Do you Avoid Exercise Due to Muscle Pain?

Let's talk about DOMS!

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) is that aching feeling in the muscles you get after a workout. It usually arrives 24-48 hours after the workout. We have all had those days where we struggle to sit on the toilet or get up after leg day.

There was an old belief that it was due to a build up of lactic acid in the muscles. This has been debunked. During exercise, we experience micro tears in our muscles that triggers an inflammatory response in the body. You may get soreness in the muscles to touch or during movement, stiffness and reduced mobility in the joints, slight swelling. All of this is ok and not a sign of severe damage.

One thing that often happens when people experience post exercise muscle pain like DOMS, they begin to fear doing that exercise again. Our brain has this special power to try to keep us safe and if exercise hurts, let's not do that again.

The secret is that the more you move your body, especially in different ways, the less the pain will be. It is more common when you increase the intensity of your workouts or try new movements that your body is not accustomed to performing.

While we can't completely avoid post exercise muscle soreness, there are things we can do to prevent extreme pain and ease the pain once it arrives.

To prevent severe pain:

👉 Slowly build up with weights

👉 Complete exercise consistently as your body will get used to the work

👉 Choose an intensity that suits your body. Workouts do not have to be high intensity if you are already under high stress.

How to ease the pain once it arrives:

👉 Keep moving gently - walking is a great recovery tool.

👉 Stay hydrated

👉 Add nutrients into meals to help with muscle repair eg. Protein, magnesium.

👉 Stretch, self massage and foam roll your muscles gently to keep them mobile.

We are running our Fit and Fearless Program online where you can modify your workouts to your fitness and needs. Check out our exercise library included in the program for stretching and foam rolling those muscles after a week of strength training for women.

Why not overcome that fear of post exercise muscle soreness and join us here.

Categories: Exercise