Skiman
Super Freak
Most people think that sore muscles after a workout (known as Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness, or DOMS for short) is a sign of a good training session, and that more soreness means faster muscle growth.
"When I use high-repetition workouts (roughly 20 repetitions per set), I reliably experience muscle soreness in the following days. Hence, I stimulate growth," wrote one reader.
"I typically get no soreness when I raise resistance up to where I can do only 1 to 4 repetitions. It's disheartening to go my next few days absent of that indicator."
The truth is that while sore muscles might make you feel good, it doesn't necessarily mean that your workout has been effective at stimulating muscle growth.
Running downhill, for example, is one of the best ways to create both muscle damage and muscle soreness. But this type of training isn't going to make your muscles substantially bigger.
So what causes sore muscles after a workout?
Well, it has nothing to do with lactic acid. In fact, most of the lactic acid is gone from your muscles soon after exercise.
A tough workout, or even just a single exercise that you haven't done before, leads to a bout of inflammation -- the same defense mechanism that causes swelling and pain if you cut your finger.
Inflammation is the way that your body handles an injury. And as part of the repair and recovery process, your body ramps up the production of immune cells.
These cells then produce substances that make certain pain receptors in your body more sensitive. When you move, these pain receptors are stimulated. And because they're far more sensitive than normal, you end up feeling sore.
In other words, the sensation of muscle soreness appears to be caused by changes in the chemical environment surrounding muscle tissue rather than damage to the muscle cell itself.
What's more, research shows that the source of the pain is the connective tissue that helps to bind muscle fibers together, rather than the actual muscle fibers themselves.
A lot of people like to use muscle soreness as a marker of recovery, and assume that when the soreness goes away, the damage has been repaired and the muscle has recovered.
However, muscle soreness is not generally a good indicator of exercise-induced damage. And a lack of muscle soreness doesn't tell you whether or not exercise-induced muscle damage has been repaired. In fact, the damage can persist even when the muscle has stopped aching.
A good example comes from research carried in the Journal of the Neurological Sciences. In a group of untrained men, significant soreness was evident for up to three days after exercise. Signs of muscle damage in the blood were higher for up to five days. Muscle function was also impaired for five days.
However, while other symptoms of exercise-induced muscle damage cleared within a week, damage to the neuromuscular system (the "chain of command" that transmits signals from the brain to the muscle) lasted for 10 days or more.
There are three main "take home" messages here
* Muscle soreness appears to be caused by changes in the chemical environment surrounding muscle tissue rather than damage to the muscle cell itself.
* The source of the pain appears to be the connective tissue that helps to bind muscle fibers together, rather than the actual muscle fibers themselves.
* Muscle soreness is not always a good indicator of exercise-induced damage.
"When I use high-repetition workouts (roughly 20 repetitions per set), I reliably experience muscle soreness in the following days. Hence, I stimulate growth," wrote one reader.
"I typically get no soreness when I raise resistance up to where I can do only 1 to 4 repetitions. It's disheartening to go my next few days absent of that indicator."
The truth is that while sore muscles might make you feel good, it doesn't necessarily mean that your workout has been effective at stimulating muscle growth.
Running downhill, for example, is one of the best ways to create both muscle damage and muscle soreness. But this type of training isn't going to make your muscles substantially bigger.
So what causes sore muscles after a workout?
Well, it has nothing to do with lactic acid. In fact, most of the lactic acid is gone from your muscles soon after exercise.
A tough workout, or even just a single exercise that you haven't done before, leads to a bout of inflammation -- the same defense mechanism that causes swelling and pain if you cut your finger.
Inflammation is the way that your body handles an injury. And as part of the repair and recovery process, your body ramps up the production of immune cells.
These cells then produce substances that make certain pain receptors in your body more sensitive. When you move, these pain receptors are stimulated. And because they're far more sensitive than normal, you end up feeling sore.
In other words, the sensation of muscle soreness appears to be caused by changes in the chemical environment surrounding muscle tissue rather than damage to the muscle cell itself.
What's more, research shows that the source of the pain is the connective tissue that helps to bind muscle fibers together, rather than the actual muscle fibers themselves.
A lot of people like to use muscle soreness as a marker of recovery, and assume that when the soreness goes away, the damage has been repaired and the muscle has recovered.
However, muscle soreness is not generally a good indicator of exercise-induced damage. And a lack of muscle soreness doesn't tell you whether or not exercise-induced muscle damage has been repaired. In fact, the damage can persist even when the muscle has stopped aching.
A good example comes from research carried in the Journal of the Neurological Sciences. In a group of untrained men, significant soreness was evident for up to three days after exercise. Signs of muscle damage in the blood were higher for up to five days. Muscle function was also impaired for five days.
However, while other symptoms of exercise-induced muscle damage cleared within a week, damage to the neuromuscular system (the "chain of command" that transmits signals from the brain to the muscle) lasted for 10 days or more.
There are three main "take home" messages here
* Muscle soreness appears to be caused by changes in the chemical environment surrounding muscle tissue rather than damage to the muscle cell itself.
* The source of the pain appears to be the connective tissue that helps to bind muscle fibers together, rather than the actual muscle fibers themselves.
* Muscle soreness is not always a good indicator of exercise-induced damage.
