Microtrauma is the best way to describe the pain within your muscles after a workout. There have been several incorrect conclusions about the sources of pain, including one pervasive myth about lactic acid being the cause of pain, but damage to small structures within the muscle itself is the actual cause of the pain. There are ways to both limit and reduce this pain. Consult your physician before beginning any diet or exercise program.
Microtrauma
Skeletal muscle, is composed of smaller structures called muscle fibers. Within each fiber are smaller structures called myofibrils, which run from one end of a muscle cell to another. Within myofibrils are small structures called myofilaments. When you exercise, you damage the myofilaments as the protein structures within them are broken down and the amino acids used for various functions are consumed as energy.
Primary Reasons for Pain
The primary reason for delayed-onset muscle soreness is inefficiency. When you are performing movements that you are unskilled at, you have less fine motor control and your muscles have to compensate for this. As you become more skilled at a movement, this effect decreases. Other factors that contribute to the pain you feel are training volume, as the greater the time under tension, the greater the trauma. Another factor is resistance training with a strong eccentric component, or "slow negative." This not only increases the time under load, it stretches the fibers themselves as you train, further potentiating the damage.
No Pain, No Gain
This is not exactly true. Many athletes progress with very little in the way of delayed-onset muscle soreness, and there are a variety of factors involved in this. Most notable is the lack of an eccentric component when engaged in resistance training. It is for this reason that weightlifters, those who compete in the snatch and clean and jerk, can train the same lifts multiple times per week: they do not have much in the way of an eccentric component in their lifts. Certain powerlifting programs feature aspects of this sort of training as well, most notably the conjugate system used by coach Louis Simmons of Westside Barbell Club.
Ways to End the Pain
If you are training hard, you will probably always be experiencing some sort of pain, but it should not cripple you or limit your ability to perform. While it has been stated that stretching will help reduce muscle soreness, multiple studies and a meta-analysis by Dr. Robert D. Herbert of the George Institute for International Health showed that stretching, whether pre- or post-workout did little to limit or reduce the effects of delayed onset muscle soreness. However, you might be able to reduce your pain with a simple method: more exercise. This does not mean go and run a marathon the day after a squat workout, but you can go for a walk, and this will help by simply improving circulation and clearing waste products from your muscles, which could speed the healing process. Also, supplementation with branched chain amino acids has also been shown to help.
References
- Pubmed: Stretching to Prevent or Reduce Muscle Soreness After Exercise
- Pubmed: Branched-chain Amino Acid Supplementation Before Squat Exercise and Delayed-onset Muscle Soreness
- Pubmed: Neural and Morphological Changes in Response to a 20-day Intense Eccentric Training Protocol
- Pubmed: Different Response to Eccentric and Concentric Training in Older Men and Women
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