This phenomenon is familiar, perhaps, to everyone who trained or played sports. The sensation of pain and stiffness in the muscles, which occurs most often the next day after training, is soreness. Pain at a subconscious level is perceived by a person as a signal of a violation of something and is rarely associated with something positive, but it should not be said at all that DOMS is bad.
When does dyspathy occur?
The pain arises due to the fact that during intense physical activity, micro-ruptures occur in the muscle fibers (their number depends on the duration of the load and the specific exercises performed). Painful sensations, as already mentioned, arise one to two days after active training and fade away over the next two to three days.
The syndrome of delayed muscle pain (the official name of the phenomenon of DOMS) is also observed after performing new exercises that are unusual for the body. The strongest soreness will be after squats and push-ups.
Why is DOMS good?
In fact, sore throat is a completely normal reaction of the body to new and strong physical activity. It is, in fact, an immediate recovery phase and allows you to subsequently increase the level of endurance and muscle strength. At the same time, the muscle soreness also indicates that the load was really sufficient, because if painful sensations in the muscles are not observed after one or two days, it means that the body has already adapted to this kind of load and the exercise system needs to be changed.
How to get rid of muscle soreness?
Despite the fact that DOMS is a positive and short-term phenomenon, it certainly causes discomfort and a desire to get rid of pain as soon as possible. Leading doctors and trainers have been debating the methods and ways of getting rid of muscle pain for a long time. Here is some of them:
- Massage. Massage has been shown to reduce muscle pain, but you should be aware that it will not affect muscle function.
- Cold and hot shower. There is no need to talk about the proven effectiveness of this method, but many athletes say that it really helps.
- Stretching. A couple of stretching exercises can help reduce discomfort.
- Medicines such as aspirin and ibuprofen can help relieve pain without interfering with the recovery of muscle fibers.
- Training. Despite the fact that with a dyspnea, you don't want to continue training at all and rest for a couple of days seems to be a good option (although it is also a way to get rid of muscle pain, but longer), it is better to continue exercising, while necessarily reducing the load.
You can avoid muscle soreness with correct intensity and duration exercises, which increase gradually, as well as warm-up immediately before training.
