The Truth About Muscle Soreness
Originally published Nov. 13, 2015.
It's 7 AM, you roll out of bed half asleep dreading your work day. Your legs hit the ground and panic sets in. The worst pain of your life, you almost fall over... or you do (it wouldn't be the first time). Have you been in a coma for weeks and lost all of your muscle and memory? Were your legs beaten by baseball bats and you sleep so hard you didn't wake up?
After regaining control of your legs and wiping the tears from your face you remember what happened. You did squats yesterday, lots of squats. This torturous pain is just muscle soreness. Now that you know the cause it's even worse because you know your entire day is going to be filled with agony every time your sore ass hits a chair or the toilet. And tomorrow it might be even worse. (Cue dramatic music, DUN DUN DUN)
We have all been there. Today, I am going to give you some insight on what is going on and how you can avoid it. Or get more of it, if you are into that.
This muscle soreness is known as DOMS.
What is DOMS
Delayed-onset muscle soreness. Or the soreness you feel the following days after a grueling workout. You know the feeling of sitting down in agony after a good squat workout. Or having to crawl up the stairs because it is to painful to climb.
How does it happen?
The exact cause of DOMS on the cellular level is still up for debate in the science community. There are types of exercises and workouts that are known to cause a greater degree of discomfort though. The biggest culprit comes from eccentric exercises. Eccentric movement is the same thing as a negative. Think of a bicep curl. The eccentric portion is when you are lowering the weight.
Another way to get DOMS and a common one for lifters is getting minute tears in the muscle when doing very high rep workouts or very heavy workouts.These tears are followed by enzyme release to repair the muscle (a possible cause for the pain). Any time your body is damaged, imflamation must occur for healing to occur, this healing process causes discomfort as pressure builds up.
Is being super sore really building muscle?
It is common to hear that when you are sore your muscles are growing. This is not necessarily the case though. While your muscles are being repaired it has not yet been proven your muscles are growing in size at a faster rate than when you have no soreness. If you are in a constant state of soreness your body cannot fully heal which will not allow your muscles to grow.
The reason I bring this up is because being sore is uncomfortable and it sucks. Most people shrug off the pain because they think they are getting bigger and stronger. It has been shown that you do not have to have significant damage to your muscles for hypertrophy (growth) to occur.
As a coach I hate to hear people judge a workout by how sore they are the next day. Soreness is not always necessary (sometimes it is) and at times it is detrimental to your performance. Don't try to kill yourself every day in the gym to get sore you cannot sustain that high intensity.
The lactic acid myth.
Lactic acid is a common term tossed around describing soreness. I can still remember my football coach telling us to run after our lift to "flush out the lactic acid." I will give him a pass though because there was a time when lactic acid was thought to be the culprit and he is a big scary guy. There are now plenty of studies disproving this theory.
Lactic acid is actually not something that occurs in the body. So if someone tells you lactic acid is building up don't listen. Lactic acid does not build up in the body but lactate does. Lactate never reaches a pH level to convert to an acid. This is a fun fact to use when people talk about lactic acid because it makes you sound really smart and people won't have an argument for it.
How to avoid DOMS?
So how can you avoid DOMS? Well unfortunately if you haven't trained in a while it is most likely unavoidable. But staying away from eccentric activities will help. Running DOWNhill is eccentric. Uphill is not even though it feels harder. Avoid long workouts when first getting back to training. Also over-stretching can cause unwanted soreness.
Why you should avoid it?
As I mentioned earlier, soreness does not always equal bigger and stronger. It is not necessary to constantly be sore. That being said I love a good sore every once in a while just to make me feel good.
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This post had a little more science in it which I know can get boring but I think it is important to know a little to improve your health. Plus I feel smart when I write it and it makes me feel my college debt is worth it...
Sources
Does Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage Play a Role in Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy?. Schoenfield, B.J. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. (2012)
Exercise Physiology 7th Edition. W.D. McArdle, F.L. Katch, V.L. Katch