Your first workout left you flying high -- until the next morning. You might have muscles that are sore, stiff and difficult to move. It may help you to know that subsequent workouts will not leave you equally as pained. In the meantime, you can alleviate your current soreness with different home remedies.
Explanation
Your first workout can leave you with two different types of muscle soreness. Your muscles can be sore immediately following the workout, a pain that generally goes away quickly on its own. The soreness you experience the next morning or anywhere from 24 to 48 hours after your first workout is delayed onset muscle soreness. Minute tears in the tissues around your muscles cause this soreness, which can last up to 72 hours before you even begin to feel relief. If you cannot wait, go for a muscle soreness remedy.
Cold Therapy
Taking a cold bath or applying an ice pack to your muscles can alleviate soreness. The cold from either treatment constricts your blood vessels, which open wider when you exercise, and helps stop lactic acid and waste products from seeping into your muscles through the vessels. A bathtub full of chilled water, or even water mixed with ice cubes, helps to soothe sore muscles, as long as you only submerge your body up to your waist. Submerging your chest in chilled water can lead to injury, so stick with the ice packs for your upper body soreness.
Massage, Stretching and Relaxation Remedies
Massages, gently stretching the affected muscles and decreasing muscle tension through relaxation can soothe post-workout soreness. Massages relieve sore muscles by increasing the action of neutrophils, which are the while blood cells that help keep swelling down. Relaxation techniques for sore muscles include a bath full of Epson salts or soaking in a swimming pool or hot tub for at least 15 minutes.
Soreness Going Forward
Your second workout is not as likely to leave you as sore as your first one did, provided you perform the same range of exercises. Your muscles will become accustomed to your workout and in the future only become sore when you increase the intensity of the exercise or workout. To keep soreness at a minimum, go for a gradual increase when you want to up the intensity, rather than a sudden shift. You also help keep post-workout muscle soreness at bay by stretching prior to working out, starting your workout slowly with the less intense exercises until your muscles warm up and exercising regularly at least two or three times a week.
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