Can I Exercise While My Muscles Are Sore?
For increasing your flexibility or strength, you have to make sure your body’s metabolism takes place quicker than usual. By paying close attention to metabolic needs, your body would automatically respond and prepare for the upcoming workout by making the fiber in your muscle bigger, stronger and supple. However, a major drawback in a regular workout would be muscle soreness. Typically, people are requested to relax and wait for complete recovery so as to be able to train again. By pushing yourself to the point of muscular ache and soreness could lead to uncalled for injuries. But wait! What if you can actually continue your regular workout by treating and tending to these sore muscles?
Many bodybuilders and weight trainers experience sore muscles regularly, but the treatment they offer is simple neglect. This condition is known as a delayed Onset Muscle Soreness or DOMS, and its severity could vary from discomfort to crippling. A frequently asked question in DOMS is 'should I train when my muscles are sore?' The answer is 'no'. And according to many veteran trainers this is a sensible answer. However, in reality, if you are not training your muscles when they are sore, you might actually lose out on good results as well as slow down the rate of their recovery.
What Is Muscle Soreness?
In simple terms, Muscle soreness is a condition in which muscle fibers become overworked or stretched causing fatigue and muscular ache. When your muscles get sore, your body actually sends signals that it needs repair. If you are a bodybuilder or weight trainer, you might have noticed that your muscles become sore after exercise. If you run two miles at the same speed everyday, you would never become stronger, faster, or develop more endurance. If you discontinue lifting weights when some muscles start inflaming, you may not feel sore on the next day neither will you turn stronger. Improvements in any muscle function come from recovering and stressing. You might have noticed when you exercise hard enough, your muscles inflame while exercising. The next day you feel soreness in the muscles as they are damaged and need time to recuperate. Scientists term this as delayed onset muscle soreness or DOMS.
How Long Before My Muscles Get Sore?
You would need at least 8 hours to feel this kind of muscle soreness. You might end a workout feeling satisfied; but eventually soreness would seep into your muscles the following morning. Many people were of the opinion that this ‘next-day’ muscle soreness is due to lactic acids buildup in the muscles. However, lactic acid is not related to muscular injuries. Next-day muscle soreness is merely caused due to damage of muscle fibers. Muscle biopsies taken a day after the hard exercise show disruption and bleeding of the z-band filaments that hold muscle fibers together during contractions.
Scientists have the ability to reveal how much muscle damage has taken place by measuring blood levels of a certain muscle enzyme called CPK, which is found in muscles and is transferred into the bloodstream whenever muscles get ruptured or injured. Bodybuilders and weight trainers who have the high post-exercise blood levels of CPK usually also have the most cases of soreness in muscle. By employing blood CPK levels for measuring muscle damage, scientists have proved that people who continue exercising with sore muscles are more likely to feel sore the day after the exercise.
Some people are of the opinion that exercising at a very slow pace helps in cooling down after exercising rigorously and prevents muscle soreness, which is very untrue. Cooling down basically accelerates the removal of lactic acid from muscles. However, buildup of lactic acid does not bring about muscle soreness neither would cooling down help in preventing muscle soreness. Stretching would help in preventing it though, as post-exercise soreness is not because of contracted muscle fibers.
Information on muscle soreness should be included within training for all physical sports. Many athletes follow a rigorous workout for a single day, thereafter go easy for 1-7 days and eventually carry out a rigorous workout again. World-class marathon runners run very fast only twice a week. It is said - the best weightlifters lift very heavy weights only once in 2 weeks. Shot putters pitch a longer distance only every week. Exercise training is done basically by exercising to the limit and thereafter recovering from it.
Precautions Against Muscle Sores
Warming up before any physical activity is very important. In addition, consuming a carbohydrate-protein supplement while exercising can help in minimizing muscle tissue injury and accelerating post-workout protein synthesis. Consuming conventional 7-8% carbohydrate sports drinks delays exhaustion of the stored muscle glycogen and further decelerates the rise in use of muscle proteins that are used as a source of energy.
However, latest findings have brought to light that adding a small quantity of proteins to these sports drinks might save more glycogen by stimulating more insulin, a hormone that transports glucose to our muscles.
According to certain studies, researchers have found that adding protein to carbohydrate sports drink at a 4:1 proportion improves aerobic endurance performance by 24% compared to the conventional carbohydrate sports drink. In addition, adding protein increases glucose and insulin uptake, thus providing quicker energy to the muscle that is being exercised. Eventually, this results in a noteworthy improvement in stamina and an increased sparing of muscle glycogen.
By far, sports drinks are the best way of consuming protein and carbohydrate during workouts, as these nutrients are absorbed in this form more quickly. Moreover, these drinks provide electrolytes and water needed for preventing any chances of dehydration while exercising. Athletes are always advised to consume a few ounces of such drinks every 10 minutes during the course of their exercise session. The exact amount of drinks needed is decided on the basis of factors like the air temperature, the intensity of exercise, and the build of the athlete.
A common quick tip used for decreasing post-workout soreness and protecting against muscle soreness is to take 500 mg of Vitamin C approximately 1 hour before workout. Besides, good post workout nutritious diet can easily help in reducing the amount of muscle soreness.
