The only downside to a good workout: the almost unavoidable muscle soreness you end up with. Muscle pain can be short or long lasting, mild or severe. But why do your muscles actually hurt during or after exercise? And what can you do about it?
What is Muscle Pain?
When you exercise, your muscles use energy. As with eating food, not always one hundred percent of the food is converted into energy, and that is also the case with your muscles: part is eventually converted into waste. Lactic acid is the most common waste product for your muscles. You can recognize lactic acid by the feeling that your arms and legs fill up and start to hurt during a short effort: so-called acidification occurs.
If you do a longer, heavy effort, or several short efforts in a row, the lactic acid accumulates in your muscles. And you will feel that over time. Just like in your home, you prefer not to have excess waste lying around in your body.
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Three types of muscle pain
When was the last time you had muscle pain? You can probably remember it in smells and colors. But there are different forms of muscle soreness, not just the version you’re probably thinking of right now.
1) Acute muscle pain
You already get acute muscle pain during exercise. It’s the feeling that your arms and legs are filling up – makes sense, because that’s exactly what happens. The lactic acid takes the upper hand and your muscles can no longer make the same effort. Fortunately, this shape doesn’t linger that long: grab a short moment of rest, and you can continue.
2) Delayed muscle soreness
You are undoubtedly also familiar with delayed muscle pain: one or two days after a major effort, your muscles feel weak and nagging, or they even hurt. This muscle pain is the result of an effort that your body is not used to and can linger for several days. You usually experience the peak after about 48 hours, but it can last up to a week. When we talk about muscle pain in this article, we mainly mean this form.
3) Minor injury
A third form of muscle pain can occur with a minor injury, such as a bruise or strain. Your muscle has then received a blow, and needs to recover. This form of muscle pain has nothing to do with the production of lactic acid.
Prevention is better than cure
You can prevent muscle pain to a certain extent. You can prepare your muscles for an effort, so that they can deal with it better. You do that with that nice old acquaintance: the warm-up. This ensures that your muscles get good blood flow and literally warm up a bit, so that they can move more smoothly. Cold, stiff muscles lead to injuries faster, and always cause muscle pain afterwards.
A good warm-up reduces that. Make sure you activate the muscles you will be using during your workout quite a few times – take it easy, of course. Misuse is a good warm-up for your leg muscles, for example, rowing actually works for your whole body. Even when you’re done with the warm-up, it’s best to start slowly: hang a little less weight on the bar during the first sets, so that your muscles can get used to the specific movement they are going to make.
Read also: The best tips to prevent injuries
And then there is the cool down that is often forgotten. A cool-down is actually a reverse warm-up: it helps your body to remove excess waste, resulting in less muscle pain.
Are you going to the gym for the first time, or are you trying out a new sport? Then you can hardly escape a few days of muscle pain. And that’s not so bad at all, as you can read below.
Still aches and pains?
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Is muscle soreness bad for you?
As with many things in life, a little is fine, but don’t overdo it. Sometimes muscle pain is unavoidable. When trying a new sport or after your first fitness session, it is simply unavoidable, just like after a big move or a day beach volleyball. And that’s fine. Your body knows that you have made an unexpected effort and does its utmost to get your muscles up and running again as quickly as possible. Nothing wrong.
If you have muscle pain more often, it’s a different story. This is especially important when exercising. In strength sports you make minuscule tears in your muscles, which then close up with new tissue, so that your muscles grow and become stronger. That’s good, but you can also go too far. Then muscle pain turns into an injury, and that is of course not the intention. If you have a few days of muscle pain after exercise, you do not have to run to the doctor immediately. Does the pain last for more than a week? Then it is advisable to go to a specialist to see if there is something else going on.
What else can you do about muscle pain?
Chill out
A good warm-up is therefore very important, but there are more things you can do to limit muscle pain. Rest is a factor that should not be underestimated. After a workout, your muscles need some time to recover – a day or two or three, especially in the beginning. So don’t immediately do the same exercises in the gym the day after your workout. Stay at home for a day, do another sport, train other muscle groups or take a quiet walk. After a few days, your muscles have recovered and you can go wild again.
Find the warmth
If we do take it easy: take a nice warm shower after exercising, or take a hot bath. The high temperature helps your body to expel the waste products, so that you suffer less from muscle pain.
🥶 Cold muscles?
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Eat enough protein
Food also plays a role. Proteins ensure that your muscles recover faster after exercise. So put it in advance a good shake ready in the fridge, throw a few eggs in the frying pan, or fry a nice piece of meat. Your muscles will thank you for that and you’ll be ready for your next session in no time.
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2023-08-22 17:32:00
#Muscle #pain
