No Pain, no gain?
In this post I review some common questions I get regarding exercise related muscle soreness...
Q: Why do I feel like I got run over by a truck after my workouts?
A: You feel like that because of something exercise physiologists have defined as delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS for short. DOMS describes a phenomenon of muscle pain, muscle soreness or muscle stiffness that is felt 12-48 hours after exercise, particularly at the
beginning of a new an exercise program, after a change in sports activities, or after a dramatic increase in the duration or intensity of exercise. This muscle pain is a normal response to unusual exertion and is part of an adaptation process that leads to greater stamina and strength as the muscles recover and are rebuilt stronger. So in a round-about sort of way, muscle soreness is a good thing!
Q: OK. So what causes this awful response to exercise?
A: DOMS is widely thought to be a result of microscopic tearing of the muscle fibres. The amount of tearing (and soreness) depends on how hard and how long you exercise and what type of exercise you do. Any movement you aren't used to can lead to DOMS, but eccentric muscle contractions (movements that cause muscle to forcefully contract while it lengthens) seem to cause the most soreness. For the runners out there, running downhill produces a signficant amount of eccentric muscle contractions.
Q: So are there any ways to minimize or alleviate this soreness?
A: Yup. Before each and every workout, start by performing a general aerobic warm-up, like walking or light running, to increase your core body temperate. Then, you’ll want to perform a specific warm-up to increase local muscle temperature improve the mechanical efficiency of the muscles to be used in a given activity or workout. When it comes to your actual workout, you’ll want to gradually introduce new exercises to build a pattern of consistent progress which will adapt the trained muscles to increased mechanical stress, minimizing the incidence and severity of DOMS.
Also, by exercising unaffected areas or by performing low-impact aerobic activities such as biking or walking, blood flow can be increased to the affected muscles, which may help diminish soreness.
Q: Why do I feel like I got run over by a truck after my workouts?
A: You feel like that because of something exercise physiologists have defined as delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS for short. DOMS describes a phenomenon of muscle pain, muscle soreness or muscle stiffness that is felt 12-48 hours after exercise, particularly at the
beginning of a new an exercise program, after a change in sports activities, or after a dramatic increase in the duration or intensity of exercise. This muscle pain is a normal response to unusual exertion and is part of an adaptation process that leads to greater stamina and strength as the muscles recover and are rebuilt stronger. So in a round-about sort of way, muscle soreness is a good thing!
Q: OK. So what causes this awful response to exercise?
A: DOMS is widely thought to be a result of microscopic tearing of the muscle fibres. The amount of tearing (and soreness) depends on how hard and how long you exercise and what type of exercise you do. Any movement you aren't used to can lead to DOMS, but eccentric muscle contractions (movements that cause muscle to forcefully contract while it lengthens) seem to cause the most soreness. For the runners out there, running downhill produces a signficant amount of eccentric muscle contractions.
Q: So are there any ways to minimize or alleviate this soreness?
A: Yup. Before each and every workout, start by performing a general aerobic warm-up, like walking or light running, to increase your core body temperate. Then, you’ll want to perform a specific warm-up to increase local muscle temperature improve the mechanical efficiency of the muscles to be used in a given activity or workout. When it comes to your actual workout, you’ll want to gradually introduce new exercises to build a pattern of consistent progress which will adapt the trained muscles to increased mechanical stress, minimizing the incidence and severity of DOMS.
Also, by exercising unaffected areas or by performing low-impact aerobic activities such as biking or walking, blood flow can be increased to the affected muscles, which may help diminish soreness.
posted by Chris Kennedy at
15:31
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