How To Choose A Good Hot Pack?

Using a hot pack is a simple and efficient way to assist in the relaxation of muscles and to get temporary relief for aches and pains, but how do you pick a good one? I have three tips to help you pick the right hot pack for you, stay tuned.

Hi, I’m Selina, physio from MoveMedics. I want to help you to improve your movement, increase your health knowledge, so you can move better, feel better, and keep doing what you love for as long as you want.

If you have ever seen a physio you will almost certainly have heard the words “use a hot pack” Now using a hot pack is a simple, accessible, and effective way to assist in the relaxation of your muscles and help to alleviate, temporarily, aches and pains that you might have, so my three tips for you to pick a hot pack that is right for you starts with the material of the hot pack.

You want to pick a material that is durable, it’s robust, that can cop the amount of use that you are going to throw at it.

If you are like me even though I am in Brisbane, most people don’t think it’s cold here, I get very cold, so from about May to September I am practically attached to mine to keep warm so I want my hot pack to be sturdy and robust, and you also want to make sure that the material is comfortable, you should not put your hot pack directly over your bare skin for safety reason, but still, you don’t want it catching on your clothes and you know, you just want it to be nice and soft really.

This is my hot pack that is my best friend through winter, and it has this, I don’t really know my material, but it seems to be quite a thick cotton and it has lasted multiple nuking a day through the winter months for a few years and it still looks excellent. So number one, think about the material.

Number two, I highly recommend hot packs that have channels like this one. These channels help your hot pack, the wheat, stay in place. It’s like your doona, when I was young the doona I had just was this big rectangle and then the down in it would just get all collected at the foot of the doona and I have nothing up on top to keep me warm.

If you have a hot pack that hasn’t got such channels, like this one here, the same is going to happen, and if you want to put it on your shoulder say here, the beads are just going to collect away from where you might want to have the warmth, and I actually would never purchase a hot pack like this, this was a gift with purchase when I ordered stock for the clinic, and um… yes, so it’s nice to have.

And that takes me to point number three which is the shape of your hot pack. Now this big rectangle shape of course is going to be very good over a large surface area, so for me this practically covers my whole back so I would just nuke it up and sit here and chill out and it works really well for me.

And you can also get various different shaped ones, like I have another one here that’s like a boomerang shape, and this one will go over your shoulders quite well, and I would even use a peg to keep it in place. This also works very well over your pelvis, like that. And if you have period pain it drapes across the front spectacularly well.

So there are my three tips for you, actually let me give you a bonus tip.

Some hot pack comes with essential oils. I’m not personally a fan for that because for me I have to think about my patients and some people don’t like scented stuff, some people can be irritated by it, and it can even trigger someone’s headache, so depending on who you have in your environment that may be a factor for consideration as well. And there is also nothing worse than the smell of rancid oil being nuked over and over again so keep that one in mind as well.

So there you have it, there are my tips for you to choosing a hot pack that is right for you, think about the material, try to find one that has channels to keep everything in where they’re supposed to be, and also think about the shape, what do you want to use your hot pack for, and find one that suits that purpose.

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