Remember I introduced you to my new workout buddy? He has been experiencing a bit of soreness during his return to the gym. Please don’t tell him I told you!
You may have experienced the same thing when beginning a new workout. It may make you walk a little different, or raising your arms above your head difficult, this is normal. You might even seem to be more sore two or three days later, trying to climb the stairs saying Ouch, Ouch Ouch! This symptom actually has a name, delayed-onset muscle soreness or DOMS which occurs when the body is forced to try to adapt to increased amounts work placed on the muscles. Starting with low intensity and introducing overload gradually helps lessen the soreness, but let’s face it if we shock our system it is going to give a signal to let us know it has noticed the change.
Placing resistance on the muscle causes many tiny micro-tears which are rebuilt and repaired to adapt to the increased loads. When adaptation to the training occurs, you have entered the resistant development stage, where you guessed it! Loads can be increased to build strength, which is our ultimate goal.
Realizing this is not an injury and just a reaction to the switch in routine, we can continue to workout. In fact, it may help a little bit with the soreness, by moving blood and oxygen through the muscles; however, don’t lift heavy again on the same muscles until they have recovered, but a 30 minute walk and stretching after a heavy leg day is not a bad idea.
In addition, proper nutrition after such workouts will also help with quicker recovery. A carb and protein source is the best for recovery. You should note this is the only time supplements are better than whole foods, whole foods take about 3 hours to digest, but by using a fast acting carb it can start the replenishment of glycogen immediately allowing the protein to get to work repairing the muscles, helping with DOMS and moving toward the resistant development stage where the magic happens!
I personally use a post-workout shake consisting of Ignition, a pure dexanhydrous glucosen which a fast acting carb, and Phormula-1 a hydrolyzed whey protein isolate, which means it is already broken down and ready to go to work!!
