If you’ve experienced any form of muscle soreness before, you’ll know that aren’t the same. However, you may be wondering where the sudden pain in your muscles came, and what could’ve caused it.
We’ve covered that in this article, so read on:
Types of Muscle Soreness
For starters, there are two types of muscle soreness you should know about:
- acute muscle soreness sometimes called immediate muscle soreness
- DOMs or delayed onset muscle soreness
Acute Muscle Soreness often happens in the course of exercise or immediately after you finish.
This is a burning pain caused by a build-up of lactic acid in your muscles. In most cases, it is resolved quickly without you realising it.
DOMs, on the other hand, occurs after 24 – 72 hours after your routine.
Several people are familiar with this kind of pain as it happens the next day after exercising. It is caused by tiny muscle fibre tears and connecting tissues tears gotten in the course of exercising.
You’ll suffer from DOMs if you use the muscles in ways you shouldn’t especially during an intense or new workout. You can reduce muscle soreness by increasing your workout intensity.
How to Reduce Muscle Soreness?
There are several ways to treat or reduce muscle soreness. NSAIDs – also known as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs – provide instant relief but it’s with mixed results. Also, muscle soreness gets better the more you exercise.
In addition, new research also shows that Tylenol (acetaminophen) is also of great benefit in reducing muscle soreness.
Additionally, eating foods rich in antioxidant can also provide relief from sore muscles e.g watermelon. The fruit contains a lot of amino acid known as L-citrulline.
A 2017 study showed that amino acid is good for heart rate recovery together with soreness. Watermelon isn’t the only anti-inflammatory food that can reduce muscle soreness, you can also try
- ginger
- pineapple
- cherry juice
- curcumin
- fish oil
If you don’t know what curcumin is, it’s the compound found in the regular turmeric. Curcumin is rich in antioxidants and it has potent anti-inflammatory effects.
This is the reason why it greatly speeds up recovery after a workout session and it also help reduce muscle soreness.
If you prefer natural methods, you can’t go wrong with milk protein.
A 2017 study disclosed that taking milk protein supplements reduces muscle soreness and it gives strength especially in muscle trauma caused by exercise.
Arnica is another natural alternative you can try. It has been widely used as a natural cure for all things related to muscle soreness for several years. It is gotten from a plant known as Arnica Montana located in Siberia, Europe.
There’s also heat therapy which you can try immediately after workout. When you apply heat after an intense workout session, there’s every chance the soreness you’re feeling will reduce significantly. Both moist and dry heat helps reduce pain.
Here are simple ways you can use moist heat therapy after workout:
- a warm bath
- warm damp towels
- wet heating packs
