Muscle strains mean damage of muscle or its attached tendons. It is extremely painful and causes havoc inconvenience. It can be caused by putting undue pressure on the muscles while doing a work or a person involved in sports.

Icepack, heat treatment, rest, applying clove oil, intake of drugs are some of the ways of fighting muscle strains. Though extremely painful, sometimes aching muscles can be cured by a number of home remedies.

Ice pack: Applying icepack over the aching muscles can give respite to the pain by making it insensitive. Icepack should not be kept for more than 15 minutes. It can also reduce swelling to the wounded area by restricting flow of the blood.

Heat treatment: Sometimes instead of cold pack, heat treatment serves better in pain healing. Water is heated by adding some salt in it. When the water is hot enough to contact, you have to immerse the affected muscle part in the water and hold it there for around 15 minutes. Then wrap the affected area with a bandage after wiping off water from that area.

Restricting activities: All the unnecessary activities that can increase the pain should be stopped immediately. Continuance of these activities could aggravate the muscle strain causing further damage and thereby increase in pain.

Rest: Providing proper rest to the muscles can reduce pain effectively. Muscle strain takes time in healing. Hence, it is better that you change your usual schedule of work and take rest to stop further inflammation of the muscles.

Drugs: Non-steroidal anti inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen, aspirin helps to reduce the pain immediately thereby allowing movement.

Calcium and Potassium: Our intake of food should be rich in calcium and potassium as these help in developing strong bones and muscles.

Clove Oil: It is good for healing the muscle strain and healthy recovery of the muscles. Clove oil should be heated up, firstly, and then allowed to cool down before applying it on the aching muscles.

Therapeutic ultrasound: It can break down weakly healed muscle strains and allow them to properly restore to health.

It is highly recommended to consult Physicians if the pain is severe and persisting or if the limb cannot be used. This could be due to complete muscle tear or a broken bone.