Originally Posted by
canklecat
Unless the doctor advises otherwise, do your stretching and strengthening exercises while the muscle relaxers are working. That's the mistake most folks make with prescription pain meds. They don't take advantage of the pain relief to do the stuff that hurts too much without pain meds.
But don't ride your bike while taking strong prescription muscle relaxers. Most of 'em can mess with coordination.
Everything above. Stretch all day. Whenever you're not doing something, take the opportunity to stretch. I've got some "Welcome to aging" juju going on in my SI joint, and while stretching is never going to fix it, at least I can bend over and pick things up off of the floor.
Also, I learned real fast that muscle relaxers and NSAIDs are most certainly not PEDs. I grabbed the wrong bottle and took a muscle relaxer about 30 minutes before getting on the bike. Never got drowsy, no nausea, nothing serious-- I just couldn't get my HR up for anything. Maxed out around 135bpm. The same for 800mg Motrin. I take one before bed, and it's not out of my system until around 10am. So sometimes the first hour plus of a ride I feel like my body is in slow-mo.