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I'm so Sore! Now What?
Fitness | June 25, 2016
Your eyelids flutter open at the sound of your alarm. You lie there for a bit thinking about the great workout you had yesterday and all your ambitious workout goals for today. You sit up, take a deep breath, and swing your legs out of bed to stand up and take on the day. Then…ARGH!!! Soreness. Maybe it’s your triceps, maybe it’s your hamstrings, maybe it’s your whole darn body. But whatever you did yesterday you can feel it practically vibrating it in every muscle fiber.
Almost everyone is familiar with exercise-induced soreness. It’s sometimes called DOMS or, delayed onset muscle soreness, because you often don’t feel the soreness until the next day.
Many consider soreness to be an indicator of a truly effective workout. Indeed, I know some people who feel like they’ve slacked off in some way if they don’t feel pain the next day (and the day after that, when the soreness peaks and feels the MOST ouchy). But recent research is reporting findings that the link between soreness and strength gains is somewhat tenuous.
Soreness is caused by microtears and the resulting inflammation and its byproducts in the muscle fiber. When you “damage” muscle fibers with vigorous exercise or heavy resistance training (weights!), the fibers heal back together stronger and larger. This phenomenon is called hypertrophy. That’s why many people believe the more soreness they feel, the more successful their workout was. And there is substance to that. Microscopic muscle damage is the stimulus that starts the growth and strengthening cycle in muscle.
However, the NSCA published a well-researched recent article that explains, “Some muscles appear to be more prone to DOMS than others, and there seems to be a genetic component that causes certain individuals to experience persistent soreness, whereas others rarely get sore at all.”
Additionally, the publication goes on the say, “…high levels of soreness should be regarded as detrimental because it is a sign that the lifter has exceeded the capacity for the muscle to efficiently repair itself. Moreover, excessive soreness can impede the ability to train optimally and decrease motivation to train.”
So, sometimes soreness means you got a killer workout, sometimes it might mean that you’re just working muscles that tend to get sore. It might also be that you got a fabulous workout in, but you have a genetic tendency not to feel soreness. Or, perhaps you’re just really used to working those muscles in the particular way you worked them. And, clearly, too much soreness isn’t a good thing.
Ok, ok. So you understand why you get sore, now what can you do about it?
Many think stretching is the best way to alleviate soreness. However, intense stretching actually damages muscle fibers even further and can actually make soreness worse. Gentle stretching can temporarily help to relieve some of the stiffness and pain. Studies indicate, though, that stretching doesn’t really make the soreness go away long-term.
I’ve found that foam rolling right after an intense workout seems to help my levels of DOMS the next day. A foam roller is a great addition to your body care arsenal no matter how active you are. Here’s a more in depth discussion on foam rolling. And here’s one of my Power Yoga workouts combined with foam rolling.
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Bodyweight only | Exercise Ball | Hand Weights | Jump Ropes | Kettlebells | Pull Up Bar | Resistance Bands | Sliding Discs
Private Member |
santa cruz, ca
Hormones, diet, and water intake are also huge factors. For example, the week before my menstrual cycle when estrogen is rising, I tend toward more stiffness, if I don’t take care of myself. I use medicinal herbs to assist my body with this during my 3rd week of my cycle.
Also, eating foods that cause inflammation will exacerbate soreness. Anti-inflammatory herbs, like turmeric (look it up!) have been found effective against DOMS. Whenever I eat gluten or casein, and a few other foods, in a significant amount (or for consecutive days), I wake up very sore and sluggish (not to mention other symptoms). I have learned what foods do not make me feel well. Muscle soreness and feeling of stiffness after eating these foods is 100% predictable at this point. If I eat a diet that my body likes, I can work out harder and still have less (or barely any) soreness. When you eat clean your metabolic processes are more efficient and less stagnant. What you eat (and how you think) influences how your body will respond to physical stress and exercise.
Yes, stretching and gentle movement help, of course. Getting the lymph moving helps, gently stretching the muscles and sinews helps. But honestly, diet and water intake are #1 in my experience. I think scientific research also supports this.
Private Member |
switzerland/, france
Wherever I can, I would prefer selfmassage with hands. I took a week-end course of sport massaging many years ago and was taught by pro (physiotherapists from the national sport’s school). The hand work technique is special and they recommended using a lotion that contains essential oils as well (the massage should optimally occurs 6hr after the workout but can range from 1hr to 24hr).
For the other parts of my body less accessible to massage with 2 hands, I will use 1 hand (e.g. butt) and add balls (instead of roll).
I have not tried the epsom salt bath yet as I need to fix my tub first.
On the stretching note. I found my workouts more efficient if I stretch 1-2 sec during the workout (e.g. between exercices or sets), I feel it resets the muscles into its original length. It needs to be very short for 2 reasons:
– to avoid the body’s reflex to counteract the stretch
-keep your AMRAP workouts going (ha, ha)
The after workout stretch, I tend to wait a little (within an hour though), but noticed it is more effective to stretch straight after , holding any position between 5-10 sec.
I would dedicate a full long lengthening session for another time in the week/day.
Private Member |
felgueiras, porto, portugal
Great article Zuzka! In the last week the ZGym schedule make my body very sore, specially the Lifted butt #3x workout, but it is incredible how I always mark as favorite this type of exercise to try again later when I think that I am lazy. Yes! It Is very interesting how our bodies response to all the stimulus and make us feel so alive with the discomfort that the workout can do. The only concerne that I have is confuse lazing attitude with a tiring body, but I always follow an easy type of workout with a low pace and I feel so much better, no guilty and sometimes the soreness is relieved because of this.
Private Member |
hradec kralove, Česká republika, Česko
Great article. When I am sore, I go to sauna. For me is the best and there I do a little stretch. It´s a great meditation too.
Private Member |
curitiba, parana, brazil
Hi Zu and friends! Nowadays I know very well what means to be sore! I am constantly sore on my shoulders and sometimes upper back because of the Yoga practice. I do not feel soreness on legs…it is quite difficult that I will be sore on lower body…very rare…on abs sometimes I feel it, specially after sliding workouts. For legs and abs I do not do anything because the soreness is quite light…not a pain actually. But on shoulders it is really a discomfort. If shoulder blades are also affected and biceps, triceps I feel really uncomfortable and if the muscular pain remains for more than two days I start intake of Arnica Montana globules and applying Muay Thai massage oil after a hot long shower. Normally I feel better on next day after doing all this. I am going for a massage also, that also helps but on the day of the massage it pains more, after 1 it starts the relief. I have tight shoulders and I have never worked on shoulder strength and opening so now having a hard time with this but I can realize already lots of improvement. So let us keep going, see you all, take care.