Minor aches and pains can make the completion of daily tasks more difficult. If you have muscle-related pain, you may be considering the use of a topical pain relief cream. These creams can provide the temporary relief that you need to get through the day, but you can make them even more effective by following a few key tips.

Here are three things you should be doing to enhance the effectiveness of your topical pain relief cream in the future.

1. Take a hot bath first.

Prior to applying your pain relief cream, it helps if your muscles are already in a relaxed state. Hot water serves as the perfect tool for relaxing tight and aching muscles. As you engage in heat therapy to help increase the effectiveness of your pain relief cream, be sure that you aren't allowing the water to get too hot. The temperature should be warm to the touch, but your skin shouldn't turn bright red after being exposed to the hot water.

It's also important to ensure that you don't use a pain relief cream with heating properties in coordination with heat therapy, since the ingredients in these creams can burn the skin when combined with hot water.

2. Add some essential oils.

You can enhance the healing properties of a topical pain relief cream by adding some essential oils to the cream. For example, wintergreen oil contains methyl salicylate, which is one of the main ingredients in aspirin.

Adding a few drops of wintergreen oil to your topical cream before application will allow you to enjoy the cortisone-like benefits this essential oil can provide to experience quick relief from aching or inflamed muscles.

3. Use proper massage techniques.

When applying topical pain relief cream, it can be helpful to view the application as a self-massage session. Locating trigger points where your muscle pain is stemming from (frequently referred to as knots or kinks), you can use a variety of techniques to help massage pain relief cream effectively into your aching muscles.

Start by using your fingertips and applying enough pressure to manipulate the trigger point comfortably. On a scale of one to ten with one being completely painless and 10 being intolerable, strive for pressure that feels somewhere in the 4 to 7 region. Utilizing topical pain cream as a tool during self-massage will help you see greater results in the future.

Topical creams can be a simple way to help relieve yourself of minor muscle aches and pains. Increase the effectiveness of your topical cream by combining it with heat therapy, essential oils, and self-massage techniques. Buy pain relief cream online to get started.

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