On the Benefits of Horse Medicine for Gym Injuries

Weird title huh? Let me explain. A couple of months ago I injured my shoulder at the gym. It is, I assume, superfluous to say shoulder injuries suck. You you your shoulder for a good part of the movements.

I injured doing a giant super set that was recommended to me by the trainer. I did it somewhat against my better judgement. It was basically a chest workout and it included 4 sets with no break: incline dumbbell flyes(12) incline dumbbell press (8), flat dumbbell flyes (12), flat dumbbell press (8). I do not recommend this for non athlete, casual lifters such as myself, as flyes can be injury prone and, as you get tired in a superset, your form will slip.

Artists's rendition of me doing flyes

The injury is not very bad, but nagging and does not go away. I did not yet go to the doctor, but have made an appointment to get an x-ray. In the meantime someone at my gym recommended Eqvagel. The Eq in the name has the same root as equestrian. So, you know, horse. You can only find it in veterinary pharmacies, and it should be soothing for muscle and joint sores.

Going to the animal pharmacy I expected the pharmacist to be curious why I want the gel. No such thing happened. Looking online, I realized that in Romania this gel is most often used on humans then on horses. That is why animal pharmacies carry it even in the middle of Bucharest. So I bought a tube and tried it.

Overall it has a soothing effect and I do not think it can cause issue. It is mostly menthol and camphor and a few not to dangerous ingredients. Off course it will not solve an injury either, which is what I was hoping. But. The only side effect I noticed to using horse medicine is that my penis increased 3 centimeters overnight, but this was a risk I as willing to take. Overall Eqvagel is cheap and it makes the skin tingly and has some use for muscle soreness.