Mustard for sore muscles?

About three weeks ago, I strained my lower back at the gym. I’m assuming I did so doing squats to a bench because I remember I sat down quickly and kind of in a funny way. As I said in my post on Tuesday, I tried a smoothie to help relieve sore muscles, but needed something a little more to help with my back spasms. I heard through the grapevine (my grandma told my mom, who told me) that a teaspoon of mustard would help relieve my back pain. I put it off for a couple days just wearing one of those heat wraps on my back. That wasn’t working, so I finally gave in and tried a spoonful of the mustard. Once I finally choked it down, within minutes my back was feeling better; albeit not completely, but I was able to function more like a normal human being again.

I’ve tried googling this to find out why it works and have only found articles talking about making pastes with dry mustard and applying those to your sore areas. This is a trick that runners have been doing for years to help with leg cramps. I swear by it, and as much as I dislike mustard, it works. I’ll keep doing my research, but in the meantime, if you want a quick, rather natural fix to your muscles aches, gives this a try! What do you have to lose?