What is Muscle Soreness?
Muscle soreness is a type of muscle injury that results from over stretching, overusing, or misusing a muscle. Light muscle soreness after a physical exercise can be a good thing, as it means your body is getting stronger. However, muscle soreness that causes pain, means that the muscle is injured.
Types and Causes of Muscle Soreness
Acute Muscle Soreness
Acute muscle soreness occurs immediately after strenuous exercise and usually disappear within a few minutes or hours after the initial injury. It can be felt in any muscle that is being strained. It often occurs when a person increases the intensity of their physical exercise.
Acute muscle soreness is caused by a single event as a result of injuries or traumas due to overexertion, fatigue, poor flexibility, not warming up before exercising, and poor conditioning. It often occurs after running, jumping, lifting heavy items, lifting something while in a strange position, or slipping.
Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness
Delayed onset muscle soreness, also referred to as DOMS or muscle fever, is pain and stiffness of the muscles hours or days after the strenuous exercise. DOMS is caused by eccentric exercise, or repeatedly performing eccentric muscle contractions. An example of this is performing a bicep curl, in which lowering the dumbbell down is an eccentric contraction. It can also be caused by starting a new exercise for the first time or increasing the intensity of an exercise you’ve already done.
Symptoms of delayed onset muscle soreness are generally a dull, aching pain in the affected muscle, as well as muscle stiffness and tenderness. Pain is generally at its peak between 24 to 72 hours of the initial injury and is usually only felt when the muscle is being stretched, not when the muscle is rested.
How to Avoid Muscle Soreness
Taking breaks during strenuous activities to allow your muscles to rest is very important. Regularly engaging in light exercises, such as walking or stretching, helps to reduce likelihood of the muscle becoming injured during intense physical exercise. As a general rule of thumb, you should never engage in any type of physical activity without stretching beforehand.
Also, muscle soreness, regardless of the type, is almost always never felt during the exercise itself. If you feel pain while performing an exercise, you should not continue, as your body is at greater risk for serious joint or muscle damage.
How to Get Rid of Muscle Soreness
Muscle soreness can be treated at home. Applying ice packs to the affected muscle is effective at reducing inflammation and decreasing swelling. Heat packs may be applied for immediate symptom relief, however, ice packs are more effective for treating muscle soreness in the long run. Over-the-counter medications, such as aspirin or ibuprofen, may also be helpful to reduce inflammation, swelling, and alleviate pain.
Another effective way to treat muscle soreness is Dr. Ho’s Pain Therapy System. It is a Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) device that mimics relaxation techniques, such as deep kneading, gentle chopping, and soothing rubbing, directly targeting the source of tension or pain. It is highly effective in treating muscle soreness, tension, and pain associated with many types of acute or chronic conditions.
