As much as we would love to exercise for better health and stay active for eternity, some times the exercise comes with condition called DOMS or Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. Whether you like it or not soreness will happen as we get stronger and that is also how our muscles get stronger.
But how can DOMS or soreness can be managed so soreness won't last too long?
Before we look into few options, let's talk about how the soreness is happening.
Definition of DOMS
Definition of DOMS or delayed onset muscle soreness is pain, stiffness and tenderness felt from several hours to day after strenuous exercise. Strenuous level is relative to the muscle condition that one may have. If someone is recovering from injury, strenuous level to feel muscles soreness can be different from prior to the injury.
Muscle Soreness can be painful to the point you may not able to put any weight on it and some soreness you cannot even feel pain but you'll know the stiffness or tenderness is there.
Mechanism of DOMS
When exercising, we put our muscle under load. When we use a load (lbs) that our body is not used to or exercise frequency (repetitions) that body has not performed before, then there can be a rupture within the muscles. After the rupture body send more blood and enzyme to rebuild the damaged muscle fibers, which may causes the discomfort and pain.
Let's say for example that you are comfortable with performing 5lb dumbbell biceps curls for 8 repetitions. What you want to do is either increase the weight to 8lb and/or increase the repetitions to 10 repetitions. By doing so, you are loading your biceps muscles with more resistance and frequency. When this change happens, the muscle gets ruptured and body send signal for repair and work on adapting to the work that was done to the muscles.
This process is very vital to build the muscles stronger. As the muscle gets stronger, same workload will not cause muscle soreness because the muscle will not be damaged any longer. This is called adaptation.
Various Case of DOMS
There are several different cases that I encounter throughout my training career. One example is shared above where muscle is adapting to the workload.
Another example is muscle is adapting to it's function. If you ever workout, you will realize that there are so many different ways to exercise the same muscles. Even with the same workload, by changing the movement pattern, the body, including muscles, joints, ligaments, tendons, and nerves has to learn to adapt to those various movement. Because of this adaptation process you can feel soreness in so many different area of the body.
Great example is flexibility in child and adult. When we were younger we were somewhat more mobile and flexible. As we get older and start sitting in front of the desk or not being physically active, our muscle starts to get comfortable with being short and less elastic. To bring the muscle back to original length as we had in our youth, it does require effort which can cause muscle soreness just like you feel when you lift weight. By the way it is not because we got older that our muscle get stiff. It is because we are not moving and challenging the body enough.
Hormonal imbalance can also have affect. Cortisol or stress hormone which is secreted by adrenal glands. To keep it simple, those who have high and chronic stress cause the cortisol level to be high will eventually lead to muscle stiffness. For this type of people, they feel soreness all the time because they are fighting against tight or shortened muscles.
How to Manage DOMS
So how do we manage DOMS?
Most important thing is to relax but move the body. Especially after the exercise, you want to loosen up your body. To do so, stretching will become most essential to restoring the muscle functions to normal. While stretching it is important to start by easy stretch where you feel the stretch by you are not holding your breath or stiffening up your body. It is not very hard to stretch tight muscles but very difficult to stretch tensed muscles.
Second thing is to keep the body warm. Just like in cold weather, our body does stiffens when under the cold environment. By keeping the body warm, blood circulation will be more efficient than when the body is stiffens under the cold environment. Only time you should ice the sore area is when there is a swelling.
Third is hydration. Reason is muscle is more than 70% water. Protein, vitamin, minerals are all important to rebuild muscles but without water, soreness can last for longer duration.
Fourth is eating healthy. There is so much science behind this one but I will not go too deep. Instead, I want you to think. If you had a luxury car, would you put cheap fuel or premium fuel? Same thing goes for the body. If you want your body to be in prime condition, do not negotiate your diet. Don't need to be perfect but at least consume natural food sources as much as you can.
Fifth is sleep. Lack of sleep will slow down the recovery process and can cause the soreness to stay for longer time.
Try avoid taking pain medications as much as you can. See if you can stretch, move and warm up your body first. If the pain is continuing and still severe to the point your day is compromised then you can take them.
Muscle soreness is uncomfortable and sometimes it is even painful. However, it is the way that our body gets stronger and healthier. Keep challenging your body, and do above 5 DOMS management and you will be ready for your next workout session.
Kota Shimada
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