Muscle Soreness
DOMS: Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness
Going down stairs after leg day
I'm feeling sore so I'm going to write about it (i.e. learn about it so I can write about it). I love deadlifts, but deadlifts make me sore. Two days later my posterior chain from my neck to my calves, especially my low back, is stiff and sore. For reference, here's the workout that made me this sore.
Warm-up row for 1500 meters. Reps: 9, 6, 3, 3, 6, 9 - Deadlift at 225lbs, Thrusters w/ 50lb dumbbells, Incline bench press at 135lbs, Incline dumbbell curls at 40lbs.
Honestly, it didn't seem like that big of a deal. I was trying to do something along the lines of a CrossFit workout, but I like to balance out the lifts a bit more (add some pushing exercises in with the posterior chain pulling lifts). So why am I so sore???? And more importantly, should I push through at the gym today or take another day off??
First, I need to understand muscle soreness. Of course, we need to define muscle soreness as a separate category of pain after working out. We are not talking about tendonitis or joint pain here. Those are inflammatory conditions that typically come from overuse injury. I have plenty of that too. Some mild Achilles tendonitis on the right and left elbow pain of medial epicondylitis (golfer's elbow). This is clearly pain in my tendons. I know what to do with tendonitis, and it won't be covered here. Similarly, I have a torn meniscus in my right knee that sometimes acts up. This is clearly joint pain, and not something to "work through." Similarly, that burn you feel when working out is lactic acid build up in the muscle going through anaerobic respiration and eventually running out of energy. Feeling the burn is good and typically dissipates in a matter of minutes to hours.
No, the soreness I'm talking about is that muscle pain that makes you groan walking down stairs or bending over to tie your shoes. Now in college it was funny when I couldn't sit down on the toilet after "leg day" but that usually only lasted for a day and I was back. Today I'm old(er), and I need to know if I'm going to do more damage than good if I hit the gym. So this is DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness)....videos always explain it better than words
The theory is that these microtears in the muscle fibers cause inflammation, and we have found that the eccentric phase of lifting causes more soreness or tears. First, some good news. Soreness means muscle damage which your body should repair into larger (and stronger) muscles. Secondly, you could almost completely avoid muscle soreness by just doing the concentric phase of each exercise. Following that up with the bad news. It's pretty hard to go to the gym and only do concentric exercises. People don't like when you pick up the dumbbells to curl them up and then just drop them on the floor to avoid the eccentric phase. It's also pretty difficult to squats or deadlifts the same way.
I could try to train with concentric only exercises like the sled pull, but I think I would run out of pulls and pushes pretty quick. Besides, I actually want that muscle break down to stimulate muscle growth. Concentric exercises would definitely train the neural component of the lift and could lead to some strength gains there, but wouldn't lead to the hypertrophy component.
WHAT TO DO ABOUT DOMS...
I have a five step plan to deal with my delayed onset muscle soreness.
Suck it up, buttercup. Yeah, I should stop whinning. I should be chasing muscle soreness as a sign that I'll get some hypertrophy.
Do more deadlifts. If this exercise is making my low back sore, then either my back is weak or my form is wrong. The goal is not "lift with your back." I must be deficient in mass or recruitment of the right muscles.
Don't take NSAIDs. Ibuprofen and naproxen are common anti-inflammatory meds. I can't find the reference now, but I have read that these impede hypertrophy, and this makes sense if inflammation recruits the immune system and stimulates new muscle fibers to be generated.
Eat protein post-workout. I went straight to work after the gym instead of getting my usual protein shake. Muscle fibers (actin and myosin) are long protein chains. Your body needs proteins (amino acids) to rebuild.
Active recovery. Shown to benefit muscle soreness, probably by bringing more blood to those muscles. I'm going to combine some yoga with light-weight, high-rep exercises at the gym today to get the blood flowing and keep muscles limber.
There you have it. Muscles soreness = good. Time to active recover and get sore another day. Namaste!
