Epsom Salts for Muscle Pains and Recovery. Fact or Fiction?

Injuries, aches, and pains will be part of your life at some point whether or not your an athlete.  I’m always looking for ways to minimize chances of injury (pre-habilitation) and maximize recovery in the case an injury takes place.

At some point many of you have been exposed to the idea of “Epsom Salts.”  Epsom salts are a magnesium based salt that claims to help recovery and soothe the body of aches and pains.

While many claim to have a benefit from these “Epsom salt” baths it become difficult to verify.  Long relaxing baths in warm water is soothing even if it was swamp water!

To approach this scientifically we would have to start asking the right questions and properly verifying them.  Oddly enough, no one has really appeared to have done this!

I did find one site that breaks things down to the facts available at this point, and you can find it here.  Learn about Epsom Salts.

My opinion is this, there is no “hard” proof of the therapeutic effects of Epsom salts.  There is also no hard proof saying that they are bad for you!  Given that it’s relaxing, can’t hurt anything, and has a tradition of being helpful… I give Epsom salts the benefit of the doubt, but I wouldn’t place them on high priority.

There appears to be nothing to lose, and at least something to gain.  The salts are cheap, they feel nice, and they may even aid in recovery (unverified).  This is may not be the “closure” you were looking for on the subject but without more scientific data I’d be making unverifiable claims either way. 

If you have something to add to this please comment below!

As for a speedy recovery of sprains and tendinitis we cover a full range in The Jump Manual: Comprehensive Guide to Jumping Higher.