When you exercise, the stress you place on your body can trigger pain in your muscles. If you have severe muscular pain that lasts for awhile after your workout, you might have a relatively harmless condition called delayed onset muscle soreness. You might also have a more serious injury called a muscle strain.
The Basics
When you perform certain types of exercise, including downhill running and resistance exercises such as weightlifting, the stress on your body can lead to microscopic damage in your muscle tissue and subsequent tissue inflammation. Delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS, occurs when this inflammation triggers a buildup of pain-inducing muscular waste products. This buildup takes time, so the pain associated with DOMS typically appears within 12 to 48 hours after your activity and peaks within 24 to 72 hours. Depending on your circumstances, DOMS-related pain can be mild, moderate or severe.
DOMS Recovery
DOMS-related pain typically completely disappears on its own within roughly one week. While no treatment has been shown to consistently shorten this recovery time, you can potentially ease your discomfort with methods that include avoidance of any activity that places stress on your affected muscles, light aerobic exercise to increase blood flow to your muscles, use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications, massage and use of a spa bath. If your post-exercise pain lasts for more than a week, you might have a more serious muscle injury. Muscle strains, in particular, can produce symptoms that are similar to DOMS.
Muscle Strains
A muscle strain occurs when you actually tear the fibers in your muscle tissue. In minor strains, only a few of your muscle fibers tear. In moderate strains, more widespread tearing leads to noticeable weakness in your affected muscle. In a severe strain, your entire muscle tears, leading to an inability to use the muscle properly. In addition to pain and loss of muscle function, potential signs of a muscle strain include bruising and swelling at the injury site, as well as muscle cramps. You might also notice a worsening of your pain during physical activity or spreading of pain to other parts of your body.
Significance and Considerations
If you have DOMS-related pain, you can use your affected muscle without triggering more muscle damage, Len Kravitz and Johndavid Maes of the University of New Mexico say. However, if your pain stems from a muscle strain, further use of your affected muscle can lead to increased damage and a potentially severe worsening of your condition. If you have severe exercise-related muscle pain that doesn't resolve within a week, contact your doctor. Also contact your doctor if you have pain accompanied by other signs or symptoms of a muscle strain.
