About sore muscles and how to treat/prevent them.

So you started your work-out program and in all enthusiasm you really went for it.

Result? Pain...

Even 2 or 3 days after your workout you have trouble getting up from you chair and facing those stairs seem like a challenge you won't manage.

Sore muscles aren't necessarily a problem, but it's always good to listen to your body and treat it in the best possible way to avoid real pain. No pain no gain is a slogan only invented to sooth people with compensation issues if you ask me. Soreness or pain is NOT needed to prove that your work-out has been effective.

First of all, when is it too much?

Here we need to explain different types of soreness. you could have acute soreness, when you will feel your work-out almost immediately after and in a few hours it seems to be improving already. This is not a problem, it's only a sign of the lactic acid build-up you reached in your muscles during work-out.

If your soreness only shows up the day after and peaks in the 24-72 hours after your work-out you're suffering from DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). This type of soreness is the result of many microscopic tears in your muscles and the inflammatory reaction of your body trying to heal them. This type of soreness is also not alarming, as long as you don't suffer from it on a regular basis. It's usually the result of exercises you have never done before or the result of adding too much resistance too fast to exercises you are used to. (think of people running to the gym right after corona and trying to make up for lost time...bad idea).

How to treat it?

Even when simple exercises hurt during these days it's important to keep your muscles moving. Think of any exercise your grandma would be able to perform, a short walk, swimming, cycling. Anything your body is used to is good to get your blood flowing and help recovery. Staying on the sofa will only make it worse. You could also try to take a bath to relax your muscles, add some epsom salt for added magnesium intake could help the recovery. Less popular but very good is an ice bath, easier could be a cold shower or ending your shower with a few minutes of cold on the muscles that are most sore.

Lastly you could massage your muscles, get a professional massage, work with a foam roller or just do it yourself, this will also increase blood flow and help recovery, you could use tigerbalm or any other cooling/warming gel to increase the effectiveness.

Most important is to wait with training these same muscles until the pain is completely gone. You can work-out again if you feel your muscles but pain is a sign that you should take it a bit easier and maybe work on a different muscle group instead.

How to prevent it?

Even more important is trying to prevent it. As I mentioned soreness is not needed to show you that your work-out has been effective and even if a little bit could be nice and confirming that your hard work is paying off, actual pain is never a good sign and should be avoided.

First of all you need to take time to warm-up. Think about the muscle-groups your targeting in your work-out and integrate them in your warm-up. You could use the same exercises in a light version and spend at least 5 min on your warm-up. Some people like stretching before their work-outs as well but I am personally not a big fan of stretching cold muscles. I think dynamic, light exercises are better to get your body ready for the hard work. You find an example of a great running warm-up/full body workout warm-up below.

Secondly you need to take some time to cool down. It's never a bad idea to decrease the intensity of your work-out in the last round, think less resistance, no weight or less repetitions, or walking instead of running the last km. This allows your body to start the cooldown and get ready for stretching. When it comes to stretching you have a few options but always stretch the muscles you have focused on. Then depending on your preference you could take deep, shorter stretches 8-10 seconds, or light long stretches where you go a bit less into the movement, thinking you could sit/stand like that for a minute or longer and hold at least 30 sec. Repeat a few times. Take a short walk and swing your arms/roll your shoulders as a final step.

Example warm-up

1. running

You'll be using your lower body mostly so this will be in focus but don't forget your core and upper body since warming these will help you run better.

run lightly for 30 sec - walk for 30 sec

do 10 forward lunges on each side

run lightly for 30 sec - walk for 30 sec

do 10 high jumps + 10 calf raises (stand on your toes)

swing your L leg forward and back a few times, repeat on the right

take a few short sprints starting seated on one knee, tap the floor before you sprint back

roll your shoulders, swing your arms

turn your upper body from left to right (x10)

2. full body work-out

roll your shoulders, swing your arms

swing your L leg forward and back a few times, repeat on the right

take 5 backward lunges - high knees on each side

1 min (pretend) rope skipping

take 5 forward lunges on each side

1 min high knees

take 5 side lunges on each side

roll your shoulders, swing your arms