About 7 months ago, I wrote a post on muscle soreness. Because of the way I feel right now (as many of you do), I think this is a good time to bring it back up. But, instead of reinventing the wheel, I’ll copy and paste.
“There’s a lot of soreness going on in the gym which brings up an important topic about why soreness happens, what it means, and what you can do about it.
I hope, by now, everyone understands that during strenuous physical activity, you’re actually creating microscopic tears in your muscle fibers. This is a perfectly natural adaptation response your body undergoes to prevent further damage from the same activity. It’s the precise reason why we get stronger. However, anytime your body sustains damage, pain is associated. In our case, it’s muscle soreness.
Now, understand, it is eccentric movements that causes this. Eccentric movements are movements that elongate a muscle under a load. Lowering your yourself from a pull up bar, lowering yourself to the bottom of a squat {or into a lunge}, lowering yourself from the rings for a ring row, these are all eccentric movements. They are why you’re sore.
Without getting too sciencey on you, essentially, there are two kinds of muscle soreness. There’s Acute Muscle Soreness which occurs during or immediately after an activity. Then there’s Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness which occurs 24-72 hours after working out. The latter is what I suspect most of you are experiencing at the moment. There are some subtle differences that causes one over the other but I won’t elaborate here. Just ask Google.
To dispel some myths, warming up and stretching do not prevent soreness. Literally, the only way to prevent soreness is to not get sore in the first place. That means avoiding all of the things that make us strong, which probably isn’t a viable option for anyone reading this.
Moral of the story — If you’re going to workout and you plan on getting stronger, soreness is the small price you’ll have to pay. However, listen to your body. If you’re really sore, rest up. Eat well. Do some light activity to stay loose. Then, come back for more. If you keeping slamming your overworked muscles, you’re asking for trouble.”
FYI, prepared to be sore on Saturday . . .
TODAY: FRI, MAR 1, 2013
50-40-30-20-10
WALL BALLS 20#/14#
DOUBLE UNDERS
Yep, we’re only getting stronger when we recover (which is why a rest day is important, too). How I minimize and alleviate soreness: cold water/ice bath as soon as possible following strenuous work. Later, a warm bath with Epsom salts.
Totally random but…I love this photo!
I love reading about the science behind the pain! It doesn’t make wall balls easier, but maybe makes the next day easier! Thanks for posting.