Sore muscles after a workout – a phenomenon which is familiar to all trainees. Everyone who has ever picked up a dumbbell or doing cardio workouts, must have experienced this absence of “sweet” pain in the muscles that received the load in the previous lesson. But the real reasons for its occurrence and long-lasting consequences clear few of the usual training. Muscle pain is such a “familiar stranger”.
Causes muscle pain after exercise
Conscious fitness enthusiasts a syndrome of delayed muscle pain after a workout (delayed onset muscle soreness, as it is called) is strongly associated with the concept of the effectiveness of the training session. You had a good training session your muscles are sore, therefore, they grow so or nearly so according to most fitness enthusiasts. For this category of training delayed onset muscle soreness is a result of the training progress. “Avoiding pain you lose progress” – about according to this principle live and train hundreds of thousands of fitness enthusiasts all over the world. There is another category of training (basically, those who are just starting to exercise), which takes the pain and tries in every way to reduce it, including using drugs.
Who is right and who is not? Or perhaps the truth, as often happens, somewhere in the middle? Why sore muscles after workout, what mechanisms are triggered in the body with the appearance of delayed onset muscle soreness and how to get rid of muscle pain, and in General, good or bad we will try to understand in this article. And let each trainee will decide for yourself, seek him or not.
The first is to understand what kind of pain that occurs as a result of training, not all. In practice, there are three basic types. Two of which can be attributed to “good” and one for “bad.”
REASON 1: the Pain of lactic acid
The first kind of pain – the notorious “burning”, which occurs most often when using different advanced methods of training or a sudden increase in load. The reason for its occurrence is well known, this lactic acid produced in muscle as a result of his long stay under load. In such a reactive muscle and there is “burning”.
Different athletes describe this feeling is a little different (superimposed personal subjective perception). Is such a pain pretty quickly – a maximum of 6 hours after the session, and usually much faster. This is the conventionally “good” kind of pain, no noticeable long-term negative consequences for the organism it will not be use special, too, though. Many bodybuilders working up a sweat trying to achieve this “burning”, even doing some “burning out” approaches at the end of training. If their feelings correspond to reality, they would have already increased their championship muscle mass, but in practice it doesn’t happen often, alas.
REASON 2: post-workout pain
The second is the muscle pain after a workout (delayed onset muscle soreness) occurring after approximately 12-24 hours after a workout. It is this kind of post-workout pain and is referred to in this article. An explanation of why a day later and more suddenly sore muscles after workout, is actually quite simple: it is a consequence of lung inflammation, resulting from disease of contractile structures and connective tissue of muscles. Inflammation is not seen significantly immediately after receiving the micro to the development of this phenomenon requires time. Therefore, the peak of such pain and is usually in 2-4 days after a workout.
For the occurrence of microtrauma, leading to inflammation of this required enough weight weights and a certain amount of time muscle is under load. Training with very light weight with lots of repetitions can and does cause serious delayed onset muscle soreness at the same time lifting very heavy weight for 1-2 repeat also not able to provoke significant microtrauma of the contractile structures. Stronger than all this muscle pain is felt by those who trained with 5-15 repetitions in the approach, as well as newcomers and those who have just started training after a long break.
Before you search for methods how to get rid of crestof Paturi, you need to understand that it is also “good” kind of pain, not carrying significant negative for the organism. As mentioned above, many athletes feel much like it.
REASON 3: the Pain due to injury
But the third kind of pain, definitely bad is the pain of injury. For example, severe damage to tendons, joints or severe tear of the muscle. This kind of pain to distinguish from the first two pretty easily. Read more about this below in a separate section of this article.
How to get rid of post-workout muscle pain?
Now let us examine the ways how to get rid of delayed onset muscle soreness if not completely then at least significantly reduce it.
- The most effective and simple way to reduce post-workout pain syndrome is a quality warm up the target muscle groups before training. Warmed up and well prepared to work muscle will get much less trauma than that which is immediately given a serious load in a “cold” state.
- Those who practice power style training familiar method of alternating heavy and light training on muscle group. Easy exercise significantly reduces muscle pain, which appeared after a heavy workout. This so-called effect of repeated loads.
- Cold compresses and baths with variable temperature: to resort to such methods it is necessary if the pain is severe.
- Massage is also sometimes used to reduce muscle pain after workout, reviews of the effectiveness of this method are mostly positive.
- Various medicinal preparations of local action (ointments), and take in. Can have anti-inflammatory, analgesic and distracting effect, but to accelerate muscle recovery is not affected.
- Protein diet and plenty of fluids after exercise also can reduce delayed onset muscle soreness.
- A visit to the baths and slow running will have more of a psychological effect of unloading on muscle pain in and of itself, they almost won’t work.
But stretching exercises to eliminate post-workout pain can not, though to implement them you still need, if you want to train effectively. Will not have a noticeable effect on delayed onset muscle soreness and the intake of antioxidants (e.g., ascorbic acid).
Is it possible to train if sore muscles?
Examining the ways how to get rid of muscle pain after exercise, we have already touched upon the question of the effect of repeated load. Let us examine this point in more detail.
The contractile structure of the muscle receives microtrauma during a workout. The body will take some time to heal the damage, and then to reach a phase of overcompensation – when a muscle is not only restored, but that would be a bit bigger and stronger. It’s safe to say that while there is an inflammatory process that causes delayed onset muscle soreness, the recovery process is definitely not over, and overcompensation thing especially not reached.
Thus, we conclude that the new stress training, which is again another cause of microtrauma is not needed – this will slow down the progress of muscle development. Another thing easy, non-traumatic exercise with lower weights: such a re-load just what you need if the athlete looking for a means how to get rid of delayed onset muscle soreness. Interestingly, the re-load is not direct: some trainees have noted that the pain from the previous training session is reduced when carrying out new training on a different muscle group. Strange but true.
A reasonable question arises: if it is difficult to train without waiting for the cessation of muscle pain, what happens in this case? Is progress in muscle development stop entirely? Actually no, he just somewhat slow down. Muscle is somehow going to grow and in this case, since the contractile structure factor is very significant, but not the only one to progress strength and mass of muscles.
Muscle pain: good or bad?
In the minds of a huge number of athletes soreness is firmly linked with the concept of high performance training. Well, from the heart trained accordingly a strong pain in the muscles, and, as a result of progress in building strength and muscle mass. This opinion is only partly true. Everything is much more complicated: the pain also depend on genetic characteristics, length and frequency of training, applied exercise and even specific muscles. It is known that the deltoids very rarely get sick much (at least, as much as for example the glutes and quads after heavy squats), but does this negate for “deltas”, the need of competent intensive training? Of course not.
Muscle pain is actually neither good nor bad: it’s just a sign that the body is running, certain biochemical processes. No need to dwell on muscle pain. The main measure of the effectiveness of training is progress in the context of goals set by the athlete (in most cases this muscle mass and strength). Hurt the muscle or not is a secondary question.
How to train to muscle pain did not appear?
Let’s find out now how to get rid of muscle pain, warning her at the planning stage of the training process. Such a possibility actually exists. However, we emphasize again: do not fear post-workout muscle pain, this is quite normal natural process in a period of training.
Below are a few tips that can significantly reduce delayed onset muscle soreness:
- Need to warm up before serious training. Never forget the workout, it should last 5-10 minutes, no less.
- It is not necessary to change the set of performed exercises too often: a new, still undeveloped movement cause much more severe muscle pain. However, to dwell forever on the same set of exercises too, the muscles will get used and will cease to respond to the training stress. From time to time they need to be unusual shock loads, so there are times when delayed onset muscle soreness will have to wait anyway.
- No need to force the load. For example, to take the weight of the weights after a long break from training or dramatically increase the lifted weight. If you are doing interval or cardio training, you also need the load to increase gradually (learning time, number of repetitions, execution speed, etc.).
- You need to train regularly long breaks cause withdrawal muscle from the training, therefore, delayed onset muscle soreness increases. A small digression: in this rare training, not calling addictive muscles to stress based “Supertrening” by Mike Mentzer and other similar VIT-method. Muscles with this workout severely injured and, consequently, are more responsive to training stress. Interesting technique, however to progress indefinitely, so it is impossible.
- You can hold individual workouts with unit reps – singles, instead of the usual, mnogofotonnykh. Of course, the singles cannot be performed on a few workouts in a row. And again, the force can be increased, but mass is not.
- You can use some exercises are incomplete, partial amplitude (example: lockouts and partial presses).
- Better to avoid really hard training methods – all you need to know the measure. But too sorry for myself is not necessary, if you want to achieve good results.
What to do if you have sore muscles after strength training?
The answer to this question partially already in the previous paragraph: progress in mass and strength and the only thing by and large, the measure of success in strength training. The power is also growing in different ways: from powerlifters is primarily the result of one maximum repetition in the competitive movements for bodybuilders interesting increase in the force applied to the working weights for 6-12 reps.
But if there is no progress and muscle pain, the athlete should ask themselves the question: why does sore muscles after workout? Whether not therefore that the intensity of the training to run the mechanisms of growth of muscle just not enough? Rather, it is so.
In this case, you need to seriously reconsider their entire method of training: to focus on basic mnogocwetnye exercises work with free weights, less wasting time on the equipment just to do the exercises comfortably and conveniently. If you are working on muscle mass, then exercise should be regular and moderately intense. Then the progress will not keep itself waiting. Of course, this will increase in muscle pain. But again, to judge the results training only on the presence or absence of fever is impossible.
How to distinguish between delayed onset muscle soreness from injury?
For an experienced athlete to determine the difference between a pleasant post-workout pain in the muscles and the sharp pain from the injury is not difficult. Well, for those who have experience in sports is still not a lot, a list of the main differences between the following:
- No matter how strong was not soreness, it almost never would make it impossible to exercise on the target muscle. Sharp “shooting” or “cutting” pain in the injured joint or tendon, which restricts movement, the delayed onset muscle soreness is not typical.
- The difference between the two kinds of pain and areas of localization: it is clear that if discomfort is felt inside the joint, where muscle tissue do not, then this is definitely the injury; but soft “sipping” pain in the muscles of delayed onset muscle soreness, there is nothing to worry about.
- Affected parts can swell, sometimes they become hotter to the touch than the adjacent areas of skin, delayed onset muscle soreness when this does not happen.
What not to do when delayed onset muscle soreness?
If the athlete feels significant muscle pain after exercise, he should do three things:
- To implement the new high-intensity training on muscle pain which has not completely passed. Light on the contrary, it is possible, it will reduce pain.
- You should not ship the body of various drugs: analgesic, anti-inflammatory etc. It is a symptomatic treatment restoring the muscle still will not accelerate but the risk of side effects of systematic use of the same drugs is the place to be. To the same medications cost money – it is better to spend money on good sports nutrition.
- And the main thing is not to quit sports. Hard work in the athletic hall, in which the trainee overcomes known discomfort during and after training can turn a weak skinny guy to a muscular athlete, just so and not otherwise. But soreness is just a collateral effect.
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