Saturday, August 29, 2009

Damn That DOMS!


Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness

Exercise is one of the greatest activites we can participate in for ourselves, for our bodies, for our physical and mental health, and for our lives. The benefits of exercise as part of our daily lives are well known and is becoming more and more popular each day. Whether by weight training, yoga, group exercise, resistance training, cardio workouts, playing sports, or just walking the dog, any form of exercise in your life is time well spent. Now and then we try a new exercise, or increase a weight, a time, an intensity, and yea, we get sore. Sometimes the soreness is barely noticeable if at all, and sometimes its hard to get out of bed the next day. It all depends on what you're doing. Everyone works at different levels, and everyone has their own individual strengths, weaknesses,and goals. This article will get a little scientific about why we get sore, what happens, and how to help it. I'm not trying to scare anyone away, some things described below sound much worse than they really are. And provides such great and irreplaceable benefits to our health and our lives.

I recently was talking with a gym member upon finishing my leg workout and the member said to me, “Good luck walking tomorrow, and good luck sitting down the next day.” I replied with “Yea! Damn that DOMS!” She looked at me with an utter look of confusion. “DOMS,” I said, “You know, Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness.” She still had no idea what I was talking about, and I realized a lot of people don’t know what the heck I was talking about. So here is an article all about that soreness (DOMS, Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) you get, what it means, and what you can do about it.

(Damaged muscle hurts, multiply this thousands of times and its clear why)


The symptoms of DOMS are all too familiar with us gym-goers. The discomfort, the small range of motion, loss of strength, and feeling like you are bruised down to the bone, are all symptoms that we experience again and again after workouts. Usually the symptoms are at their worst 2 or 3 days after a workout.

The actual pain we feel is from inflammation and muscle damage. When we are working out we are not getting bigger, not getting stronger, not improving our muscle. When we are working out we are breaking down our muscles, tearing them, hurting them. Our muscles are made of fibers that contract and release to create our movement, but when we lift weights we make little tiny tears in the fibers, called micro-tears. When we workout we are intentionally tearing our muscle. Doesn’t sound weird?!! When the muscle starts healing it gets inflamed and scar tissue needs to form to repair those micro-tears. This is what causes the pain.

The way I see it, a workout does to our muscle, what getting punched in the arm d
oes to our bodies. You get punched and it hurts, you work out and it hurts (in a good way). The next day your skin is bruised after getting punched and is sore to touch, and after a workout your muscle is sore to move, touch, and not functioning as well as it was yesterday. YOUR MUSCLE IS HEALING, just like your bruise is healing. Your muscle is inflamed, and micro-torn, Of course it will be sore. Now it needs to be given time and an opportunity heal.

(Proper rest and recovery makes damaged muscles bigger and stronger)


So you ask, “Are there ways to advance the healing process, or just take the edge off of the pain?” Some people usually would take an ibuprofen or acetaminophen (Tylenol), thinking that might help. Unfortunately, research has shown that these drugs do not help repair muscle, and may actually diminish muscle strength by retarding protein synthesis in the muscle. (RUN FITNEWS)

Another tactic that people may take is getting a massage. And the result: IT WORKS! GO FOR IT! Research shows that massaging a muscle that has just been exercised decreases the pain normally associated with DOMS, it will also make your mood a lot better!
(RUN FITNEWS)

My own personal advice to you: REST, EAT, and REST.
If you punch a bruise every day will it heal? NO, it will only get worse. Same applies to your muscle. If you intensely work out the same muscles everyday and don’t give them a few days to rest, they will not heal, will not grow, and will not achieve the strength they could have by allowing them to recover, heal, and rest. You may actually cause serious harm to your muscle and health if you don’t give yourself recovery time. You may lose muscle as a result of training it too often. SO REST UP! My advice is to give at least 2 full days of recovery, so if you worked your chest on Monday, you wouldn’t do any intense chest exercise until Thursday.

Also, a healthy and nutritionally balanced diet is vital for muscle recovery and progress. If a muscle is not getting the right fuel, it will not perform well, and not have the progress you want for it. Look on this website for articles about some great food choices.


Brett Azar


Clinical J. Sports Med., 2008, Vol. 18, No. 5, pp. 446-460
Sports Med., 2003, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 145-164
Br. J. Sports Med., 2003, Vol. 37, No. 1, pp. 72-75
Med. Sci. Sport Exerc., 2003, Vol. 35, No. 6, pp. 892-896
Running & FitNews (RUN FITNEWS), 2008 Sep-Oct; 26(5): 6-7 (3 ref).

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