Getting Rid Of Muscle Soreness Isn’t So Simple
One of the most commonly asked questions of me as a longtime personal trainer in Austin, is regarding getting rid of muscle soreness. Muscle soreness following a workout is otherwise known as delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS, for short. When we use our muscles strenuously or in a different fashion than how we do typically, we oftentimes experience DOMS the following day, and even as long as 96 hours later. Getting rid of muscle soreness, however, isn’t as easy as acquiring it.
Getting rid of muscle soreness is something that isn’t fully possible, other than letting time pass and allowing the problem to simply fade away. The reason for this lies within the scientific reason we get muscle soreness in the first place. The reason we get DOMS isn’t because of a buildup of lactic acid, as was once believed, but rather from microscopic damage to the actual muscle fibers themselves during the course of exercise. If you tear a muscle, even the slightest amount, it will heal, just as a cut to your skin will, and it usually just takes a few days if it’s very minor. As with cuts, tears in muscle tissue can take longer to heal, depending upon the severity of the tear. DOMS is caused by the slightest of tears, which won’t need medical attention, or any special treatment at all, for that matter.
While getting rid of muscle soreness isn’t going to happen any way other than by allowing the soreness to dissipate over time, there are certainly things you can be doing in order to relieve some of the discomfort in the meantime. For example, lets say that you had a very intense leg workout and now here we are a day or 2 later, and your legs are ridiculously sore. So much that it hurts to get up or sit down, etc. A nice hot soak, followed by some gentle stretches, can provide a good measure of relief. Another thing you can do in this case, is to simply go for a walk. By forcing blood into the affected muscles with gentle exercise, you are expediting the healing process. No, you can’t simply walk or soak it off, but you can make your quality of life exponentially better by doing so.
Some folks have no interest in getting rid of muscle soreness as they use it as either a badge of honor that they had a good workout, or they feel it’s the best indication of one. Neither, however, is the case. If you took someone who is in reasonably good physical condition, and had them do some exercises that were a little out of the norm for them, but not too intensely, they would all but be guaranteed to have tight and sore muscles within the next 48 hours. Let the quality of your workout dictate it’s worth, as opposed to the amount of DOMS that follows it. That would be like measuring your sweat to see if your cardio workout was a good one. It’s a somewhat reasonable thought, but ultimately, it’s got nothing to do with anything. Whether or not you want to be getting rid of muscle soreness, or you don’t mind it, just focus on having consistent workouts and be sure to warm up properly beforehand in order to avoid an injury that could have easily been prevented.
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Andy
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