SPORTS MEDICINE: Managing the ‘dreaded’ muscle soreness
What is Muscle Soreness?
While we know muscle soreness can create a feeling of discomfort, or pain, we don’t know exactly what it is, or what causes it. The most popular theory is that muscle soreness is caused by “micro trauma”, which forms microscopic tears in muscle fibers.
There are two types of muscle soreness:
1) Acute Muscle Soreness – This is the muscle soreness your feel during and shortly after a workout
2) Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness – also referred to as DOMS, this is the muscle soreness you feel 24 hours after your workout, which may last up to 72 hours.
How To Relieve Muscle Soreness
Unfortunately, there are no scientifically proven ways to speed up the recovery of muscle soreness, but there are handful that are worth trying and several that can at least help alleviate the pain.
1) Rest – Getting ample sleep can help your body recuperate faster. Not getting enough sleep will make your muscle soreness feel more intense.
2) Active Recovery – This may seem counterintuitive, but completing light exercise during the recovery phase may be the most promising method to not only alleviate the pain, but help reduce soreness faster. If I had to choose one method that was capable of speeding up recovery, I would choose active recovery. Consider activities like a light jog, walking on an incline on a treadmill, and swimming, which help promote blood circulation to your muscles.
3]Consider Massage -The have been some studies that demonstrate a benefit of massage on the treatment of muscle soreness. Massage is thought to simulate blood flow to the area and to diminish swelling within the muscle. Massage rollers are an ideal self-massage aid.
See our previous blog on ‘massage rolling techniques’.
4] Gentle Stretching -Recent studies have shown that stretching probably does not make a difference in most athletes in preventing or reducing muscle soreness. That said, many athletes find that a stretching routing is their key to quick recovery, and there is no evidence that stretching is harmful or contributes to muscle soreness. If you want to try some gentle stretching, it may help, and can’t hurt.
5) Hydration – Water can help flush out the toxins so the more water you drink, the better. Not drinking enough water can cause the soreness to worsen, or even cause muscle cramps.
6) Proper Nutrition – A balanced diet may help reduce muscle soreness. If you are deficient in potassium, an electrolyte which is essential for muscle contractions, or you are not eating enough protein, muscle soreness may take longer to heal.
7) NSAIDS – non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like Aspirin or ibuprofen can help reduce the pain of soreness, but does not speed up recovery. It’s not advisable to use these medications on a consistent basis to treat muscle soreness, only to help relieve the pain of an intense bout of soreness. can reduce pain and inflammation. There are side effects, so talk to your doctor before taking any anti-inflammatories
8] TOPICAL GELS like FISIOCREM can also be helpful to alleviate the pain annnd tttrrreat soft tissue injuries.There are a lot of topical creams that do little to benefit muscle soreness. However Fisiocrem is a favourite amongst health practitioners because of the proven therapeutic effects of the natural plant extracts found in the product, i.e., Arnica, Calendula, Hypericum, and Tea Tree. See our product review of Fisiocrem.
How to Prevent Muscle Soreness
If you are experiencing, or have experienced intense muscle soreness, the chances are likely you completed more volume and intensity of exercise than your body could handle.
Your ability to prevent muscle soreness depends on three primary factors:
1) Fitness Level – If you have a very high level of fitness, the chances are it’s not easy for you to get sore, even from a very intense workout. If on the other hand you exercise infrequently, even a light workout can make you very sore.
2) Volume & Intensity of Exercise – The volume of exercise is typically defined as the total number of sets and reps (sets x reps), or distance while the intensity is based upon the amount of weight used and the rest in between sets. If you use either more volume than you are used to in a workout, such as completing 7 sets of push-ups vs. 3 sets, or you use more weight than you are accustomed to, you will likely experience some muscle soreness.
3) Familiarity of Exercise – If you complete exercises that you’ve never done before, you are much more likely to experience soreness the next day. Let’s say you have never used the rowing machine before, then one day you spend 10 minutes rowing intensely, the next day you may experience intense soreness in muscles that may not be used to that new movement pattern.
Extreme muscle soreness occurs when beginners with a low fitness level use a lot of volume and intensity with unfamiliar exercises. It’s the perfect storm.
So how do you prevent muscle soreness?
Here are a few general guidelines that are useful:
- Ease into your workouts – Start slowly to allow your muscles to gradually adapt to the stress of new activities or intensities.
- Gradually build intensity – To get in shape, burn calories and lose weight, you have to challenge your body with more stress than it’s used to, one of the things that causes soreness. If you’re a beginner, any activity is more stress than your body is used to, so you may need to stay with the same workouts for 1-2 weeks before adding intensity.
- Be consistent – Once you’ve gotten sore from a specific workout or intensity, you shouldn’t experience it again again until the intensity is increased. Continuing to workout regularly will help you maintain that level of strength until you’re ready for more intensity.
Muscle Soreness FAQ
If you do not feel any muscle soreness after fitness or hockey specific training or games, is that bad?
The quality of training is not dictated by how sore you are. The idea is to train hard enough to create a “training response”, but it’s not a good idea to workout so hard that you are sore for a week. If your muscles are able to recover faster before your next training, you should be able to get even better results. Mild to moderate soreness in your muscles that lasts for 1-2 days makes sense, but there’s no good reason to be very sore. In addition, if you trained hard and hit your body hard but do not get sore the next day, it’s a sign you’re getting fitter.
How do you tell the difference between muscle soreness and a muscle strain?
Muscle soreness can last up to 72 hours. If you find the feeling of pain in your muscles is lasting for as long as a week, or more, it’s likely you strained your muscle. The difference between muscle soreness and a muscle strain is primarily one of degree. Muscle soreness is created when the muscle fibers are being torn slightly, which helps the muscle adapt to build stronger muscles. A muscle strain is an overtraining symptom that can occur when a large amount muscle fibers are torn to a significant degree and even the tendons attached to the muscle may be affected. The tearing of the muscle can also damage small blood vessels, which can cause local bleeding along with pain caused by irritation of the nerve endings in the area.
How sore should you be after training?
Some mild to moderate pain/soreness is expected after a tough training session, but it’s important to differentiate between the “good” pain of muscle soreness and a hard training session and the “bad” pain of joint pain, or excessive muscle strain. If you’re on a training program and you are sore for more than a few days, you may need to cut back on the volume, or intensity of your training, and/or spend more time on recovery (i.e. drinking enough fluids, working on tissue quality with a foam roller and massage ball, stretching, active rest, applying topical muscle creams etc.). 4 If you are sore all the time, in some ways it defeats the purpose of fitness training because we want to workout to enhance how we look and feel right? But if we can barely move our arms after a tough workout for a few days, that’s not very useful. One more thing, you will generally be more sore when starting a program of course, so the soreness should lessen over time.
How long should you give your muscles time to recover after a workout?
While research shows that continued use of a sore muscle has no adverse effect on recovery from soreness and does not make the muscle damage worse, I think we have to use our common sense when exercising. A general rule of thumb is if you feel pain from muscle soreness above a 5 out of 10 you may consider resting for another day, or two before hitting that muscle group, or movement pattern that feels sore. Unless you are a hockey player compelled to train regularly and you have no choice but to exercise, it may be worth doing some extra foam rolling and taking it easy if your muscles feel very sore.
Are there any muscle soreness recovery treatments that have worked for you? Share in the comments section.
1. Ingraham, P. You Can’t Beat Muscle Soreness. The myth of prevention or treatment for muscle fever, nature’s little tax on exercise . 2012. ↩
2. Nosaka, K. “Muscle Soreness and Damage and the Repeated-Bout Effect“. In Tiidus, Peter M. 2008. Skeletal muscle damage and repair. Human Kinetics. pp. 59–76. ↩
3. Johar P, Grover V, Topp R, Behm DG. A comparison of topical menthol to ice on pain, evoked tetanic and voluntary force during delayed onset muscle soreness.” Int J Sports Phys Ther. 2012 Jun;7(3):314-22. ↩
4. Lewis PB, Ruby D, Bush-Joseph CA. “Muscle soreness and delayed-onset muscle soreness.” Clin Sports Med. 2012 Apr; 31(2):255-62. ↩
Source Acknowledgement: Marc Perry,
