Why do we feel sore after exercising?
When you first begin exercising it is common to feel sore and stiff for 24-48 hours post exertion (or exercise session). Whether it’s the first time ever doing structured exercise or you are returning from not having exercised for a period of time, expect your body to experience DOMS or delayed onset muscle soreness. To put it simply, DOMS is a response the body experiences as our muscles in particular adapt to new physical demands you have placed on it.
There are a number of reasons you experience DOMS. When you exercise you place high and new physical demands on your skeletal system; bones, muscles, ligaments and tendons. They are moved in different ways, contracted and lengthened with load or required to hold contraction and create power. These are things that in the Modern day to day, an individual would not commonly experience. Every time you exercise, particularly when completing resistance training (weight training) your muscles go through high levels of stress which causes microscopic damage to the muscle fiber. This can cause an inflammatory response to help repair the muscle fiber to become stronger, so that it can withstand the load you just placed on it if it was to happen again.
When you exercise, your muscles use their energy stores to create the movements required. As energy metabolism occurs our cells produce waste products, a commonly referred to waste product produced is lactic acid. A buildup of lactic acid in the muscle can contribute to your soreness or DOMS. It is important that you have adequate cool downs after any physical activity so that your circulatory system can effectively minimise the degree of lactic acid left in the muscle.
If you continue to exercise with the same mode, intensity and duration of exercise then you can expect that your DOMS will reduce in time if you maintain frequent exercise (Minimum of 3 days resistance training a week). When you change the type or intensity of the exercise you are completing then you will expect to experience DOMS again, possibly less and in a different location of the body.
To reduce the likelihood of DOMS or minimise its occurrence ensure that you are warming up properly, stretching, cooling down and gradually increasing the intensity of your workouts. Maintaining weekly exercise, 3 days of resistance training and 5 days of moderate to vigorous cardiovascular exercise a week will also reduce the likelihood of an activity relapse.
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