The most common cause of muscle soreness and other muscle soreness after sports are injuries and muscle strains. Overuse of the muscles or minor injuries cause this type of pain. Another cause of muscle pain is stress. When you feel tense or restless, the muscles in your body tense and hormones are released to increase your sensitivity to pain. Another reason is the pain caused by infections such as colds and flu.
What Causes Muscle Pain After Sports?
Except for injuries, your pain usually happens when you start sports or when you take a long break and start again. Increasing the tempo and starting heavier movements can cause pain. Putting everything aside, the main reason for muscle pain is to start the sport without warming up.
These muscle pains are called delayed-onset muscle pain (DOMS) or “impairedness” as it is known among the people. These pains are experienced as a result of microscopic damage to muscle fibers as a result of physical activity. DOMS can affect both amateur athletes and long-time sports professionals. As an athlete, you have nothing to worry about. Your muscles will get used to physical activity over time. In this way, your pain may decrease or even disappear as time passes.
Besides DOMS, muscle fatigue is also among the causes of muscle pain after sports. The most important factor that plays a role in muscle fatigue is lactic acid. The accumulation of lactic acid in the body and the weakening of energy stores can cause a feeling of discomfort in the body that lasts for 1-2 hours or more.
If we are to sum up;
- Being new to sports,
- Adding new movements or weights to the training program,
- Ignoring stretching and cooling movements,
- Not paying attention to breathing during exercise,
Factors such as DOMS can cause pain or muscle fatigue.
Recommendations to Relieve Muscle Pain After Sports
There are multiple ways to relieve muscle soreness after sports. When you find the most suitable one of these, although the problem does not disappear completely, it becomes quite light and you have a chance to continue your routine. So what are these ways?
1) Change in workout routine
If you always have the same routine in your training program, your pain will increase as soon as you want to try a new exercise. To prevent this from happening, you should try doing different exercises that will actively work all the body muscles. In this way, all muscles will always be ready for any exercise.
2) Getting or Getting a Massage
Many professional athletes definitely add massage to their training programs. It is fair to say that everyone who tries this method loves it. Planning a deep tissue massage once every two weeks or once a month helps the body to recover. Moreover, this method is scientifically supported.
3) Protein Consumption
Consumption of abundant protein does not reduce muscle soreness, but helps muscles recover faster. In this way, you do not feel the pain for a long time. According to studies, consuming 10 g of whey before and after training reduces muscle pain symptoms. The foods you will consume for sports vary according to the sports you do. You can make a plan by researching the diets suitable for the sports you practice on a routine basis.
4) Sleep After Sports
Sleep is the best remedy for pain after sports. Therefore, give yourself at least 9-10 hours of sleep time after exercise. Let the cells activated during sleep do their job. Let your muscles both repair and develop. But be careful not to prolong this rest period too long. The blood flow provides the recovery of the muscles and movement is essential for the healthy blood flow. A regular sleep will also benefit your overall health.
5) Water Consumption
We mentioned above that the cause of muscle fatigue is the accumulation of lactic acid in the body. For this reason, the most effective way to relieve pain is water consumption. Make sure you drink plenty of water during and after your workout. In this way, you can relieve your pain. In addition, ice can be applied to the aching area.
Especially when there is an inflammation in the muscle, you can end the pain with this method. The only point to be considered is that the intervention to the aching area should be done without delay. It should be done as soon as the pain manifests itself, without waiting for a few days. Ice application under hot therapy applied after sports is also very useful.
6) Light Activities
These activities, called healing exercises, can work in relieving pain just like massage. For example, 15-20 minutes of light jogging, cycling or stretching on the next day of a heavy and demanding workout greatly helps with muscle pain.
7) Don’t Neglect Your Rest!
Aching muscles cause distress even with minor exertion. Therefore, not increasing the pain with harder exercises will be the smartest choice for your health. These pains we are already experiencing are our body’s way of telling us that we need to take it slowly, that the body is tired and needs rest. For this reason, when we experience intense and recurring pain, it will be beneficial to include a rest day in our schedule. Pushing the limits doesn’t always have a happy ending. 🙂
8) Increasing Body Tolerance
It’s time to gradually increase the intensity of your workout, along with rest and recovery exercises. However, it is very important that this increase is realized by certain percentages. When the increase exceeds the 10-20% threshold, it will cause severe muscle pain and even injury. So, for example, if you’re doing four sets of exercise while lifting weights, you can do five sets of this exercise in the next workout. Likewise, while running 5 km at a certain speed, you should not exceed 5.5 km in the next training.
9) Kiwi and Vitamin C Supplement
Potassium is one of the best minerals for preventing muscle cramps and pain. You don’t need to eat bananas for this. Two kiwis provide more than 540 mg of potassium. This constitutes 16% of the required amount. And it only equates to 100 calories! Bananas provide 16% of the daily value for potassium, but you’ll get 25% more calories from a serving of kiwi. It also has more sugar and carbohydrates and sugar in bananas than kiwi.
It is scientifically proven information that Vitamin C is effective in muscle pain. Peppers, citrus fruits, etc., which are all rich in vitamin C. Incorporating foods into your diet helps relieve DOMS pain. Apart from these, consuming anti-inflammatory foods such as pineapple, ginger, and cherry also have positive effects on muscle pain. There is no doubt that adding these nutrients to your diet will benefit you greatly.
10) Relaxing Creams
Muscle relaxants and medications can also help you relax. The relaxing effects of the cream allow you to continue your next workout more comfortably and with pleasure. The only detail that should not be forgotten is that each medical product you will use should be used under the control and advice of a doctor.
A Few Final Notes for a Healthy Life!
Here are some of the methods you can use to minimize post-exercise muscle pain or to avoid any discomfort. Apart from these, one of the sine qua non of an efficient training is to use the right sports equipment. With the help of a professional, you can discover the most suitable equipment for yourself.
Especially if you have started to do sports as an amateur, you should definitely get help from a professional. This detail is very important in order to prevent any kind of disability and discomfort. Another point to be considered while doing sports is to determine a healthy nutrition program. You can take a look at many resources to ensure this.
However, you can find out the most appropriate program by consulting a dietitian together with the goal you want to reach and your training program. As we have emphatically said before, you do not need to risk your health to achieve a healthy and dream body.
With the right and useful advice from the right people, you can achieve the body, body and mental health you want! As a result, according to this informative content we have written, it is quite possible to have a healthy life with proper nutrition, knowing the limits of the body and training accordingly, and correct warming and cooling exercises!
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