The Fitness Beat: Muscle Soreness

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Muscle Soreness

2:49 PM | Posted by Corporate Wellness |

Less Pain is the Name of the Game

by Kelly Mangelson

After forty-one and a half weeks, forty extra pounds, and countless hours anticipating my first child’s birth, random strangers felt the need to speak about me loud enough for me to hear. “SHE needs to be induced,” one lady spewed. I did not publicly acknowledge her or her comment, but I agreed.

With the birth of my nine pound two ounce beauty, strangers’ comments shifted from what felt like personal attacks on me to genuine adoration for my daughter. On the other hand, my thoughts were focused on myself. Not only was I interested in getting back into my “pre-pregnancy” jeans, but I wanted my muscular strength to return…especially in my stretched abdominal muscles. Yet, I was not interested in enduring the pain that would accompany the initiation of a new exercise routine.

Following six weeks of postpartum recovery, medical clearance from my doctor, and a New Year’s resolution to get back my figure, I began a commercialized endurance and strength training program. On the first day, I felt great! The second day was not so joyful. In my enthusiasm to begin exercising, I clearly pushed my intensity limits and endured delayed onset muscle soreness, also known as DOMS, for two full weeks.

DOMS is a well known “friend” or more appropriately “enemy” amongst those of us returning to an active lifestyle following a bout of inactivity, especially as New Year’s resolutions begin to unfold into reality. Does DOMS need to be so outright painful? No. Many of us have already endured pain, including financial stresses, childbirth, family difficulties or the loss of a loved one, so what can we do to alleviate some of the pain associated with the onset of a new exercise routine?

As background, we need to understand what DOMS is and what causes it. DOMS is muscle soreness that occurs twenty-four to forty-eight hours after strenuous exercise. It often occurs in muscles that are unaccustomed to being worked, especially during the eccentric (lengthening) portion of the contractions (i.e. lowering the arm during a biceps curl). Although the DOMS mechanism has not been clearly established, evidence suggests that it occurs due to, “…microscopic injury to muscle fibers. This kind of injury results in a slow cascade of biochemical events leading to inflammation and edema within the injured muscles,” (Howley, 59).

What can we do to combat DOMS? Here are a few of my favorite inexpensive DOMS-fighting weapons.

1) Slow exercise progression.

For the exercised muscle to adapt to the new exercise stress, we can “…slowly begin a specific exercise during the first five to ten training sessions.” This method can reduce the severity of DOMS and could avoid DOMS all together (Howley, 463).

2) Repeated bout effect.

Evidence points to the fact there is a “repeated bout effect.” This means that after receiving DOMS, subsequent repeated bouts of exercise will result in less muscle damage and less soreness. It is believed that this effect occurs because of neural, connective tissue, and/or cellular adaptations from the initial exercise session (Howley, 464). We can exercise, get DOMS, and in later exercise sessions feel less muscle pain when DOMS occurs. I recommend not placing more than seven days between exercise sessions. Otherwise, you may begin experiencing that initial DOMS effect all over again.

3) Get a Massage.

As a Licensed Massage Therapist, I highly recommend massage as a temporary intervention to DOMS. The timing of the massage is critical. It seems crucial to receive a massage one to three hours post-exercise (Cheung, 1). Also, find an experienced Licensed Massage Therapist who is trained in sports massage and knows correct modalities so that you may actually achieve a reduction in your DOMS. I recommend visiting http://www.ncbtmb.org/ to find a qualified therapist near you.

4) Exercise.

Light exercise seems to have a similar effect to massage. There is a temporary reduction in pain (Cheung, 145). So, take a walk or light jog to ease the pain.

5) Eat Ginger.

Several studies have shown that oral ingestion of ginger, whether raw or cooked, will reduce DOMS by about 25% (Black, 894). Ginger should be consumed 24 hours after the exercise to have a reduction in DOMS (Black, 1620). Both fresh and ground ginger are inexpensive and available at local grocery stores. Ginger can be consumed with dinner, sushi, to spice foods, in salad dressing, as a tea, or eaten raw. For more information on available forms of ginger, dosages, precautions, and possible interactions with medications click on the link below:

http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/ginger-000246.htm

Armed with an ability to fight against DOMS in an inexpensive manner, we, as warriors against exercise-induced pain, will be better prepared to take on the demands of life. This battle is one that we can win. Less pain is the name of the game.

References

Black, C., O’Connor, P. (2010). Acute effects of dietary ginger on muscle pain

induced by eccentric exercise. Phytotherapy Research, 24. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.erl.lib.byu.edu/doi/10.1002/ptr.3148/abstract

Black, C., Herring, M., Hurley, D., and O’Connor, P. (2010). Ginger (Zingiber

officinale) reduces muscle pain caused by eccentric exercises. The Journal of Pain, 11. Retrieved from

http://sfx.lib.byu.edu/sfxlcl3?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-8&ctx_tim=2011-08-10T01%3A45%3A20IST&url_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_ctx_fmt=infofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rfr_id=info:sid/primo.exlibrisgroup.com:primoArticle-medline&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Ginger%20%28Zingiber%20officinale%29%20reduces%20muscle%20pain%20caused%20by%20eccentric%20exercise.&rft.jtitle=The%20journal%20of%20pain%20:%20official%20journal%20of%20the%20American%20Pain%20Society&rft.btitle=

Cheung, K., Hume, P., Maxwell, L. (2003). Delayed onset muscle soreness:

Treatment strategies and performance factors. Sports Medicine, 2. Retrieved from http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/adis/smd/2003/00000033/00000002/art00005

Howley, E., Powers, S. (2009). Exercise physiology: Theory and application to

fitness and performance. Boston: McGraw Hill.

University of Maryland Medical Center (2011). Ginger. Retrieved from

http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/ginger-000246.htm