8 Ways To Ease Post-Workout Muscle Soreness | Henry Ford Health

Posted on
March
25,
2016
by



Nick Parkinson, M.Ed., AT, ATC, TSAC-F

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If you’ve ever hiked to the top of a mountain, ran a longer distance than you planned or carried a child around the Detroit Zoo, chances are you’ve experienced post-workout muscle soreness. Muscle soreness is a common consequence of overworking your body.

Muscles grow and become stronger when they’re subjected to forces that cause microscopic tears in the muscle fibers. Fluid rushes to the area to flush out the damaged cells and build new, stronger muscle cells—and that can be uncomfortable.

The discomfort actually has a formal name: delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS, and it’s nothing to fear. In fact, muscle soreness anywhere from 12 to 48 hours after a workout is a sign that your muscles are getting used to your fitness routine. The downside? Too much muscle soreness can impact your range of motion.

While there’s no silver bullet to avoiding muscle soreness, the following 8 strategies may be helpful during the recovery process:

1. Eat right. Your body needs protein to repair muscles, carbohydrates to fuel your next workout and healthy fats to lubricate your joints. So it’s important to fuel up both before and after a workout. Eat a bowl of quinoa with steamed vegetables and chicken or nosh on a slice of peanut butter toast and an apple pre- or post-workout. The key is to not go hungry!
2. Hydrate. When it comes to muscle recovery, dehydration is one of your biggest enemies. To flush damaged muscle, you need fluid. A good rule of thumb is to gulp down 8 ounces of water for every 15 to 30 minutes of exercise. Skip this vital step, and your soreness will not only feel more intense, it will last longer, too. Try this: Step on a scale before and after your workout. Did you lose weight? Drink 8 ounces of water for every lost pound.
3. Warm up. Take 10 to 15 minutes to stretch out your muscles before exercise with some stretching exercises followed by easy aerobic activity (a slow jog or a brisk walk). Make sure to get a good amount of blood flow to the muscles you’re training that day. The muscles should feel warm, especially if you’re running in cold weather. Not only will this strategy prevent injury, it also primes your muscles for rebuilding post-activity.
4. Cool down. Reverse the order of your warm up, and you’ll have a solid cool down. Taking time to slow your workout, rather than just stopping cold turkey, can help prevent fluid from pooling in the muscles and joints. Plus, if your heart is really pumping, a 10 to 15 minute cool down will help your breathing return to normal.
5. Get a rubdown. Massaging a sore muscle can help release tightness. Working through the knots helps the muscle relax itself. It also sends blood flow to the area and pushes pooled fluid out of the body, which helps speed recovery. A bonus: It feels good!
6. Consider topical solutions. While topical ointments like BenGay, Traumeel, Tiger Balm and others don’t go deep enough to reach the muscle, they do contain ingredients that are cooling, numbing and tingling. If you’re really sore, that coolness can overpower the pain, but it doesn’t speed muscle recovery.
7. Roll it out. Using a foam roller (a long, cylinder-like tool) increases blood flow to your muscles through applied pressure. Think of it as a cheap way to give yourself a deep tissue massage. By slowing rolling over areas of tension, you can help release tight muscles and speed up the healing and recovery process. After your workout, spend 10 to 15 minutes using a foam roller before starting stretching exercises. When the muscle is more relaxed, you’ll be able to stretch it further than if it’s still contracted.
8. Keep moving. Exercise may seem like a bad idea when your muscles are already suffering, but research confirms that light activity helps keep the blood circulating and speeds up the body’s ability to drain waste and chemicals linked with muscle aches.

If you’re more comfortable sitting on the sidelines than running a marathon, expect some muscle soreness when you start a new exercise regimen. But don’t let achy muscles scare you. It’s perfectly normal to experience muscle soreness when you’re just starting out. But over time, your body will adapt and build stronger muscles, so you’ll get sore less often.

That said, it’s important to know the difference between run-of-the-mill muscle soreness and an overuse injury. If you can’t flex and extend your limbs without pain after a couple of days, you may have an injury and should call your doctor.

From injury prevention to treatment of sports-related conditions, visit henryford. com/sports for an appointment within 24 business hours or to download our sports medicine app, featuring first aid/injury help, videos for all athletes, contact information for physicians and trainers, and more.

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Active Recovery Workouts and How They Can Ease Muscle Soreness

Written by WebMD Editorial Contributors

In this Article

• Why You Get Sore After Exercise
• Why Active Recovery Workouts Help Ease Muscle Soreness
• Exercises for Active Recovery
• When Not to Use Active Recovery
• Other Ways to Ease Sore Muscles

Whether you’re a serious athlete or an occasional exerciser, you’ve probably felt the pain of muscle soreness after a hard workout. As long as you are just sore and not injured, you may feel better faster with an active recovery workout, vs. passive recovery (just resting your body).

Exercise can cause sore muscles.

Active recovery workouts don’t need to take up too much of your time. They also don’t need to be hard – they shouldn’t be – and may include low-intensity exercise, yoga, swimming, or foam rolling.

Muscles grow and get stronger when you work them hard enough to cause tiny tears in the muscle tissue. It’s a natural process, but it can still cause mild discomfort. 

A different soreness happens when you try a new exercise or a new movement. It usually occurs hours or even a day or two later. Called delayed onset muscle soreness or DOMS, this can involve actual damage to muscles. To avoid this type of pain, experts recommend that when you try an unfamiliar sport or activity, you cut the duration by one-third. DOMS can also happen when you perform a familiar activity but you go extra hard.

Experts once thought that DOMS was due to lactic acid buildup in muscles, but they now recognize that’s not actually true. While the body forms lactic acid when it calls on stored energy, that excess lactic acid disappears rapidly when the period of exertion ends. It doesn’t cause soreness that can persist days later.

When you have any type of muscle pain after exercising, you have two options: passive recovery or active recovery. Passive recovery is resting the body. This type of recovery is good for strains and other injuries. For other post-exercise aches and pains, though, experts recommend active recovery, which can be almost any type of light exercise.

Active recovery works because it increases blood flow to the muscles and joints. This improved blood supply takes away toxins and brings in fresh nutrients for healing.

Active recovery workouts should be moderate in intensity. Aim at a heart rate of 30% to 60% of your maximum. Studies show that recovery workouts are less effective when they are hard or vigorous.

There are many exercise options for active recovery. It’s smart to choose an activity that you like so your recovery will be as helpful to your body as your mind. Some active recovery workouts include:

Low-intensity exercise. It’s OK to use your regular form of exercise for an active recovery workout. Just remember to dial down the intensity. If you walk or jog, do it at a pace that makes it possible to carry on a conversation. A bike ride is another option. You can even do weight training if you decrease your weight, repetitions, or both. 

Yoga. Yoga, and especially slow-paced disciplines like yin yoga, are great for recovery. Yoga can refresh you mentally and psychologically while aiding your physical recovery. 

Foam rolling. Some people find relief from sore muscles by using a foam roller, which combines the benefits of exercise and massage. To try this method, place the roller between the floor and the sore area of the body. Slowly roll on it to put light pressure on the muscles. 

Foam rolling can be uncomfortable, and beginners should use it in small doses while avoiding pressure on bones and joints.

Swimming and water exercise. Working out in water allows you to benefit from the pressure of the water on the body, which can be compared to the sensation of a light massage. This pressure improves circulation while minimizing stress on the joints. 

In one study of runners, those who used swimming for recovery outperformed a passive recovery group on a run the following day.

Pain that exceeds normal soreness means that you may need rest or medical care. Besides taxing the muscles, exercise can put stress on bones, tendons, and cartilage. Pain in these areas is likely to be due to an injury. Active recovery strategies could make the injury worse. 

See your doctor if you have any of these symptoms after exercise:

• Pain that is constant, sharp, or worsening 
• Pain in the area of a previous injury or surgery
• A painful area that looks deformed, bruised, or swollen
• Pain that doesn’t improve with rest, icing, or anti-inflammatory medications
• Pain combined with fever, chills, nausea, or vomiting
• Pain that interferes with sleep

Rest: Taking a day off gives your body a chance to repair itself and replenishes your energy. Jennifer Rulon, a seven-time Ironman triathlete and triathlon coach, says the second day after an intense workout can be the toughest. So she suggests doing light exercise the day after a heavy workout, then taking off the next day.

Ice: Icing for 20 to 30 minutes can lessen blood flow to sore muscles, which often reduces swelling and pain. And remember: Just because you can’t see muscles swelling doesn’t mean they are not inflamed. Be sure to put a towel between the ice pack and your skin and stick to the time limit (20-30 minutes) to protect your skin. 

Heat: If your muscles still ache after 48 hours, try applying some heat (carefully). It can stimulate blood flow to your muscles to ease tightness and help them feel better. Try a warm (not hot) towel or heating pad. But be careful. Take care and watch your body’s response. In some cases, heat can further inflame muscles. Follow manufacturer instructions to avoid skin burns, and avoid direct contact with any heating device.

Stretching: A gentle stretching routine can help break the cycle of tight sore muscles. Talk to your health care provider or a physical therapist if you’re unsure where to start, especially if you have any injuries.

Massage: It can relieve muscle tension, boost blood flow, and increase the range of motion in your joints. It’s also a great mood lifter. When your muscles are sore, a gentle massage is best. Light pressure may be better for recovery than a deep-tissue massage. Or try tender-point acupressure in which a massage therapist applies pressure and holds it directly on the tender areas.

Medication: You can try an anti-inflammatory medication. Over-the-counter versions can reduce swelling and relieve pain. Try aspirin, ibuprofen, or naproxen.

Compression garments: Wearing compression­ sleeves during or after a workout can­ help decrease muscle soreness afterward ­and help you recover ­for your next workout. Sleeves might go over your calves when you run, and over your arms when you lift weights. Your health care team can help find the right fit for you.

Nutrition: Make sure you get enough nutrients to feed your tired muscles and replenish your energy stores. A good balance of protein, fat, and carbohydrates is important. In general, protein helps with muscle repair and carbohydrates help replenish energy stores after aerobic exercise. Be sure to get enough water and electrolytes (essential minerals like sodium, potassium, and magnesium) too.  

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How to get rid of muscle pain after a workout – advice from a practicing trainer

You cannot completely get rid of muscle pain after a good workout. Unless you stop exercising.

But it is possible to make the pain less severe and pass faster. In this article, I will give some recommendations that work for me and my clients.

WHY MUSCLES HURT AFTER WORKOUT

Articles on medical websites talk about adenosine***ric acid and changes in blood pH. All this is very interesting, but incomprehensible.

Let’s keep it simple – on the example of Spider-Man. It will help you understand why muscles ache after intense physical activity, as well as why this is normal and inevitable. We need an episode from the second part, where the main character stops the train flying into the abyss. In general terms, the same thing happens with Peter Parker at this moment as with our muscles during and after exercise.

Four points are important to us.

During training, the muscles experience a load, so microtrauma occurs – small tears in the fibers. Then they are restored: new fibers “grow” and a little more on top. Due to this, the muscles grow and become stronger.

And during recovery, the muscles hurt – like any injury, while it heals. Some get off with mild discomfort, others experience severe muscle pain, and still others cannot move at all. Sometimes it happens that the temperature rises – it depends on how the recovery of the body proceeds in a particular person.

HOW TO PREVENT MUSCLE PAIN AFTER WORKOUT

We have found that muscles hurt while they are recovering, which means that we need to help our body in this. It is unlikely that it will be possible to completely relieve muscle pain, but it can be alleviated. I will give you 4 recommendations.

Work 15-20 reps on your first workouts . The muscles are not yet ready for intense loads, and if they are overloaded, there will be more microtraumas, and the pain will be stronger. It is optimal to work with a weight with which you can do 15-20 repetitions: this way you load, but do not overload the muscles. And already in the next workouts, when the pain passes, go to the standard 8-12 repetitions.

Get enough sleep – at this time the body is recovering . Getting enough sleep is the best way to reduce muscle soreness after exercise. The faster the body recovers from exercise, the faster you get rid of pain. And sleep is the most natural way to recover.

It’s not just about taking a nap after a workout – you need to follow the rules of healthy sleep regularly: . One phase lasts 90-120 minutes.

Eat right so your muscles have the material to rebuild . To restore muscles after microtrauma, the body needs resources, and they are taken from food. The two main pillars of proper nutrition:

1. Sufficient kilocalories.
2. The correct ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates:

50% carbohydrates, 30% proteins, 20% fats.

Take supplements to perfect your recovery . In addition to proteins, fats and carbohydrates, the body needs a whole list of trace elements. In theory, you can get them with a diet that consists of regular store-bought products, but in practice, you are tormented to study and select them. It is easier to take dietary supplements pointwise, in which the necessary microelements are concentrated.

❗ Do not buy dietary supplements based on advice from articles on the Internet. They need to be selected specifically for your body. Make an appointment with a nutritionist, take tests – and you will be given a personal prescription.

I advise you to take a health check-up at least once a year, because the needs for trace elements change: today you lack omega-3, and in a year everything is fine with omega-3, but you do not have enough vitamin D3.

WHAT TO DO IF THE MUSCLES ARE ALREADY aching

The advice above is correct, but when getting up from the couch right now is akin to a feat, there is no time for healthy sleep and BJU. Here’s what you can do to reduce muscle soreness after a workout if your arms are stiff and your legs refuse to walk right now.

Move more . The tenth step on aching legs no longer brings as much suffering as the first. And on the hundredth step, you don’t even notice the pain. So the best way to relieve pain is to endure it.

Chest pain . Exercise with an emphasis on stretching the pectoral muscles. Do simple physical exercises: swings to the sides and up and down, stretch. The first repetitions should be calm and accurate (but it won’t work out differently, it hurts), then you need to gradually increase the amplitude and sharpness of movements – as a result, 5-10 minutes is enough to feel relatively comfortable.

Arms hurt – biceps and triceps . Do the same: first, just bend and unbend your arms, then stretch them – and you will be able to use cutlery normally at breakfast.

Legs hurt . Just get up and go somewhere.

A selection of recovery exercises is available in the Spirit app. Woke up in the morning with muscle pain – open a set of exercises, complete it in 10-15 minutes – and that’s it, the day is saved.

Don’t stay too long during the day: get up often to loosen up your muscles. If you take long breaks and sit still, then the muscles will “stagnate” and hurt with every movement, like for the first time. That is why muscles hurt the most in the morning – they stagnate after several hours of sleep.

Take anti-inflammatories . Muscle microtrauma as a result of training leads to inflammation, which is why they hurt. Relieve inflammation appropriate means – for example, “Nimesil” or its analogues. These drugs are sold in a pharmacy without a prescription, you just have to crawl to it 🙂 Do not forget to carefully study the contraindications and side effects before use.

Warm up well in the sauna . High temperatures help relieve muscle pain, but only for a moment. As soon as the body cools down to normal temperature, the pain will return. This advice can be applied, but don’t count on it too much.

HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE “NORMAL” MUSCLE PAIN FROM INJURY

It happens that beginners write off an injury as normal post-workout pain and make themselves feel worse. Or vice versa: there is no injury, but it hurts as if there is. Therefore, you need to figure out which muscle pain is normal, and which one is worth worrying about.

Normal muscle pain is present but does not feel like something serious. It is even pleasant to some extent – you experience a kind of pleasure when you stretch through this pain.

Such pain complicates movement but does not limit it. Let’s say if your chest muscles hurt after a workout, then spreading your arms to the sides will be hard, but you can do it.

In general, normal muscle pain is like pulling at maximum speed.

If you have such pain, then everything is fine, it will pass.

Anxious muscle pain . But other manifestations may be the result of serious injuries: sprain or rupture of ligaments, muscle damage: ↓

hurts even when not moving;

the pain is so severe that it is impossible to move through it;

pain in a specific place. During normal recovery, the entire muscle group hurts, and if one place hurts, it looks like an injury;

the pain does not go away for a long time. Usually the peak of pain occurs on the second or third day, and on the fourth or fifth it gradually subsides. If the pain does not subside for a week – it’s time to deal with it.

Banal but correct advice: if something is wrong, go to a specialist. It is better to know that everything is fine than to suffer the consequences later.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO EXERCISE WHEN YOUR MUSCLES ARE aching

If your muscles hurt because of a sports injury, then you should not train, so as not to aggravate it. If we are talking about a suspected injury, it is also better to suspend training until the reasons are clarified.

If, after a previous workout, the muscles hurt so much that it is very difficult to move, or even the temperature rises, do not torment the body, it is better to let it recover calmly.

Otherwise, you can train with muscle pain. If necessary, you can adjust the training: reduce the intensity, reduce the weight, or work out the muscle group that does not hurt.

If you are from Moscow, come to Spirit. for restorative group workouts with a roll or for relaxing yoga. In the group, the participants work together, and the coach sets the tone for the entire program.

HIGHLIGHTS

1. Muscle pain after exercise is a natural process. During the load, microtraumas occur, and while they heal, the muscles hurt.
2. The pain will pass faster and will not be as severe if you sleep enough, eat right, and the body receives trace elements in the right amount.
3. If you have just started exercising or have come to training after a break, work with weights for 15-20 reps. The muscles are not yet ready for maximum loads, and if you take large weights, there will be more microtraumas, and the pain will be stronger.
4. If you’re just starting out or coming to a workout after a break, work with weights for 15-20 reps. The muscles are not yet ready for maximum loads, and if you take large weights, there will be more microtraumas, and the pain will be stronger.
5. With muscle pain, it is important to move. At first it will be unpleasant, but very soon the pain will become much weaker. This is better than letting the muscles “stagnate” first, and then howling with each movement.
6. You can train with muscle pain. But whether it is necessary – depends on you. If you don’t need it, then you don’t have to train 🙂

Muscles hurt after training—What should I do? How to relieve pain?

Physical activity is beneficial for the body – this is a proven fact that is beyond doubt. The end of each workout brings not only a sense of self-satisfaction, but also muscle pain. She is completely different. Both pleasant fatigue and aching pain can be felt, which does not allow muscle tissues to fully contract. To understand why this happens, you need to take a closer look at how loads act on the muscles. Thanks to the understanding of the origin of pain after training, you can minimize and muffle this not always pleasant feeling.

Most often, beginners and athletes experience strong pain after a long pause in training or changing one program to another. Everyone wants to stop experiencing aching pain, but this consequence can be avoided only when there is a clear idea of ​​why the pain appears at all.

There are two types of muscle pain that appear at the initial stage of sports activities, which are considered natural and therefore safe.

• One occurs right during a workout, at the moment when you perform the last, most difficult repetitions of exercises. Why is this happening?

During training, ATP (adenosine triphosphoric acid), which is the most important source of energy, begins to decompose in muscle tissue and blood. Because of this, there is an accumulation of hydrogen ions in the blood and muscles, and the pH of the blood begins to shift towards oxidation. It is because of the “acidification” of the blood that a burning sensation occurs. It passes quite quickly: the blood and increased air ventilation in the lungs help the body cope with the accumulated hydrogen ions. But all subsequent pain sensations are associated with microdamages in muscle tissue.

• The second is the so-called krepatura, or delayed muscle pain.

It occurs 6-8 hours after exercise and reaches a maximum after about 2-3 days. As a rule, its appearance is the result of unusual or excessively increased physical activity. Most likely, you have experienced krepatura more than once: not only at the very beginning of fitness classes, but also when mastering new sets of exercises or increasing their duration and intensity. The cause of this type of pain is microscopic damage or even rupture of muscle fibers.

A large number of muscle microdamages inhibits the growth of muscle tissue. This is due to the fact that amino acids are needed for muscle growth, which are also needed for the healing of damaged muscles. Severe damage to muscle tissue “steals” amino acids for healing, thereby preventing muscle fibers from growing.

Traumatic causes of muscle pain

The exact opposite of natural pain is the severe pain that occurs as a result of an injury. Such pain is aching in nature, intensifies even from minor exertion and becomes unbearable with a sharp movement.

The pain syndrome appears immediately, during training, sometimes the next day.

If you have redness and swelling of tissues, bruising, general malaise, this clearly indicates a serious injury to the muscles and ligaments. In this case, do not delay going to the doctor!

The biggest cause of injuries in the gym is negligence. To avoid unpleasant consequences, it is enough to follow a few simple rules. Not worth it:
start immediately to heavy exercises, skipping the warm-up;

continue to exercise on the simulators, experiencing any inconvenience;
take on unbearable weight in strength training;
during training, ignore the appearance of a crunch or clicks in the joints;

To reduce pain, you need to resort to the following methods:

• Massage. It allows you to disperse the blood throughout the body, to ensure the flow of nutrients to the desired areas.
• Restorative activity. Such training involves using 50% of the usual working weights with 15-20 repetitions per set, which gives blood flow to the muscles. They receive nutrients and recover faster. The meaning of such exercises is not only to reduce pain, but also to repeat the technique of movements, honing your skills.
• Hitch. Due to muscle stretching, blood flow increases, which increases and accelerates the process of removing damaged cells, and, consequently, reduces pain.
• Proper nutrition. A lot of protein must be present in the diet, the amount of which is from 2 to 2.5 g per 1 kg of its own weight. To prevent catabolism, get simple amino acids, you should take BCAAs. This also applies to glutamine, which also strengthens the immune system, which helps to accelerate the full recovery of the body. Creatine supplementation allows you to increase the endurance and strength of muscle tissue by increasing the concentration of creatine phosphate.
• Have a good rest. If there is pain that interferes with exercise, you should take a break for 2-5 days. This will allow you to fully recover and start exercising with renewed vigor.

Along with these methods, you can resort to hardening, visiting a bath, sauna, using a warming ointment, and so on. These methods lead to improved blood circulation in damaged structures, which allows the muscles to recover much faster.

Is it possible to train when the muscles are still sore from the previous workout?

This question is often asked by novice athletes, and there is no definite answer to it, it all depends on the goals that the trainee sets for himself.