Feeling sore after working out is normal, especially if you’re trying new exercises. Dr. Corbin Hedt, a physical therapist, says that most people believe lactic acid causes this soreness, but that’s not true. Lactic acid is made when you do intense exercise like sprinting. It leaves your body within an hour after you stop working out1.
The real reason you feel sore, called delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), is tiny damages to your muscles. This happens when you push your muscles hard, and you’ll start feeling it 12 to 24 hours later1. It can be at its worst from 24 to 72 hours after your workout2. But, this soreness is a sign your muscles are getting stronger.
To lessen soreness after exercising, increase how hard you work out slowly. Try recovery steps like walking or doing yoga1. Using massage tools or foam rollers can also help with the soreness1.
Key Takeaways
- Post-exercise discomfort is a common and natural response to physical activity.
- Dr. Corbin Hedt clarifies that muscle soreness is not caused by lactic acid buildup.
- Lactic acid levels peak during strenuous activity and are cleared within an hour1.
- Muscle soreness is due to microscopic damage to muscles and connective tissues1.
- DOMS generally begins 12-24 hours post-exercise and can last up to 72 hours2.
- Gradual workout intensity increases and recovery techniques can help reduce soreness1.
- Active recovery methods such as walking or yoga are effective in mitigating soreness1.
Understanding Muscle Soreness
Muscle soreness means your muscles feel painful and stiff after a hard or new workout. This feeling is strongest between 24 and 72 hours after you exercise. It happens because of tiny injuries in your muscles and pressure on your nerves3.
What is Muscle Soreness?
Feeling sore after tough or unfamiliar exercises is normal4. It can make you need to change how hard you exercise5. This pain shows your muscles are fixing themselves and getting stronger.
Types of Muscle Soreness: Acute and Delayed
There are two kinds of muscle soreness: acute muscle soreness and Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). It’s important to know the difference to handle and prevent muscle pain well.
Acute Muscle Soreness
Acute muscle soreness happens right after you work out. It’s caused by things like lactic acid making your muscles tired and sore. This soreness goes away in a few hours as your body gets rid of these substances3.
Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS)
DOMS hits when you start new exercises, get back to old ones, or do lots of stretching exercises5. Signs of DOMS include feeling weaker, swollen, stiff, and moving differently5. Even though it’s only a temporary fix, exercising is still one of the best ways to feel better5.
Causes of Post-Workout Muscle Soreness
Post-workout muscle soreness happens to many and knowing why is key for proper recovery. Sore muscles come from small tears in the fibers and the inflammation that helps heal them.
Microtears in Muscle Fibers
Physical activities, especially those that stretch the muscles, can cause tiny tears in them. These microtears start the healing process, making muscles stronger. If you feel sore 12 to 24 hours after exercising, it’s likely because of these tears. This soreness, known as DOMS, can get worse over one to three days6.
Getting a massage 24, 48, or 72 hours after a tough workout can mean less soreness7. How hard you worked out also affects how long your muscles take to heal6.
Inflammatory Response
The body’s inflammation helps fix damaged muscle fibers, but it also makes you feel sore and stiff. Taking a warm bath or using moist heat wraps can lessenthis discomfort7. To help reduce inflammation, rest well, stay hydrated, and maybe try soaking in Epsom salts6.
Lactic Acid Buildup Myth
Lactic acid isn’t actually what causes muscle soreness after working out. It’s more about how the body signals for muscle repair. The old idea that lactic acid build-up was to blame has been proven wrong. What helps sore muscles most is movement, like light exercise, because it improves blood flow6.
Understanding why muscles get sore after working out helps us see the body’s natural healing process. It also shows how important the right recovery actions are for muscle health.
Why Does My Whole Body Ache After Exercise?
Feeling sore after working out can come from overdoing it, trying new activities, or starting new exercises. This pain is often called delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). It gets worse 24 to 72 hours after exercising8. No matter how fit you are, changing how often or hard you work out can cause soreness. This happens because your muscles are getting used to the new challenges9.
Overexertion and Exercise Intensity
Working out really hard can tear tiny fibers in your muscles, leading to DOMS. When you run downhill, your muscles stretch and tear more than during other exercises. This can make your muscles hurt a lot109. Pushing your muscles too hard makes them strain and feel sore. Using heat right after working out can lessen the pain8.
Unusual Physical Activity
Trying activities your body isn’t used to can make your muscles sore. Your body feels this ache as it adjusts to new challenges. For instance, running downhill puts a unique strain on your muscles, causing pain9. If you slowly up your workout level, your muscle strength and toughness will grow. This helps prevent pain later on9.
Introducing New Exercises
Adding new exercises to your routine can also cause your whole body to ache. When your muscles face new moves, they might hurt right after or during your workout. This turns into DOMS, which lasts from 24 to 72 hours8. Drinking enough water and eating protein and carbs after working out helps your muscles heal faster. Sleeping well is key for recovery10.
How Long Does Muscle Soreness Last?
After working out, you might feel sore. This is known as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). Knowing how long it lasts helps manage the discomfort.
Onset and Duration of DOMS
Soreness starts 12 to 48 hours after new or intense exercise11. It peaks within 24 to 72 hours then fades111213. While minor soreness goes away in a few days, severe soreness can last weeks1113.
Feeling sore after starting a new exercise is normal. As you keep exercising, your body gets used to it and you feel less sore over time12.
Factors Affecting Soreness Duration
The type and intensity of the activity affect how long you stay sore. Your fitness level and recovery practices also play a role. Drinking water every 15 to 30 minutes during a workout helps12.
Active recovery, like walking or yoga, helps muscles heal faster. Epsom salt baths or massages aid in recovery too. Changing up your workouts and cooling down afterward also helps reduce soreness1112.
When to Seek Medical Attention
Soreness from DOMS usually goes away on its own. But if it lasts more than a week or stops you from moving, see a doctor12. Symptoms like dark urine, muscle cramps, or feeling very tired could mean a serious condition like rhabdomyolysis, which needs quick treatment to prevent kidney damage13.
Always listen to your body. If soreness affects your daily activities, it’s time to get medical advice to recover safely and effectively.
Preventing Muscle Soreness
It’s not possible to totally avoid muscle soreness. But, you can make it less intense. Warming up your muscles before exercising helps more than just stretching14. Doing static stretches before and kinetic stretches after exercising also helps your workout15.
Slowly increasing the intensity of your workouts lets your muscles adjust, lowering soreness and injury risk16. Staying hydrated keeps away cramps, tiredness, and dizziness14. Eating foods like tomatoes, olive oil, and leafy greens, which fight inflammation, helps with muscle soreness15.
Foam rolling right after exercising and every 24 hours helps break up knots in muscles15. It mainly helps big muscle groups and prevents soreness15. Stretching afterwards also helps with muscle recovery and workout benefits14.
Adding gentle activities like walking or cycling helps blood flow and speeds up healing. This also cuts down stiffness from delayed muscle soreness16. Lastly, personal trainers can show you how to exercise correctly and increase intensity safely. This lowers the chances of getting hurt from pushing too hard16.
Effective Treatments for Muscle Soreness
There are many treatments for easing muscle soreness from hard exercise. Using these methods can speed up recovery and make muscles work better.
Massage and Foam Rolling
Massage and foam rolling help a lot with sore muscles. They boost blood flow to sore spots, helping heal tiny tears and easing pain. Foam rolling also helps loosen muscle fibers and lessens the pain of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS)17.
Heat and Cold Therapy
Heat therapy loosens tight muscles and boosts blood flow for temporary pain relief. Cold therapy, though, helps with long-lasting pain by reducing swelling and inflammation after workouts17. Using both heat and cold packs can give better relief and aid healing18.
Light Exercise and Active Recovery
Doing light exercises like walking or easy stretching keeps muscles moving without adding strain. This helps clear out toxins and heals tiny tears17. Active recovery also shortens how long muscles stay sore by keeping them moving and flexible.
Over-the-Counter Pain Relief
For treating muscle soreness, many use NSAIDs, muscle relaxants, and pain creams. But be careful—too much can mess with how your body naturally heals18. Always follow directions and use these along with other holistic methods for better results.
Conclusion
Feeling sore after a workout is normal and shows your muscles are getting stronger. This soreness happens because of tiny tears in muscles, swelling, and the difference between acute and delayed soreness. Understanding why muscles get sore helps us deal with the discomfort better.
Studies tell us the type of exercise affects how sore we get. For example, 45% of people felt most sore on days three or four after step exercises. Only 14% felt this way after running. This shows different exercises cause different levels of soreness. Also, age and gender can change how sore someone feels19.
Knowing how to ease muscle pain is key. This includes massage, rolling out muscles, and using heat or cold. Also, taking pain relievers can help. Starting with light exercises and slowly increasing the intensity is also a good way to prevent soreness. By using these methods, we can keep working out without too much pain.
FAQ
Why Does My Whole Body Ache After Exercise?
When you push your body hard or try a new workout, you might feel sore. This happens because your muscles are doing more than they’re used to. This feeling, called delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), comes from tiny tears and swelling in your muscle fibers.
What is Muscle Soreness?
Muscle soreness is the stiffness and pain felt after intense or new exercises. It usually shows up a day or so after working out. It’s a sign that your muscles are getting stronger and repairing themselves.
What are the Types of Muscle Soreness?
Muscle soreness comes in two types: acute and delayed onset (DOMS). Acute soreness happens right when you exercise, due to things like lactic acid. DOMS, on the other hand, kicks in later and is about muscle repair.
What is Acute Muscle Soreness?
Acute soreness is felt right when you’re exercising. It’s because of substances like lactic acid building up. This soreness goes away quickly once you stop exercising and rest a bit.
What is Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS)?
DOMS starts a day or so after working out and peaks a few days later. It’s caused by small tears in the muscle fibers, which help the muscle grow stronger as it heals.
What Causes Post-Workout Muscle Soreness?
The soreness after working out comes from tiny tears in the muscle fibers, not lactic acid. These tears and the swelling that comes with them help your muscles get stronger.
How Do Microtears in Muscle Fibers Cause Soreness?
When you try something new or intense, your muscles get tiny tears. These tears cause swelling, which is a needed step for the muscles to repair and grow. This process is what makes muscles sore, known as DOMG.
Is Lactic Acid Buildup the Cause of Muscle Soreness?
No, lactic acid isn’t why your muscles are sore for days. Dr. Corbin Hedt says that while lactic acid does appear during a hard workout, it goes away soon after. The real reason for long-lasting soreness is the small tears and swelling in the muscles.
How Long Does Muscle Soreness Last?
DOMS can start a day after exercising and peak within three days. How long and intense the soreness is can vary based on the exercise, your fitness level, and how you recover. Normally, it fades within a few days.
When Should I Seek Medical Attention for Muscle Soreness?
If soreness lasts more than a week, makes it hard to move, or comes with swelling, redness, or trouble breathing, see a doctor. It could be something more serious than DOMS.
Can Muscle Soreness be Prevented?
You can’t stop muscle soreness entirely, but you can make it less intense. Gradually increase how hard you work out, do proper warm-ups, stay hydrated, and keep moving with light exercise.
Q: What Treatments are Effective for Muscle Soreness?
To help with soreness, you can try massages or foam rolling to boost blood flow, heat for pain relief, or cold for swelling. Moving around and stretching keeps you limber. Pain relievers like NSAIDs can also help. Sometimes, combining these methods works best.
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