Difference Between A Soak and  a Liniment

We are often asked what is the difference between a Soak and a Liniment. Soaks are essentially small packs of herbs that are boiled in distilled water and when cooled down sufficiently so it does not cause pain you soak your hands or feet in the herbal soak solution. You can also use gauze or a towel saturated with the herbal bath and wrap it around another injured area of the body or use it as a compress. A soak offers a lot of flexibility in healing an injured area or conditioning the hands for heavy impact training like Iron Palm/Hand training.

A liniment is a blend of herbs that are soaked in alcohol, which usually is standard vodka as it has the perfect alcohol content of 40%. As the herbs macerate in the alcohol all the molecular healing compounds are released and pulled out by the alcohol creating a healing liniment. After a month the liniment can be applied by rubbing it onto the injured area or depending on the liniment used applied for conditioning purposes.

Iron Palm Soaks

There are soaks that are intended for conditioning and moving Qi to the hands for Iron Palm training. These soaks help condition the hands for striking repetitively with full power without suffering adverse problems later like arthritis or fragile bones. Like the healing soaks mentioned below, they bring Qi to the applied area. Most of the time this is the hands as when practicing Iron Palm you need to condition and have Qi in the hands to produce healing and power when striking.

Healing Soaks

Soaks like the Anhui Iron Palm Soak helps heal chronic conditions in the joints, tendons, muscles and bones. These conditions could be accompanied with or without pain as the soak helps in either case. The key to benefiting from this or other soaks is being able to completely soak the area of discomfort for 15 to 20 minutes and also being able to use the soak while hot but not too hot to scald the skin.

Some soaks are inherently hot from the herbs used in addition to the heat from the stove. Herbal soaks like the Ministerial Fire which has very hot properties and brings extra Qi to the area it is applied. We also recommend to avoid any heat if the injured area is swollen, so you would not use a hot soak if there is swelling.

Healing soaks can also be used as a compress or wrap for areas that cannot be submerged like your knees, back, and shoulder etc, this method of healing is very fast and effective and works better than most medicated plasters sold in drugstores.

How To Prepare a Soak

In order to prepare a soak you need a few things, since we need to heat the herbs a proper pot or pan is needed. When cooking herbs a pot that is glass or stainless steel is recommended as steel can create a metallurgic reaction to the herbs when heated or cooked. The second item is a good filtered or distilled water to cook the herbs. The third item is a small wash basin (pictured below) or something similar to hold your soak. The last item of course is your herbal soak pack.

Most herbal soak packs are in the 4 to 6 ounce range if that is the case on your end, add that pack into your pot and then add 32 to 40 ounces of your filtered water. Make a mental note where the level of the water is right now or better yet if using a glass pot make a mark with a magic marker of the level. Now you will heat the water on a medium heat level until the water comes to a rolling boil, during this process, stir the herbs with a wooden spoon or stirring stick. Once the water begins to boil turn off the heat, stir again and if you have a cover place it on the pot.

Using Your Soak

After two minutes pour the liquid only into a small wash basin or something similar to hold your soak and still allow enough room for you to soak your injured area. The next step is to soak the injured area in the hottest temperature you can stand without burning yourself, this is important as we need to begin the soak as hot as you can stand without causing further injury. Once you find the right temperature, soak the injured area for 15-20 minutes and no longer than that.

Compress

To use your soak as a compress you can use a light cloth material or a gauze and soak this in the herbal soak until it is well saturated and squeeze out the excess so it is not dripping but still well saturated and of course as hot as you can stand it. Now wrap the injured area and leave it on for 15-20 minutes.

Multiple Usages

You might have been wondering, is this a one time use or can I do it again and the answer is you can do it for 7 straight days.  After you use your soak the first time and it has cooled down to room temperature store it in the refrigerator until you use the next day. When you are ready to do it again just put the soak in the pot you used initially and add water to the mark you made or to the approximate level you made the mental image as mentioned above. Now just repeat the steps you did before, you can do this 7 times if you wish then throw away the herbs. If you only need to do it 2-3 times that’s great, but you still need to throw out the herbs. Since you are using water and herbs almost like making a soup it only will last so long and it starts to get rancid that’s why we recommend 7 days.

Advantages of a Liniment

There are many advantages to preparing a liniment and we will cover a few of them, first a liniment never gets rancid or spoil, when using alcohol the longer it sits the better it becomes, like an aged wine. Second, since we are using alcohol as a solvent it allows you to use a wider variety of herbs that extract in alcohol but not too well in water, especially the resinous herbs. This opens the door to the many awesome liniment kits that are available. The third advantage is the cost savings, most kits make well over a gallon of liniment which should last months or maybe years.

As you can see there are advantages to both, soaks can be used immediately while liniments take a month to be ready, unless you purchase a ready made bottle. They both can be an asset depending on ones needs. We hope this explains the difference between a soak and a liniment, if you have any questions on either item please let us know.