Aches are the logical and almost systematic consequence of resuming physical activity or more intense effort than usual. They can affect neophytes as well as seasoned athletes.
How to get rid of workout pain and prevent them from coming back to spoil the next workout? Here are the tips for post workout pain that you should be aware of.
What Is Stiffness?
The curvature is a muscle pain diffuse that occurs after strenuous exercise or unusual. DOMS aches are also called: delayed onset muscle soreness. They generally appear 12 hours to 48 hours after exercise and persist around 5 days with paroxysmal pain in other words at its maximum at 24-48 hours.
How And Why Does Muscle Stiffness Appear?
The mechanism of the onset of muscle aches is poorly understood, but several theories suggest:
- Micro lesions of muscle cells,
- he inflammatory reaction in response to damage to muscle cells,
- Or the stimulation of nerve endings mechanically and chemically through muscle damage.
The type of muscle contraction most likely to cause muscle stiffness lies in eccentric exercises which consist of the voluntary contraction of the muscle while it is lengthening: weight training, muscle strengthening, etc.
What Does Lactic Acid Have To Do With This Story?
A popular belief is that muscle stiffness is caused by the buildup of lactic acid in the muscles. However, if this acidosis can be responsible for pain during or just after exercise, lactic acid is eliminated from muscle tissue within 2 hours of exercise so it is absolutely not responsible for muscle stiffness.Should you suspend your physical and sports activities (APS) for the duration of muscle ache?
Aches pains are usually accompanied by:
- In a loss of muscle strength,
- A decrease in preconception (the perception of one’s body in space) and joint amplitudes,
- Sometimes the appearance of a slight local edema.
The days following their onset are therefore at potential risk of injury. It is therefore advisable not to impose too much effort on the already damaged muscle so as not to increase its lesions. There is no need, however, to stop your APS for the duration of the aches. Simply favor a non-traumatic activity to properly irrigate the muscles.
How To Relieve Or Even Get Rid Of Aches?
Unfortunately, apart from taking your pain patiently, there aren’t many curative solutions. However, you can massage yourself using targeted gels or creams or turn to homeopathy, aromatherapy or herbal medicine, but there is no proof of the effectiveness of these methods in the medical literature. As for the physio-therapies offered by physiotherapists, you should know that ultrasound has no demonstrated interest, just like electric-therapy or vibrations, as well as press-o-therapy, which may be of interest but whose level of evidence is insufficient. It is therefore better to focus on prevention.
How to Prevent Muscle Soreness?
First, it is essential of course warm and hydrated.Then, the post-exercise physiotherapy massage is of interest provided that it lasts at least 20 minutes and is carried out up to 2 hours after the effort. Although its actual efficacy on tissue recovery is controversial, the subjective benefit experienced by athletes in pain at 24 and 48 hours is more in favor of this practice.
Advice from Experts
Hydration and stretching can help limit muscle soreness. It is necessary to drink about 1.75 L (source WHO) of liquid per day to stay hydrated (still, sparkling water, herbal tea), both before but also during and after your workout. To help you record your water consumption, you can download the WW slimming application which offers a tracker that remembers the glasses of water drunk throughout the day. You will thus get into the habit of mentioning them in the app and evaluating your daily consumption. And to motivate you to hydrate yourself well, now you can even earn 1 point per day by drinking 1.75L. And if you have trouble drinking pure water, you will find flavored water recipes with Zero Point or very few Smart Points in the app. In addition, by choosing to join the new program, you will have access to video meditation and stretching exercises. It is ideal for relaxing and reducing the painful sensation of your stiffness.
Whole-body cry o-therapy (CCE), which consists of spending a few minutes in a cold room (-110 ° C) in the recovery phase, is also effective on the pain felt in the 4 days following the effort but is not really accessible. Finally, low intensity eccentric exercises are the best way to prevent DOMS since they allow the muscle to adapt to the stresses. In other words, the more you train, the less prone you are to muscle soreness.
Conclusion
Although they are important because they have the advantage of improving range of motion, stretching does not prevent the onset of stiffness or reduce the symptoms. Salt has no proven benefit in this area and hot should even be avoided because, in the event of muscle damage, it can lead to bleeding. If you are lucky enough to live near the sea or the ocean, it is better to go for a walk in cold water just after the effort. Otherwise, you can always take a good ice bath.
