The Most Effective Way to Relieve Muscle Pain After Workout
Introduction:
You probably heard that there is no pain and no gain, right? I also agree with this statement. To gain extra muscles in your body, you have to go through the pain process.
It does not matter if you just started your workouts or are a regular gym goer; to build muscle, you must endure pain.
I was a fat boy and joined the gym to burn fat and get perfect shape. So, after finishing the first day of workout in the gym, I feel pain in every part of my body. It is normal for every person, and it reduces over time when you exercise regularly. But after one month, It was my leg day, so after doing my workouts, I came back home, and everything was fine. I had a bit of pain in my muscles, and that was normal, but the next day, in the morning, I felt the pain in my body; the intense pain was not normal, and I could hardly move my body. I thought the pain would be reduced in one or two days, but I was wrong.
But with the help of a professional, I recovered myself. So, in this article, you will know why muscle pain after workouts, what you should do to relieve the muscle pain, and the treatments for muscle pain.
Why Muscle Pain Or Soreness After Workouts?
If you want to build muscle, the first thing you have to do is break it down. It doesn’t matter if you are new in the gym or go regularly, but increase the load and intensify your workouts. You feel the soreness in your muscles after your workout session.
To build muscles, you have to put an extra amount of load on your body, which causes microtears in your muscles. These microtears are good for you and important for muscle growth, but they can also cause muscle pain or soreness.
The good thing is that when your body starts to repair these microtears, your muscles become stronger and healthier than previously. However, this healing muscle journey can be uncomfortable.
So, muscle soreness has two types: acute soreness, which can happen during the workout or immediately after performing the workout session, and delayed onset muscle soreness in short DOMS, which does not happen immediately.
Acute muscle soreness is normal, but you feel the problem with DOMS. Your muscles are aching, and you also feel weak. At the same time, the stiffness in your joints and the speed of body motion decline, so you feel very uncomfortable moving yourself.
I have had a terrible experience with it. Thankfully, some methods help you reduce muscle soreness.
Stretching:
This is an excellent way to reduce muscle soreness and prevent injuries. After the workout, you can do 10 minutes of stretching. This will help you move your muscles quickly because stretching enables you to flow more blood and oxygen into your muscles. You can combine static and kinetic stretching exercises after your intense workout session.
After the DOMS, stretching helps me a lot. Back then, I did 10 minutes of stretching for every workout session. You can start with a slow walk and gradually pick the speed or do some aerobic exercises for flexibility and blood movement in muscles.
Drink Water During, Before, and After Workouts:
Water plays a significant role in alleviating muscle soreness. If you stay dehydrated and do workouts, there is a chance of muscle cramping and soreness. It is recommended that you drink adequate water before, during, and after your workout session because it helps to provide more fluids to your joints and muscles and flush out toxic wastes.
The experts suggest drinking 17 to 20 ounces of water 2 to 3 hours before workouts and 8 ounces of water 20 to 30 minutes during workouts.
If you remain dehydrated, muscle recovery slows down. So, it is essential to drink water to prevent and reduce muscle soreness after the workout session. You can also drink electrolyte drinks to remain hydrated.
Cold Therapy:
This helps me so much to recover, and I take a cold shower daily after my workout as cold therapy. You can use cold therapy in two ways: taking a cold shower right after your workout and applying ice cubes.
When you take a cold shower, it slows down your blood circulation and helps to reduce swelling and related pain in your body muscles. However, if you notice pain in your joints and specific muscle areas, then it is recommended that you use ice packs for 15 to 20 minutes.
Massage Therapy:
Massage therapy is a great way to alleviate muscle soreness. It is the most popular technique among athletes because it is more effective than other methods of reducing soreness and helps to improve muscle performance. Body massage stimulates mitochondria in cells that help promote cell function in the body and repair muscle.
Good Sleep:
We often underestimate the importance of getting good sleep. You have many excuses for not sleeping correctly, but you need a good amount of sleep for muscle recovery. An adult person needs 7 to 9 hours of sleep daily so that the body muscle gets time to recover itself. If you do not sleep well, then your muscle recovery slows down, and in the long term, it affects you badly.
Eat Anti-Inflammatory Foods:
Include anti-inflammatory foods in your diet. They will help reduce the chance of injury and help with DOMS. You can include cherry juice as an anti-inflammatory food in your diet. Research shows that the players who drank cherry juice seven days before a race had lower soreness problems than those who didn’t drink this juice.
Use A Roller Or Massage Gun:
If you do not have time or money to go for a massage, a foam roller and massage gun are the best solutions. These tools help increase blood flow to your muscles and alleviate soreness.
So, these are the most effective ways you can use to alleviate your soreness after your workout sessions. Sometimes, you think you should stop your workout because of the soreness, but don’t do this. Soreness is a good thing because by this, you know you are making progress. Keep moving. But if you have an intense amount of soreness, then take the advice of professionals, and instead of stopping workouts, you can do cross-training during this time. Soreness is a part of the fitness process.
I hope that this article helps you. If you want to share your experience, please comment below.