I have several sore muscles from exercising this week and so I bought and applied some RUB A535 (a lotion). It works really well. The soreness is going away. I think I'll be fine by Monday. Does anyone else rely on this for sports and stuff? It's good stuff!
Generally I prefer to rely more on water treatments. Lotions and the like just mask the pain for awhile. A cold shower, turning it warm, and then back to as cold as I could stand helps deal with the swelling of sore muscles by keeping them constricted (and doesn't add more tearing to the muscle fibers) while the short warm session helps promote healing. Works or Army Rangers, and it's worked for me quite well.
You're already spending money on the water, might as well get all the use out of it you can. There's no way to avoid being sore. Sore just means the muscles have been torn and are healing after all. So trying to stretch more or exercise more won't overcome it. Probably make it worse. The cold then hot then cold again mitigates it some at least.
I did try icy-hot once. The icy part doesn't stay long enough, and the hot OMG BURNS! @_@