HURTS SO GOOD!

As I woke up this past weekend; I staggered down the stairs, winced as I combed my hair, and I think a small tear was ready to trickle down my face as I bent to put on my shoes! I was sore, sore, sore! The intense workouts this week have definitely caught up with me. I never praised an off day so much as I did this past weekend! In talking to some of you, you are experiencing the same soreness and stiffness. The kind of soreness that makes you wants to crawl into a hot tub and never come out! This got me thinking, what a great thing to blog about. What is muscle soreness, also know as DOMS, why do we get it and why is it something that we should be happy about?

Muscle soreness and pain (NOT associated with injury) is called DOMS, delayed onset muscle soreness. DOMS is generally at its worst within the first two days after an intense exercise session or a workout that is slightly different from what we have been doing. These type of workouts shock our body and creates a normal response in our muscles. This response within our body consists of microscopic tearing of the muscle fibers; this is the burning sensation that we feel during a workout. The amount of this tearing depends on the length and intensity of the exercise. When we are doing a combination of movements that are new to our body, or ones that our body hasn’t experienced for awhile, the tearing is greater, which in turn leads to greater DOMS, muscle soreness. When there is “damage” from a tough workout, the body’s white blood cells increase to help repair this damage. Swelling and inflammation can build up within your body and that is why we can feel the effects of DOMS days later.

So, why put our bodies through this??? Because there MUST be microscopic damage to the muscle fibers before we can have any muscular growth! Therefore, if you are sore, that means that our muscle growth is in progress and ultimately that is what we are looking for….to be stronger, faster, and fit! After all, if we do not experience some soreness, that means we must be doing the same movement at the same pace, the same weight, day after day. Therefore, we will never make the fitness gains that we are searching for. In order to make improvements, we need to work our muscles harder and surprise them with new movements and weight. Improvements come when we stress our muscles and allow them to recover. So… stretch, take an ibuprofen, take an ice bath, or get a massage….but embrace the pain! It is a sign of physical gain and progress!