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Muscle soreness is a common occurrence after a new or strenuous workout. It is caused by microscopic tears in the muscle fibres and the inflammation around them. This is known as Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) and is the body's response to physical stress. While sore muscles are not dangerous, they can be uncomfortable and impact your ability to perform daily tasks. Fortunately, there are several ways to relieve muscle soreness and prevent it from occurring in the future.
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What You'll Learn
Warm up and cool down
Warming up before a workout is critical to preventing injuries. It prepares your cardiovascular system for physical activity by increasing blood flow to your muscles and raising your body temperature. This helps to loosen your joints and lower the risk of injury, making your muscles less likely to rip, tear, or twist during your workout. Warm-up activities include light jogging, slow cycling, and dynamic stretching. Spending 5 to 10 minutes before each workout doing dynamic stretches can help reduce muscle soreness up to two days later.
Additionally, warming up helps you gradually increase your heart rate and breathing to a level that can meet the demands of your workout. It also helps you mentally prepare for your workout by improving your focus, coordination, and skill.
Cooling down after your workout is equally important. It aims to gradually bring your heart rate and blood pressure back to their normal levels. This is crucial as abruptly stopping all motion after a workout can be harmful. During an intense workout, lactic acid builds up in your system, and cooling down helps release and remove this acid, aiding your body's recovery process.
Cool-down exercises, such as low-intensity cycling or walking, help to alleviate muscle soreness, keeping you comfortable and ready for your next workout. Static stretching after a workout can also boost flexibility in your joints and muscles. It is important to note that while cooling down helps regulate blood flow, it may not always prevent a loss of muscle force.
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Stay hydrated
Staying hydrated is critical for muscle recovery and reducing soreness. Dehydration can make your recovery feel worse, decrease your endurance and pain tolerance, and negatively impact your muscle performance. Therefore, it is important to drink enough water during the day and during your workout, especially if you sweat a lot. Water helps control your body temperature, loosen your joints, and transport nutrients to create energy. It also helps with muscle soreness and tension by flushing toxins out of the body and reducing joint inflammation.
The amount of water someone should drink to stay hydrated depends on their physical size and the intensity of their activities. Experts recommend drinking half of one's body weight in ounces to relieve dehydration symptoms and improve alertness, energy levels, and healing. Drinking water throughout the day and during physical activity is essential, as humans lose body fluids when they exercise, sweat, go to the bathroom, and even breathe.
However, it is important to note that drinking too much water can lead to hyponatremia, a rare condition where the kidneys cannot get rid of excess water, resulting in low sodium levels in the blood that can cause muscle spasms, cramps, and headaches. Therefore, staying hydrated does not mean overhydrating, but rather maintaining proper hydration to ensure your body has enough fluids to operate optimally.
In addition to water, other fluids such as tea and soda can also contribute to hydration. However, water is the most effective hydration source, and it is recommended to have a water bottle with you at all times to ensure adequate fluid intake. Proper hydration will help you stay energized, alert, and prepared for heavy tasks, ultimately aiding in muscle recovery and reducing soreness.
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Active recovery
There are many ways to incorporate active recovery into your fitness routine. For example, you can practice slow, easy movements as part of your cooldown sequence after a vigorous training session. This could include a slow jog, a brisk walk, or a gentle swim or cycle. Yoga, especially slow-paced disciplines like yin yoga, is also great for active recovery, as it aids physical recovery and provides mental and psychological refreshment.
Another option is to do light resistance training or weight training with decreased weights and repetitions. You can also try swimming, which has been shown to be an effective recovery method that can improve performance on subsequent days.
Foam rolling is another tool for active recovery. It increases blood flow to your muscles through applied pressure, acting as a form of self-massage. By slowly rolling over areas of tension, you can help release tight muscles and speed up the healing and recovery process.
In addition to active recovery, there are other ways to aid muscle recovery. Staying hydrated is important, as water eases inflammation, flushes out waste, and delivers nutrients to your muscles. Getting adequate sleep is also critical, as it increases protein synthesis, which is needed to repair damaged muscles.
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Massage and foam rolling
Massage
Massage therapy is a great way to prevent and relieve muscle soreness. A sports massage can help loosen tight muscles and reduce soreness, allowing for faster recovery times. Massage can also be used to treat or prevent soft tissue restrictions.
Foam Rolling
Foam rolling is a self-myofascial release (SMR) technique that can help relieve muscle tightness, soreness, and inflammation, and increase joint flexibility and range of motion. It is a great way to improve blood flow and the elasticity of muscle tissue, joints, and fascia (connective tissue). Foam rolling can be done at home with easily purchasable equipment and can be a relaxing way to unwind.
Foam rolling can be done for 20-30 minutes at a time, either before or after a workout, or on rest days. It can be done on various muscle groups, including the legs, upper back, neck, and shoulders. When foam rolling, it is important to roll slowly and focus on areas that feel tight or tender.
Other Tips to Reduce Muscle Soreness
- Stay hydrated: Water helps control body temperature, loosen joints, and transport nutrients to create energy.
- Warm-up and cool-down: Warming up before a workout increases blood flow to the muscles, and cooling down helps circulate blood back from the muscles to the heart.
- Stretch: Dynamic stretches before a workout and static stretches after can help prevent and relieve muscle soreness.
- Compression gear: Compression sleeves can improve circulation and blood flow, reducing the impact on your muscles and subsequent soreness.
- Cold and heat therapy: Using ice or cold therapy can help numb pain and reduce swelling and inflammation, while heat therapy increases blood flow and relaxes the muscles.
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Cold and heat therapy
On the other hand, heat therapy increases the flow of blood to the muscles, helping them relax and aiding in regaining your range of motion. Heat therapy is especially beneficial within 24 hours of exercise. One study found that within 24 hours of exercise, hot packs were the most effective for pain relief, followed by contrast water therapy.
Combining both heat and cold therapy may be beneficial in reducing overall pain and muscle soreness after a workout. For example, Epsom salt baths, which use magnesium sulfate, are believed to provide muscle relaxation and reduce pain when paired with heat therapy. However, it is important to consult a healthcare professional before trying this method.
While cold and heat therapy can be effective, it is important to note that there is currently no clear consensus on the efficacy of either method for reducing delayed-onset muscle soreness. This is due to the differences in exercise type, temperature, and timing of the application of cold and heat therapy in various studies.
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Frequently asked questions
To prevent muscle soreness, you can stretch before and after your workout, stay hydrated, and warm up with light versions of certain exercises such as slow jogging or lifting light weights.
Muscle soreness can be relieved by cold therapy, heat therapy, Epsom salt baths, foam rolling, and massage.
Muscle soreness is common and not usually a cause for concern. However, if your pain is severe, lasts longer than a week, or gets worse after 3 days, you should consult a doctor.
