Why Your Sporty Child Needs an Epsom Salt Bath

Do you have a sporty child in your house? Find out why you need to get them into an Epsom salt bath ASAP!

Names have been changed to protect the innocent. Though I could have used my own name because it sounds so familiar to what goes on in our house!

Michelle couldn’t bear the moaning any longer. She just wanted to enjoy her Saturday morning coffee in peace. Luca was hobbling out of his bedroom complaining that his sore, tight calves meant he wouldn’t be able to enjoy skateboarding with his friends that afternoon.

Trials for the football team had gone on all week and Michelle knew that, as usual, Luca hadn’t been stretching after the sessions. Stretching is FAR too dull for a teenager! So, as usual, he was going to have muscle pain all weekend. And all the family would hear about it!

Not this time thought Michelle!

She ran a warm bath, added some muscle recovery bath soak and told Luca to hop in. Cue eye-rolling and grumbling. What a waste of time this was! He should really be answering his friends on Snapchat about where they were meeting later.

But Luca got into the bath.

25 minutes later of blissful peace later, Michelle had to call him to ‘Get out now!’ because she needed to use the bathroom.

Luca didn’t moan about his legs for the rest of the day. And he didn’t even get grumpy* when he had to leave his mates early to help with the shopping.

Michelle didn’t mention anything more about the bath, or the wet towel left on the floor (clever mum!). But guess what? After football training the next Tuesday, as soon as he got home and flung his smelly soccer boots in the hall, Luca went to run himself a bath …

The little things we mums do for our kids can make a big difference.

Just never tell them ‘I told you so’!!

* So why does an Epsom salt based bath help your child to relax mentally as well as physically?

It’s because the magnesium it contains is an essential mineral that helps to stabilise mood and relieve stress and anxiety. And that goes for mums too!

On the body recovery side of things, magnesium is a muscle-relaxant and reduces lactic acid – the stuff that causes post-exercise pain. Relaxed muscles are less likely to suffer injury than tight, tense ones. Interestingly, magnesium also provides an energy boost at the same time as being a relaxant. Annoyingly, the more you exercise, the more magnesium your body uses up. Getting good quality magnesium is really important for your young athlete and sports player.

Team work makes the dream work! If you know some other parents of the kids on the team, or in your child’s swim club or athletics group etc, please share this info with them. Happier kids mean happier mums!

If you’d like to try some SO:Active sports recovery bath soak for your child (or yourself!), use code ACTIVE to get 20% off. This is bath soak that is used by the All Blacks for their muscle recovery so that might make it a bit cooler!

Dionne x