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DIY Deep Tissue Herbal Oil For Hardworking Men

DIY Deep Tissue Herbal Oil For Hardworking Men | Growing Up Herbal | Here’s an herbal recipe to help soothe sore, achy muscles (and more). Perfect for the hardworking man in your life!

One of my favorite things about living up in the mountains of East Tennessee has to be my wood burning stove.

It not only keeps my family warm during the long, cold days of winter, but it brings a sense of peace to my often restless spirit. I’m not sure what it is, but as soon as I smell the scent of burning wood and feel the warmth radiating from the black walls of our stove, I instantly feel calm and secure.

This stress reliever would not be possible without my husband. I owe this little pleasure in life all to him. He bought our stove, installed it, starts every fire in it (sometimes with the help of our boys), and even splits all the wood for it.

DIY Deep Tissue Herbal Oil For Hardworking Men | Growing Up Herbal | Here’s an herbal recipe to help soothe sore, achy muscles (and more). Perfect for the hardworking man in your life!

Speaking of splitting wood—it’s hard work. It makes your hands sore, your back sore, and your feet sore. While my man no longer splits the wood we use by hand (as he now owns a wood splitter), he has done his fair share of ax-wielding for years.

Somewhere along the line, I made an herbal infused oil just for the man who works so hard to make me happy. I call this oil Deep Tissue Herbal Oil because it’s formulated to penetrate sore muscles deeply. It not only warms and relaxes the muscles, but it’s cooling to the skin at the same time. Used alongside a gentle massage, it’s a useful aid for soothing sore muscles.

Beyond sore muscles, I use this oil in several other ways. I use it similarly to the over-the-counter product Icy Hot. We like to use it for congestion as well as on sore throat muscles that are the result of a nagging cough. It can also be massaged into swollen lymph nodes to facilitate proper lymph flow, and it works wonderfully for tension headaches. I like to rub this into my temples (staying away from the eye area) or into the back of my neck and shoulder muscles when I feel a tension headache coming on.

This recipe is for adults only as some of the ingredients are not suited for children.

You can find kid-friendly herbal recipes for sore muscles, congestion, and headaches via the links below.

What You Need To Know When Making This Recipe

DIY Deep Tissue Herbal Oil For Hardworking Men | Growing Up Herbal | Here’s an herbal recipe to help soothe sore, achy muscles (and more). Perfect for the hardworking man in your life!

I make this recipe using the folk method as it’s one of the simplest ways to use herbs. The folk method works great for things like herbal infused oils where amounts and dosage aren’t all that important.

When it comes to using the herbal ‘parts’ mentioned in the recipe, you can use whatever measuring device you’d like, depending on how much of this oil you’d like to make. I normally make 4 ounces of oil at a time, so I use teaspoons as my ‘part.’ If you’re making this oil and giving it to friends or family members as gifts, you’ll want to use a larger ‘part’… say a cup instead.

Now let’s talk about the oil portion of this recipe. I like to use olive oil for a few of reasons. First, it holds up to consistent low heat well. Next, it’s relatively cheap to buy. And lastly, it works well as a massage oil. With that said, you can use any carrier oil you prefer. When making this oil, you’ll only need enough carrier oil to cover your herbs. This amount of oil will result in a nice, strong oil. Just be sure that all of your herbs are thoroughly saturated with oil and that a small amount of oil covers the herbs.

Lastly, let’s talk about the essential oil. Because the amount of carrier oil (olive oil) can vary for this recipe, when it comes to using essential oils at the end of the recipe, the number of drops called for will be determined by how many ounces of infused oil you end up with after your herbs are strained out. I like to add enough essential oils to create a 1% dilution. Like I mentioned earlier, I usually make 4 ounces of oil, so that means I end up using 24 drops of essential oil in this recipe.

Deep Tissue Herbal Oil

DIY Deep Tissue Herbal Oil For Hardworking Men | Growing Up Herbal | Here’s an herbal recipe to help soothe sore, achy muscles (and more). Perfect for the hardworking man in your life!

Ingredients:

Directions:

  1. Measure your herbs in a glass jar. Mix well to combine.
  2. Cover the herbs with oil.
  3. Heat over low heat for a minimum of 2 hours—three days would be even better.
  4. Strain herbs and compost them. Place infused herbal oil in a saucepan over low heat (double boilers are best) along with menthol crystals and stir oil until the crystals dissolve. Remove from heat and add in essential oils. Mix well.
  5. Bottle, label, and store.

It’s Not Complete Without A Massage

When using this Deep Tissue Herbal Oil for sore muscles or swollen lymph nodes, use it alongside a gentle massage for best results. This oil will work to increase circulation in the muscles and skin on its own, but pairing it with a massage will speed the process up and help soothe muscles all the more.

You can find easy to follow instructions on giving a massage here. I wrote this post with babies in mind, but the same steps work well for adults too.

If you decide to add this recipe to your natural medicine cabinet, I hope you enjoy it! I’m sure it will serve you well throughout the year.

Be sure to come back and let me know how making the recipe goes for you, and if you have any success stories to share after using it, I’d love to hear those as well!

DIY Deep Tissue Herbal Oil For Hardworking Men | Growing Up Herbal | Here’s an herbal recipe to help soothe sore, achy muscles (and more). Perfect for the hardworking man in your life!

  1. Mac says:

    Hi. I have a question about St. John’s Wort. Everything I’ve read so far recommends using fresh, or very recently dried herb. I have access to neither and cannot grow it in my climate. Can you please comment on the effectiveness of using dried (online purchased) herb? You use it here, so it must make a significant contribution to the end-product. Thanks for your informative posts.

    • Meagan Visser says:

      So fresh-infused SJW oil is best, but you can use dried SJW as well. It will have slightly different properties as some of the constituents are lessened when the plant is dried. If you can use fresh, I’d go with that as a first choice. If not, you can use dried and still reap some benefits from it. I’ve heard from several people who like dried SJW oil for support with nerve pain. Hope that’s helpful!

  2. Amanda says:

    Hi I was wondering, how do you heat your oil while the herbs are infusing fir 3 days? What method do you use? Double boiler? In a pan? Thank you! I really want to make this for my husband as a birthday gift (complete with massage from me obviously!)

    • Meagan Visser says:

      I normally use a crockpot (you can read more about making oils using the crockpot method here) or I put the jar on a heating pad to keep it warm. You can also sit the sealed jar on top of your refrigerator or water heater, or any other place that stays warm for that matter.

  3. Sue says:

    Hi Meagan will you be able to give exact measurements

    • Meagan Visser says:

      Sure. If the following measurements make too large of a batch, you can always cut it in half or gift it to friends.

      8 teaspoons dried arnica flowers
      8 teaspoons dried comfrey leaf
      4 teaspoons dried Calendula flowers
      4 teaspoons dried St. John’s wort
      2 teaspoons dried ginger root (do not use fresh root)
      2 teaspoons dried red pepper flakes (any crushed hot pepper will work)
      1/4 teaspoon menthol crystals
      Extra virgin olive oil (enough to cover herbs)
      Wintergreen essential oil (Gaultheria procumbens) (sufficient to create a 1% dilution)

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