reduce muscle soreness
reduce muscle soreness
Reduce Muscle Soreness
It is one of those things that can be quite honestly debilitating.
I’ve definitely had times when I couldn’t walk for what felt like a week after doing a leg workout. It’s also really inconvenient if you need to go to a dance, take stairs frequently, or simply need to sit to use the restroom.
So how do we get rid of this? What are the 5 Ways to Reduce Muscle Soreness?
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5 Ways to Reduce Muscle Soreness
# 1 – Just Keep Moving!
First on our list of the 5 Ways to Reduce Muscle Soreness is to simply keep moving. It might not be the best thing to feel, but in the end, what it’s going to do is improve your circulation. You’re going to get more nutrients, more oxygen to the tissue. You’re going to be elongating it so it’s not going to get as stiff. A lot of times when a muscle goes through a range of motion that it’s not used to, that can be quite painful. It’s pushing on nerves and stretch receptors are being activated.
So, even though you might be used to a longer or a wider range of motion, when you’re sore you’re not moving as much and so those nerves aren’t moving as much either. So, going through the maximal range of your normal motion, moving in general, is going to be one of the best ways to decrease the pain associated with soreness after a workout. Now that doesn’t have to mean you go for like a sprint or that you have to go do another workout. It could be as simple as walking your dog, taking a hike, doing something fun at the swimming pool during the summertime, or if it’s warm year-round wherever you are located
The main objective is that you’re keeping that body in motion. A body in motion will continue to stay in motion. Another way to get rid of muscle soreness is foam rolling. Again, this is unfortunately not the most pleasant experience when you’re sore, but what you feel afterward is so much better than if you had continued not to move. Also, your recovery time is going to be that much more expedited than if you had just been sedentary or if you had said “I’m going to stay on the couched and just wait till things feel better”. Again, you always want to keep moving the body.
5 Ways to Reduce Muscle Soreness
# 2 – Foam Roll!
Foam rolling is number two on our list of the 5 Ways to Reduce Muscle Soreness. Foam rolling is an excellent way to reduce soreness. You’re going to improve the myofibrils by making sure that the actin-myosin filaments are in a good alignment and that that is going to allow for proper recovery and are called adhesions. Essentially, if we don’t heal properly, which often is the case at a microscopic level, we form these little clumps of tissue. I always tell people it’s kind of like pizza dough. You get these “bumps” in the muscle tissue as it recovers. It just simply doesn’t come back in that nice straight uniform line. It, unfortunately, comes back with some bumps and clumps here and there.
Foam rolling helps to negate the build-up of irregular tissues. It helps to “smooth out” and much like you would roll a pizza dough or bread or whatever, and to put that back into that nice kind of uniform layer that our muscle tissue is aligned. Muscle tissue is essentially stacks and stacks of fibers making up those large bundles known as muscles. Myofascial release is going to be one of the best ways to alleviate soreness and added tension.
The other tissue affected is the fascial layer superficial to the muscle. Rolling over the muscle and fascia is called myofascial release. Myo, meaning muscle, and fascial, referencing the fascia, of the muscle. The fascia is similar to a balloon. The “skin”, or the exterior of the balloon is what encases the muscle. If you open a chicken breast, for example, it has a semi-clear layer that goes surrounds the outside of the muscle.
This is the fascia covering the muscle in the chicken. This tissue as referenced above can become quite stiff. When fascia becomes rigid, it does not adequately allow for the muscle and the nerves surrounding it to expand, contract, and move as normal. This reduction in the range of motion, inadequate space for expansion of tissue, and impaired movement results in what we perceive as pain and stiffness. By going over that tissue with foam rolling, we “loosen” it up, and in that way, we improve movement, allow for nerves to not be overly compressed, and increases circulation as well.
5 Ways to Reduce Muscle Soreness
# 3 – Stay Hydrated!
The third on our list of the 5 Ways to Reduce Muscle Soreness is Hydration. Hydration is going to allow you to get more nutrients to the tissues that have been damaged at a microscopic level. In conjunction with adequate recovery, being properly hydrated will result in a stronger and more robust tissue than compared to a dehydrated state. The tissue is going to have a more expedited positive influx and flow of macro/micro nutrients, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc…
We are told it’s good for the body to be hydrated. That is a superficial level of advice with merit that doesn’t explain exactly why we need it, just that we do. What is going on at a deeper level is much more important to know and understand. A critical aspect of being hydrated is the transportation and removal of waste products that have accumulated in the body after exercise. Proper hydration is also significantly important because it aids every cell in the body with proper pressure, diffusion, and/or osmosis.
Inadequate removal of those waste products will in the long run (and possibly the short-term as well, based on severity) reduce the ability of the tissue to function properly. In extreme cases, it may build up to toxic levels in the body. Picture a healthy level of increase in hydration more so as a clearing of waste, rather than bringing nutrients. By clearing waste you are allowing for the nutrients to be utilized optimally and in the correct area without being blocked by damaged cells or cellular waste. Nutrients will get to the tissues that much faster with proper hydration and help get rid of muscle soreness.
5 Ways to Reduce Muscle Soreness
# 4 – ADEQUATE REST & RECOVERY TIME!
Forth on our list of the 5 Ways to Reduce Muscle Soreness is adequate rest and recovery time. It’s so simple, but it needs to be hit upon. Make sure you’re getting adequate sleep in the range of seven to eight hours a night. Some people need more than 8 hours, especially those in physical development years. If your schedule allows, I recommend a short nap around 2:00 in the afternoon.
Our circadian rhythm has a natural dip in alertness to a degree where an “optional” nap makes sense. I say optional because the reduction is not so strong that we can not push through and continue about our day. From a personal standpoint, I do feel like this is the maximal way to recover from a sleeping/rest standpoint. Oftentimes, this allows for additional sleep, at a deep level, and requires a minimal amount of time (15-30 minutes). This does not necessarily mean rapid eye movement is occurring, but depending on the needs of the body it may indeed mean REM sleep.
If you’re training really hard, you might need nine or more hours of sleep at night. You may say “okay, I know after leg training, I’m always so sore. I’m going to make sure I get seven-eight hours of sleep the night night of the workout. The next day (say a weekend day), “I’m going to take a nap in the afternoon for about a hour”, just because your body needs that much more recovery compared to other muscle groups.
Having better sleep is going to make a huge difference compared to someone who’s not getting adequate amounts of sleep.The flip side of this that still rings true is not stay out too late. Even if you get 7-8 hours of sleep, it won’t be the same quality because it does not follow your normal circadian rhythm from the previous day(s).
5 Ways to Reduce Muscle Soreness
# 5 – GET ADEQUATE AMOUNTS OF PROTEIN!
Fifth on our list of the 5 Ways to Reduce Muscle Soreness is getting adequate amounts of protein. You broke down the body with exercise in a healthy way. You don’t get stronger in the gym, you get stronger after you have gone to the gym, given the body the proper stimulus, and followed by excellent recovery. A main component for proper recovery is a sufficient supply of amino acids. These amino acids will act as the building blocks for rebuilding damaged tissue larger, stronger, and more robots than prior to the activity. You can’t build a house without the materials, even if all the workers are present. Everyone can be ready to go and things are all set in place, but you need the building materials. The raw materials must be available in the right quantities, otherwise the job can’t completed.
In this case for the body, those raw materials are going to be those amino acids from protein. Now if you’re a vegan or vegetarian, that’s cool, but you need to make sure you’re getting a sufficient amount of those essential amino acids which are oftentimes more challenging compared to a complete protein source such as an animal protein. As a non meat eater, you can eat a food combination that will allow you to get all of those amino acids. If you can get all those amino acids by combining foods, you could supplement with something like pea protein.
The other challenging aspect is making sure you get enough protein overall. Now, maybe you have all the amino acids but maybe you only have 10 grams worth when you put everything together. That’s not going to be enough. The minimum that you want to ingest to elicit a building state (anabolism) is about 30 grams. Where does the 30 grams come from? You need about 3 grams of leucine, (this really doesn’t change much more depending on a persons size) for the body to start the process.
I’m about 200 pounds for example. I always try to get about 4 to 5 grams of leucine or about 40 to 50 grams of protein. For every 10 grams of complete protein there is roughly 1 gram of leucine. Leucine is important because that is what “turns on” what’s called muscle protein synthesis. Muscle protein synthesis; when is when the body begins synthesizing protein from ingested amino acids. It’s creating new proteins to build tissue. It’s repairing muscle tissue, making new skin, growing more hair. It’s doing everything that it should be doing and it needs to have a certain stimulus before that is enacted.
The main thing that’s going to enact that is the proper leucine amount. Again, the minimum threshold is about 3 grams for the average person. Depending on your size, it could be a little bit higher, but it’s really not that much. Can you have 70 grams of protein? Can you have a hundred grams of protein? Sure, your body is going to try and make as much use of it as it can. Now, the question is, is that optimal? The answer is an easy no. That’s more so for another article.
Relevant Products
(Protein Powder, HMB – Muscle sparing supplement *not protein*, Natural Jerky)
Summing it all up!
At the end of the day it is pretty straight-forward. Make sure you rest up, eat well, and get plenty of fluids too. Eventhough you may be sore, keep moving in some way to release the tension and keep things loose. After you exercise and once soreness has gone down too, make sure to foam roll. I highly encourage performing it beforehand too!
Sincerely,
The Orange County Personal Trainer
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