14 Jun How to get the most out of your Wili Heat Bag.

How to get the most out of your Wili Heat Bag!

Heat bags: a handy multi-purpose item for your first aid kit! You may have had your Clarity practitioner recommend using one as part of your post-massage care, or perhaps you’ve espied our colourful assortment of Wili Heat Bags in the Clarity waiting-area & are curious as to how to use them? Well, read on, because this post is for you!

We love Wili Heat Bags, not just because of their bright colours & cheerful prints – flamingo print, squeee! – but because they provide natural, drug-free pain relief for muscular aches, spasms & injuries. The bags are filled with Aussie-grown lupin – a legume – which has distinct benefits over their wheat-filled counterparts. Lupin is allergy-, gluten- & wheat-free & doesn’t sweat when heated in the microwave. It is also lighter than wheat & retains heat for longer. Think more light & fluffy cloud & less stinky wet dog around your aching neck…

To use hot or to use cold, that is the question!

Wili Heat Bags can be used for hot or cold application; which one you choose will depend on what ails you. Thoughts on cryotherapy & thermotherapy are continually evolving, but generally speaking, heat is for muscles, cold is for injuries.

A new injury will cause inflammation, heat & possibly swelling; you want to get onto that & alleviate the discomfort with a cold pack. Cryotherapy will decrease the blood flow to the injury & take the edge of the pain. Ongoing, recurring muscle pain might be better treated with a hot pack. Heat dilates blood vessels, which increases the flow of oxygen-rich blood to the affected area, promoting healing. Heat therapy also helps to keep muscles supple & can reduce the sensation of pain by stimulating specialised pain receptors within your skin (thereby reducing the frequency of pain messages being sent to the brain.) Furthermore, snuggling up in bed with a warm lupin bag is just a nice, comforting thing to do when it’s a cold, miserable day outside or if you’re experiencing monthly knife-in-the-uterus menstrual cramps (in which case you might want to bolster your self-care efforts with ginger tea, a warm bath & a Netflix subscription.)

Unfortunately, the thoughts around cryotherapy vs thermotherapy aren’t super clear cut; their are complications & exceptions; what do you do if you have an injured muscle, for example? Check out this article for more info.

To learn more about Wili Heat Bags, go here.