What Can You Do About Post-Workout Muscle Soreness?
Your body’s workout continues long after you take off your running shoes or put the weights back up. Article after article will tell you that muscle-building happens afterward, as the muscles repair microtears and grow mass, and post-workout routines can help you maximize those effects. They’re not wrong, but muscle growth and recovery isn’t everything that happens after you exercise: muscle soreness and tightness are common after-effects. If this pain and lack of mobility are impacting the rest of your day and making you rethink your exercise routine altogether, here are a few things you can do to increase your post-workout mobility and comfort.
What Causes Muscle Soreness After Exercise?
There are a lot of different reasons why you can feel sore after a workout: a new exercise regime might be pushing your muscle’s boundaries, or you might have injured yourself. For the first hour after your workout, you might also have muscle pain from a build-up of lactic acid; this build-up reduces to regular levels quickly. But there is one type of lingering muscle soreness that happens as part of a workout even when each motion is performed correctly, and this is the type of muscle pain that can make you lose your enthusiasm the longer it continues.
DOMS, or delayed onset muscle soreness, is what you feel if you wake up the morning after a workout and have stiff legs or arms. This soreness is caused by tight muscles, and it can set in for up to three days following your workout. That tightness itself is caused by tears in your muscles. It’s perfectly natural and it’s not a sign of injury, but it could be a sign you need to slow the pace at which you increase your workout’s intensity. Keep your routine in place and match the reps or laps of your last routine, but if you’re supposed to increase by a set or a half-mile, do only a portion of that to see how your muscles feel in the following days.
If you don’t want to modify the pace of your routine, or you don’t want to feel the lingering soreness for the next three days, increase blood flow to your muscles. One of the best ways to do this is through more activity. Counterintuitively, this can help the pain fade faster and make the pain less likely after your next work-out; the ‘repeated-bout effect’ takes place when muscles adapt to certain exercises and movement. The longer you exercise the same muscle group (even if you increase the intensity each time), the less pain, inflammation, and tightness you’ll have over time. Hot baths and massages might also help increase blood flow to the tight muscles.
Can Stretching Help Your Muscle Soreness?
Stretching isn’t an immediate cure for muscle pain. In fact, stretching out cramps might overextend the muscle fibers and increase your risk of injuring yourself. But what stretching can do is make soreness or injury less likely next time. Adding a stretching routine to your week can help increase your flexibility, especially if you target muscle groups involved in your new activity. With increased flexibility, you’re less likely to pull muscles or overcompensate for tightened areas by using other muscle groups incorrectly.
The best thing you can do to reduce any pain while exercising or when implementing a new exercise routine is to stay healthy and hydrated. Muscles are more likely to tear or become sore without enough water, so make sure you carry a water bottle with you wherever you work out. For more exercise and lifestyle tips, please contact us today!
David Michael Gilbertson is the founder and president of 3 Elements Lifestyle, LLC., a Fitness and Weight Loss company that specializes in YOU! With more than 15 years of experience owning, operating and managing clubs of all sizes, David lectures, delivers seminars and gives workshops on the practical skills required to successfully help you with your health and fitness goals. David also helps you build the teamwork, management, and training necessary to open your own fitness center. For more information on Licensing and Consulting Services Visit his website at: www.3elementslifestyle.com or email at daveg@3elementslifestyle.com or call (805) 499-3030.
