Muscle soreness is a condition that frequently occurs in the aftermath of exercise or other significant muscle exertion. It is also sometimes referred to as delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS. While you can work out with sore muscles, doing so can contribute to additional soreness and delay your recovery from your condition.
Basics
When you exercise, short-term muscle soreness can trigger significant pain and cause you to end a workout session. This type of soreness, caused by the temporary buildup of lactic acid in your muscle tissue, acts as a built-in damage control system and encourages you to stop your current activity before you hurt yourself. Delayed muscle soreness appears within 12 to 48 hours after you finish working out. Scientists believe it is triggered by microscopic tearing of your muscle fibers and an inflammatory muscle reaction caused by intensive or unfamiliar physical activity. You can develop DOMS even if your workout itself doesn't cause you pain.
Working Out With Soreness
Workout-related muscle soreness usually fades on its own in anywhere from three to seven days, physical therapist Sid Hsu reports at John Muir Health. Typically, you can't make your body heal any faster, but you can aggravate your affected muscles if you work out again before your soreness subsides. In addition to avoiding working out before your soreness fades away, options for diminishing your discomfort during healing include massaging or stretching your sore muscles, increasing the blood flow to your affected muscles with non-stressful aerobic activity and taking nonprescription painkillers. You can also rest your affected muscle, apply a cold source, compress it with a bandage and elevate it above the level of your heart.
Decreasing Soreness
You can potentially avoid or diminish muscle soreness in the first place by taking certain workout precautions. These include avoiding rapid changes in the duration or form of your workout, stretching out the muscles that bear the brunt of your activity both before and after you exercise, and initiating an appropriate warm-up and cool-down routine to accompany your main workout. If you're a new exerciser or beginning a new activity, start with a limited workout and increase the duration and intensity of your routine gradually over time.
Serious Injuries
You are particularly prone to DOMS if you are new to exercising, perform intense workouts or return to working out after a considerable layoff. Typically, your body will adjust to a new or reinstated exercise routine and your after-workout soreness will ease over time. However, in some cases, soreness after a workout may result from a serious injury rather than relatively harmless DOMS. If you have soreness that lasts for longer than a week and reduces the strength or function of your muscle, see your doctor for a proper diagnosis of your condition.
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