.