We often get muscle soreness after exercise. They may be sick for a day or two. Is it okay? Should I start exercising again or should I wait? What causes muscle pain and how to relieve it? We will try to answer all these questions in this article.
A little about muscles
Energy is required for muscle contraction. It is formed during cellular respiration, which occurs in the mitochondria of muscle fibers. This process consists in extracting energy from the breakdown of glucose, amino acids and fatty acids and the formation of high-energy ATP bonds. The energy of these bonds is spent on these reductions. The oxygen that is delivered to the muscles in the blood binds to myoglobin, a red pigment similar in structure to hemoglobin.
At rest and during normal physical activity, the muscles receive a sufficient amount of oxygen, however, if untrained muscles work very intensively, then there is not enough oxygen.
Due to the lack of oxygen, your muscles begin to produce ATP anaerobically. Muscle glycogen is converted to ATP even without oxygen support. This method of obtaining energy provokes local secretion of a substance called lactic acid by contracting muscles. Since blood flow is obstructed, it stays in the muscles, causing a burning sensation. Each of us experienced muscle pain after intense physical exertion. So this pain is associated with the accumulation of lactic acid.
Obviously, the more intense the burning sensation, the more lactic acid is produced. But this only applies to weight training. If the local blood circulation is not very difficult, then some of the lactic acid is washed out and the painful sensations are not so strong.
Lactic acid doesn’t linger for hours or days. This is a very important detail, as many believe that the build-up of lactic acid during intense exercise is responsible for the ensuing muscle pain. If you feel pain 24 or 48 hours after training, lactic acid has nothing to do with it, it has been gone for a long time. Therefore, lactic acid is not related to delayed muscle pain. On the other hand, acid can cause muscle damage (micro-breaks) sufficient to trigger a catabolic process that builds up over time and ultimately causes pain.
So what to do if muscles ache unbearably?
If certain muscles hurt, then you need to stop giving them a load, at least 3-4 days. During this time, you can train another muscle group. If you work with sore muscles, you can hurt yourself. The fact is that when you, for example, lift weights, then micro-tears form in the muscles, which is the real cause of muscle pain. When you rest, especially when you sleep, these tears heal, and in their place scars form, due to which the volume of the muscles increases. Therefore, it is important to give rest to the trained muscles. If you worked on one part of the body, then let it rest for 3 days, and in the meantime, work on another.
But at the same time, in the classroom it is necessary to be systematic and not to allow long breaks, otherwise the muscles will hurt again.
Muscle pain should not be tolerated or waiting for it to recede on its own. There are several ways to reduce it. The most common way is to take a warm sea salt bath. The water temperature of such a bath should not exceed 39 degrees.
In addition, warm compresses and warming massage can be done. The massage should not bring painful sensations, it can be circular movements, tapping fingers or stretching movements from the periphery to the center. Massage helps to activate the flow of blood to the muscles, which leads to the fastest restoration of the acid balance of the body.
In order to initially prevent possible severe pain after training, it is necessary to do a good warm-up before class and cool down after them, which will significantly reduce the unpleasant pain sensations that await you in the following days.
And remember that pain is not always an indicator of muscle growth. If you often feel pain after training, then you need to reduce the load and intensity of training. In any case, the trained muscle group should feel comfortable for at least a couple of days before starting classes. Then you can be sure that she will have enough strength and time not only to recover, but also to add in growth.