tips to ease soreness after exercising?

[TerryMarshall]

Take a hot bath and you'll feel fine afterwards. Also if any areas are extremely sore then alternate hot/cold for a bit...like apply heat to the area for 5 minutes then cold/ice for 5 minutes and alternate like that for 20 minutes.

[raulndee]

Drinking a protein shake always helps me. I drink one right after the jillian michaels dvds. My calves were sore the first week too from all the jumping jacks, etc but not anymore. Keep going- her dvds are awesome and you will see toned muscles in all the places that are sore.

[Spookycheeseofdoom]

If you can take NSAIDs, I find that ibuprofen sometimes helps. I also do a warm wrap on sore muscles and, crazy as it sounds, I have had luck with massaging my calves by using a rollin pin on them. Warmth helps me the most; even on a hot summer day I make sure to wear comfy sweatpants after a hard workout to keep the muscles from getting too cold to quickly and cramping.

[KuriG]

I think "oldschool" nailed this one:

Originally Posted by oldschool58

it's an indicator or measure of work + nutrition + rest + hydration

The only thing I'd alter:
It's a measure of hydration + work + hydration + nutrition + hydration + rest + hydration.
All the hydration because most of us don't drink enough water...

• Drink water BOTH before AND after your workout. (I do as little as possible durring...)
• Workout regularly so your muscles get used to being worked.
• Eat and drink well -- could even try to decrease intake of inflammatory foods but I'm not sure that matters.
• Rest as hard as you workout.
• And keep drinking!

Stretching is, of course, a must!
It will go the distance in preventing injury but, as a way to "decrease" soreness I'm not sure I buy it. Stretching, icing, salt baths, popping ibuprofen, and the rest might all be great things but, they only mitigate the soreness after you have it...