Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness...I bet you've felt it!!

You had a great training session, worked hard and your muscles are feeling nice and tired, but that's about it.  You wake up the next day, and the feeling is a little different.  Your muscles feel tight and pretty sore, but bearable, as you think..."at least I can move".  You get a good a good rest that night and wake up the following morning and the "pretty sore" feeling is no longer there.  The pretty sore has turned into excruciating pain!!  Your bedroom is upstairs, which means that you need to go down the stairs to start your day and oh, the pain of walking down the stairs.  You think, "I can't move, what did I do to deserve such agony?" Great training session now, eh?

This feeling is the muscle soreness called delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).  It doesn't come right after you workout, but 24-72 hours later.  It's thought to be a result of little tears in your muscles (which, over time, will repair and leave yourself feeling stronger).  Some people realize the need for a little pain and like the feeling.  Others avoid it at all cost.  Getting a better understanding of DOMS will allow you to better prepare for it, avoid it if you need to and recover from it if the feeling is there.  So, let's take a look at DOMS a little closer to help you in the future.

What can cause such pain?  Well, it's the length of you workout, the intensity of you workout and the exercise selection of your workout...with the most emphasis on exercise selection.  You see, it's the eccentric motion that causes the majority of the problem.  That is, it's the part of the exercise where the muscle lengthens.  Usually, its the downward part of the exercise and in most cases the easiest part.  When you're running down hill and the downward motion of a squat or push-up are all eccentric.  A little note here, however, is that you are roughly 40% stronger on the eccentric motion.  Which means that while avoiding the eccentric parts of the exercise might relieve a bit of soreness, it's hard to make real strength gains without it.

And what about recovery? You've embraced the feeling you'll get when you enter a new phase of your program and start lifting heavy weight, with new exercises. Or maybe, you haven't embraced it...and just have a mean trainer, lol!! Whatever the case, you might want to alleviate some of that pain.  What are your options?  That debate is ongoing.  But before I give you some methods of temporary relief, know that in reality, I follow two methods....1. Go easy and work your way up or 2. Suck it up, lol!!
If you still need another way to get rid of soreness, some of the methods that people say have worked for them are:

- foam rolling
- gentle stretching

- rest & recover
- ice bath
- Aspirin, ibuprofen, or other non-steriodal anti-
   immflamatory
- sports massage
- Yoga

DOMS are an almost necessary part of any training regimen.  If you are new to working out, change your program, increase the weight or just use different muscles that you haven't used before, you will experience DOMS.  You will recover and you will feel better, next time you work out!!