My buddy Grumpy J and I have had some time over the last 6 months or so to deal with bruises of many sizes, shapes and forms. Ice works well for both of us, but is sometimes inconvenient sue to bruise placement and the need to wear clothes at work. (Damn that conservative corporate world!!!)
After my golf ball incident last week (read The Curse of Wakefield post), I had the opportunity to explore some different solutions to many new bruises. I iced the deep ones when they were fresh. That helps the pain and the initial swelling. I've learned that once that initial stage is gone, increasing blood flow can be a good thing. I switched over to heat after a while and that helped significantly. I also started using some Tiger Balm and Tiger Balm patches. There are many different variations on this stuff. Ben Gay is mostly Menthol. Tiger Balm is a mixture of Camfor, menthol and something else. I ended up using a patch that had Camfor, menthol and eucaliptus. It worked great. I wore it around for a day and the bruise felt MUCH better. It wasn't painful for me to really use my quad muslce at all. It was still tender to the touch, but I could crank up a hill without feeling the bruise with every downstroke of the pedals.
Let me know what works for you.
Pete
1 comment:
The only thing I've found that relieves the pain of a bad bruise is showing it off. Preferably to someone squeamish.
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