Paintball games are among the best games friends, colleagues, relatives, or neighbors can play. You’ll have fun and be physically active.
You’ll run, bend, lie on the ground, turn, twist, jump and be mobile throughout the game of paintball. There’s also the possibility of the paintball fired by an opponent hitting your skin directly.
So, there are different ways you can get injured while playing paintball, but you can avoid injuries by doing the right thing before and during games.
We’ll discuss how you can effectively treat paintball bruises and how you can prevent injuries while playing the game. Read on, as I promise to be as detailed as possible.
Are Paintball Bruises Dangerous?
No, paintball bruises aren’t dangerous. In other words, bruises sustained while playing paintball aren’t serious enough to send someone to the hospital for treatment. You can still go to work the following day after playing paintball and sustaining injuries.
Paintball injuries are minor. They can be bruises or welts. Whatever the injury is, you won’t require any special medical attention. You can take care of the bruises and welts by yourself.
Most people may want to know if paintball hurts when it lands on one’s skin. Well, the response to this question is “Yes.” However, several factors determine the severity of the pain. These include the distance the shooter is from you, the paintball sizes used, the part of your body the paintball landed on and the nature of the dress you’re wearing.
It’s important to wear the right gears before hitting the field to play paintball. Referees officiating professional paintball games always enforce safety rules to prevent injuries.
Furthermore, if you’re playing paintball casually with your relatives and friends, ensure everything is wearing the right gear. Paintball injuries aren’t that serious, but then, there’s no fun in getting avoidable bruises. It will take the steam out of the fun paintball offers.
What Are Paintball Bruises And Welts?
Have you been using the terms “bruises and welts” interchangeably? Both are different terms and represent different injuries. And it’s important for paintball players to know how to distinguish both injuries.
So, how can you identify and differentiate welts from bruises?
It’s easy to differentiate welts from bruises.
When the paintball hits your skin, check the spot it touched. If you see a raised mark, then the injury is “welt”. You find a red bump on this portion of the skin, which will be swollen.
On the other hand, if you see blood coming from the area of the skin the paintball touched then you’re dealing with a “bruise.” Note also that the blood is coming from the damaged capillaries underneath the skin.
Discoloration is another thing you’ll notice on your bruised skin, and it will start spreading out gradually.
A Handy Tip: Bruises and welts can be painful to the touch, but you won’t need a doctor to treat these injuries. Follow the tips below and your bruises will disappear within a few days.
How To Treat Paintball Bruises
Bruises and even welts will disappear on their own, unless you have an underlying medical health challenge that’s making it difficult for injuries to heal faster.
However, the tips you’re about to learn here will help speed up the skin repair and ensure the discoloration disappears from the skin.
You can also use the tips below to treat bruises and welts. The bottom line is to ease the inflammation and get the skin back to how it was.
Follow the tips below to treat your paintball bruises or welts effectively.
1: Wash and dry up the paintball bruise or welt thoroughly:
Don’t assume that the paintball bruise or welt sustained while playing is clean. Instead, wash the injury properly with warm soapy water then dry the injury.
Why should you wash a paintball bruise or welt? Washing helps to get rid of blood, debris, sweat and dirt from the injury, preventing a possible skin infection.
However, don’t make the mistake of pouring alcohol on your injury. It doesn’t matter if the wound is minor, as is always the case of paintball injuries.
Applying alcohol directly on the injury may cause the skin to burn and make you uncomfortable. So, don’t put yourself in such an uncomfortable state.
You should also wash the injured skin area with mild bathing soap. And ensure the water isn’t extremely hot. It’s okay to wash the injury with warm water, not extremely hot water. Anyway, no one would make the mistake of using hot water on their tender skin.
Again, remember to path the injured and wet surface with a clean-dry cloth before treatment commences.
2: Apply antibiotic ointment and bandage bruised skin:
Do you still want to continue playing paintball after sustaining a bruise or welt? Of course, anyone would love to continue.
Paintball injuries such as bruises or welts aren’t dangerous. But if left untreated or improperly managed, a skin infection may break out.
Here is what you need to do after sustaining a bruise, if you wish to continue playing.
After washing and patting the wounded area with a cloth to dry, gently apply antibiotics ointment (please ensure you wash your hand thoroughly before using it to apply the antibiotic ointment on the injured skin).
After applying the ointment, bandage the skin. It’s recommended you do so particularly when playing woodsball (playing paintball in a natural outdoor area with grasses and trees).
Please, remember to change the dirty bandage after the game, particularly when you get home and apply the antibiotics ointment again.
A Handy Tip: Most players take NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) for paintball bruises or welts. Examples include Advil (naproxen) and Motrin (Ibuprofen). These drugs help to calm inflammation down and take the pain off the bruises.
Follow the natural process of treating paintball bruises if you don’t want to take NSAIDs.
3: Try warm or cold compress:
If you don’t want to continue playing after sustaining a bruise or welt, cold or warm compress is a natural way to soothe the pain.
So, after washing and drying the bruise or welt, apply cold compress. The benefit of cold compress is that it will constrict the blood vessel underneath your skin, minimizing the floor of blood to the injured area.
Warm compress, on the other hand, is essential. Warm water naturally soothes pains or ease inflammation.
You can apply cold or hot compress at 15 minutes intervals.
A Handy Tip: Because the cold or hot compress can be time-consuming, you should only consider doing it if you don’t want to continue playing.
Additionally, if the bruise or welt hurts and makes you feel uncomfortable, use over-the-counter pain medication or NSAIDs. You can use pain-relief drugs for serious pains, whether you’re applying cold or hot compress.
4: Keep the affected area elevated:
Keeping your bruised leg or arm elevated is important to prevent excessive blood flow to the area.
When you restrict blood flow to the injury, it will reduce the swelling or inflammation.
So, stack several pillows together and place your arm or leg with the bruise on them.
5: Apply Epsom salt in bath water:
Note that you don’t have to apply Epsom salt directly to the bruise. Instead, put the salt in your bathwater and immerse yourself in it for around 20 minutes.
Why Epsom salt? Epsom salt breaks down into magnesium and sulfate when soaked in water.
So, when you soak in an Epsom salt bath, there’s a theory that the minerals released by the salt enters one’s body, relaxing achy muscles, and relieves pain.
It’s normal to feel some soreness after a paintball game. But you can feel better by using Epsom salt. Apply half a cup to your bathwater and immerse your whole body in it for 20 minutes to enjoy its soothing benefits.
6: Combine aloe vera and vitamin K lotion:
Vitamin K lotion can make your wound heal faster. How? It has the ability to cause blood clots, stopping the capillaries underneath your skin from bleeding.
A combination of vitamin K and Aloe vera have been found to have a massive effect when used to treat bruises and welts. They can lessen your pain and inflammation.
How To Play Paintball Without Sustaining Bruises
Here are simple tips to help you avoid bruises or welts when playing paintball.
- Don’t remain in one spot for an extended period to avoid getting hit multiple times on the same spot. Change your body position to make it harder for your opponents to aim at you.
- Don’t forget to put on a helmet before you step into the field.
- Never leave any part of your skin exposed. Endeavor to wear long boots, long-sleeve shirts and pants.
- Wear your goggles always to prevent the ball from hitting your eyes.
- Wear multiple clothes or padding to reduce the impact of the paintball on your skin.
Conclusion
You now know how to treat paintball bruises with ease. You can treat your wound quickly and get back to the game or do so when you get home.
Paintball injuries are not dangerous. You won’t be requiring a doctor, unless the bruise develops a skin infection.
In addition, you can prevent paintball bruises or welts by dressing up properly and taking precautions during games. Ensure you’re always wearing your goggles, helmet, long-sleeve shirts, pants and boots.
Finally, manage your paintball bruises properly to prevent skin infection.
