The organic green tea extract and vitamin E in our formula provide antioxidant support that's valuable after every training session, not just the brutal ones. The goat milk nourishes skin that's being asked to perform day after day. The MSM provides sulfur that your connective tissue uses continuously.

The fresh goat milk nourishes skin through repeated application. The MSM supports connective tissue through ongoing use. The black pepper keeps circulation enhanced session after session. The botanical cooling stays effective without the receptor fatigue that comes from synthetic agents.

Black pepper contains piperine, a compound that's been used in traditional medicine for centuries and is now supported by modern research. Piperine is a natural bioenhancer—it helps other beneficial compounds absorb more effectively. When we include organic black pepper in our Muscle Cream, we're working with your body's natural processes rather than forcing ingredients through synthetic penetration enhancers.

Fresh goat milk brings a pH that naturally matches human skin. It contains fatty acids that support your skin barrier. It delivers vitamins that contribute to skin health. For areas you're treating repeatedly (knees, lower back, shoulders), the condition of your skin over time reflects whether your carrier is helping or just occupying space.

With four college athletes in our family—including three Division I NCAA competitors—we've had plenty of opportunities to test whether the traditional wisdom around black pepper holds up in practice. After hard training sessions, competitions, and the accumulated wear of athletic careers, our Muscle Cream has become a staple of our family's recovery routine.

This is why we include MSM (methylsulfonylmethane) in our Muscle Cream. Sulfur is essential for connective tissue health, and MSM provides it in a form your body can absorb topically. When you apply our cream to your IT band, your patellar tendon area, or your Achilles, you're delivering sulfur directly to tissue that needs it.

That perspective shaped everything about our Muscle Cream. We're not interested in formulas that work great for a month and then fade. We need something that keeps working because our athletes keep training. Something that supports skin health because they're applying it daily. Something that enhances circulation because blood flow matters for recovery.

Clean formulations don't create this problem. Because the carrier nourishes rather than stresses skin, and because the active ingredients work with your body rather than overwhelming it, long-term use builds skin health instead of depleting it.

We've chosen organic black pepper oil for our Muscle Cream because the traditional evidence spans millennia and the modern research confirms the mechanisms. Combined with MSM, peppermint, wintergreen, and fresh goat milk, the piperine in black pepper oil supports circulation and helps the other beneficial ingredients reach where they're needed.

Borage oil can work alongside these treatments, potentially reducing the intensity or frequency of flares by supporting skin health in ways that complement medical approaches. This is the lens through which to view the research—not as proof of a miracle cure, but as evidence that fatty acid supplementation can meaningfully support skin affected by atopic conditions.

This distinction matters enormously for skincare. When you apply borage oil topically, you're delivering GLA directly to skin cells, where it can support anti-inflammatory pathways without the concerns associated with excessive dietary omega-6 intake.

Borage oil contributes to this foundation by supplying essential fatty acids that the barrier requires and calming inflammation that perpetuates barrier dysfunction. It's not a complete solution—no single ingredient is—but it addresses fundamental mechanisms that other ingredients don't target.

Participation in the half-marathon was associated with significantly increased markers of oxidative stress, muscle damage, and pain—exactly what exercise physiology would predict. While the time-by-treatment results didn’t reach statistical significance for outcome measures, the MSM group saw clinically significant reductions in both muscle and joint pain compared to placebo.

Physical fitness, he wrote in 1945, is the first requisite of happiness. He spent his entire life understanding what that fitness required and developing a comprehensive system to achieve it.

The first World Championship took place in Oberhausen, Germany in 2019, drawing roughly 600 participants—mostly German, since the sport hadn't yet expanded significantly beyond its home country. German athletes Lukas Storath (the first man to finish under one hour) and Imke Salander claimed the inaugural titles.

The numbers tell a remarkable story. According to Strava's 2024 Year in Sport report, running club participation increased 59% globally in a single year. Women joining running clubs surged by 89% over the previous year. Running USA estimates that over 50 million Americans now run or jog, and industry data suggests approximately 25% are connected to some form of running club or group. When Strava surveyed Gen Z participants, one-fifth reported going on a date with someone they met at a group fitness activity.

The story of the CrossFit Games begins in early 2007, when Dave Castro—who would become the longtime Director of the CrossFit Games—invited Glassman to his family's ranch in Aromas, California. Glassman looked around the property, with its open spaces and rustic facilities, and suggested hosting what he called a "Woodstock of Fitness" for the CrossFit community.

The skin's barrier function takes time to recover from environmental stress. Research indicates that compromised barrier function can persist for hours after exposure to harsh conditions. This is why the immediate post-run period is so critical—the products you apply during this window encounter skin that's actively trying to repair itself, making them more effective than the same products applied hours later.

The competition itself is straightforward on paper: eight one-kilometer runs alternated with eight functional workout stations, all completed indoors in convention centers and exhibition halls. In practice, it's an hour or more of sustained effort that creates unique challenges for your skin—challenges that most skincare brands haven't begun to address because they don't understand what happens when you push a sled across a convention center floor while your body temperature soars and sweat pours from every pore.

Natural muscle cream isn't a replacement for proper training, nutrition, and rest. It's a tool that supports your body's own recovery mechanisms—enhanced circulation, appropriate inflammation resolution, and tissue maintenance—without the chemical burden of synthetic alternatives.

Here on our Washington State farm, we've raised two Division I NCAA track and field athletes and watched them navigate the constant tension between training hard and staying healthy. What we've learned is that injury prevention isn't just about stretching and strength work. It's about treating your whole body—including your skin—as part of a connected system.