You experience sore muscles and a lack of strength for a variety of reasons when you exercise or compete in sports. In addition to a muscle injury, factors such as excess blood and anabolic waste, lack of stretching and insufficient endurance contribute to muscle pain and fatigue. To decrease discomfort and a lack of energy, follow a few basic training and workout techniques to keep your muscles in top shape for activity.
Pre-Activity Stretching
To properly stretch your muscles before activity, use dynamic stretches that quickly but gently move your muscles just past their comfortable range of motion. Holding a stretch doesn't mirror the movements you'll soon be making and temporarily decreases your power and vertical leap. Ballistic, or "bounce-stretching," can tighten muscles before activity and even cause a tear if you do them too far beyond your comfortable range of motion. Dynamic stretching helps warm and stretch your muscles properly. Static stretching may make a sore muscle feel good, but can mask an injury, leading to more pain and soreness later after you use the muscle.
Muscular Endurance
If you fatigue during workouts, games, matches or runs, you may not have adequate muscular endurance. Endurance is your ability to perform activity over time. This is different than strength, and requires a different type of training. Instead of using heavy weights or maximum resistance settings on machines, use less than half your maximum to perform more repetitions of an exercise. Perform reps for one minute, take a short break, then start another exercise. Alternate body parts and keep working for 30 minutes or more. This type of circuit training will challenge your muscles, building endurance. Taking breaks after sets allows your muscles to replenish adenosine triphosphate that they need to contract. Taking more time between tennis points, for example, helps you start the next point with more ATP in your muscles, preventing fatigue.
Lactic Acid
When you use your muscles, you burn glycogen. A byproduct of this process is lactic acid, a muscle inhibitor. The more you use your muscles, the more lactic acid your produce, leading to muscle fatigue, cramping and soreness. After activity, cool down by using moderately intense muscle movements as simple as walking and raising your rams to lower your heart rate while excess blood and lactic acid leave your muscles. Stopping activity and going into a cold car or clubhouse can aggravate the condition known as the Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness (DOMS).
Resistance
Lifting weights, using resistance bands or a weight machine with a high resistance setting or until you feel a burning sensation in your muscles, will create microtears in your muscle fibers. This process is normal, and leads to the repair process that builds your muscles. During the next 24 to 48 hours, you'll feel muscle soreness as you recover.
Post-Activity Stretching
After you have exercised and cooled down, perform static stretches to lengthen muscles your activity has just shortened. In addition to lengthening tight muscles, static stretching helps remove anabolic waste from your muscles, further decreasing DOMS.
