Muscle Soreness 101: What Actually Causes Muscle Soreness?
( Understanding Health & Fitness from a Science Perspective - fitFlex Articles - Learn, Share and Discover! ) ..
"My legs and shoulders feel so heavy; I have a hard time lifting them. I'm going to take a day off." How often have you heard someone say this a day
or so after a hard session in the weight room? When it happens to you, you wonder. How could my body let me down like this? You, who work out for
several hours per week and are always careful to warm up and stretch beforehand-who up until this point always believed that your body could take
any punishment and that your muscle tone was excellent-should not be feeling any pain.
Lactic acid is produced during intense levels of exercise when the muscle fibers' oxygen demands increase beyond what the blood can deliver. To produce
the energy it needs, the body begins another process that works in the absence of oxygen. Lactic acid, which is a byproduct of this process, locks up your
muscles, and because it's an acid, it gives them that burning sensation.
That much of the theory is true. The catch is that the lactic acid is completely washed out of the muscles within 30 to 60 minutes after you finish exercising,
and since muscle soreness doesn't show up until 24 to 36 hours later, scientists have been exercising their brains to come up with another explanation.
Currently, the most popular theory is that when you overdo your workout with excessive weights, reps or sets, you cause micro trauma to the muscle fibers,
which equates to localized damage to the muscle fiber membranes and contractile elements.
Over the next 24 hours the damaged muscles become swollen and sore, releasing chemical irritants that set off pain receptors in the muscle. The increased activity
leads to increased blood flow to the muscle, which causes the muscle tissues to swell and, ultimately, causes enough pressure to stimulate pain receptors. The
next morning, instead of free-moving muscle fibers, you have fibers that are fatigued, swollen and full of microscopic tears.
The nerves that service the muscles perceive this abnormal state and send messages of pain to your brain as soon as you move them the next morning. By moving the
sore muscles, you gradually begin to restore them to a normal state, but you can't exercise to your full potential, because the damaged muscles have lost some
strength.
Typical short-term-treatment recommendations include stretching, topical application of sports balms and creams and hot tub or sauna sessions. Some athletes also
turn to aspirin and anti-inflammatory medications to reduce the pain and inflammation. Vitamin, mineral and herbal remedies include vitamin C, white willow bark,
devil's claw and bronielain.
Is it possible to prevent muscle soreness? Maybe not entirely, but, if you gradually increase the strength and endurance of your muscles and you stretch and warm
up properly before you exercise, you'll tend not to get as sore. Remember that heavy resistance training and activities such as cycling, running and swimming
involve certain muscles that you don't normally use regularly in your daily life. Ii all comes down to something called specificity of training, in which your
muscles, tendons and ligaments adapt to a particular sport, activity or movement pattern over a period of time.
In addition, as you grow older, your muscles and surrounding tissues lose some of their elasticity, so you're going to feel soreness and tightness more quickly
than you did in high school. People who stay in shape throughout the year even when they're in their 30s and 40s should be able to exercise with minimal muscular
soreness. After a very hard day in the weight room they may feel somewhat stiff, but a little stretching and a proper warm-up can go a long way toward keeping this
to a minimum and getting rid of it quickly.
Sore muscles are usually damaged muscles, and as with any injury you must give them time to heal. Go easy for a few days-or restrict yourself to a light workout.
After a few days you can begin to push harder again, hut don't go too hard or advance too quickly, because you'll wind up back on the sidelines. And when you're
ready to resume training at your previous level, remember that the best way to prevent or reduce muscle damage is prior physical conditioning.
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