How To Get Rid Of Muscle Soreness

DOMS Happen Due To New Workouts

Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) can be one of the most irritating things, especially for people with physically demanding jobs. Muscle soreness can occur on the next day of a workout or the day after. These are a few facts about muscle soreness.

It doesn’t matter if you’re in good shape or not, muscle soreness can happen when you start a new workout program or perform new exercises. New exercises shock your muscles and break them down.

High Chances of Muscle Soreness When You Workout After Long Layoffs

If you’ve been out of the gym for a long time, you can expect to face muscle soreness after your first hard workout. You can minimize the muscle soreness by gradually increasing the intensity of your workouts.

You Can’t Avoid Muscle Soreness

You can’t control DOMS. There are chances you might not experience DOMS after a hard workout and have them after a relatively light workout. Your level of fitness doesn’t affect if your muscles will be sore after a workout or not.

This is How To Get Rid of Muscle Soreness

1. Nutrition

Muscle soreness happens when your muscles are broken down after a strenuous workout. Right after your workouts is also the perfect time to feed your muscles. Your muscles will absorb the most amount of nutrients at this time.

After a workout, have a protein shake or a protein rich diet. Protein is the main building block of your muscles and will help in the quick recovery from muscle soreness. Apart from the protein, follow a balanced diet to meet your macro and micronutrient requirements.

2. Massage

Getting a massage is another effective way of releasing the tension in your muscles. Massage the affected muscle for up to 30 minutes to reduce the soreness. Deep tissue massage or ART (Active Release Technique) is effective at recuperating from sore muscles.

If you don’t want to go for a professional massage therapy, you can ask your spouse or a friend to massage the tense muscles. You can also massage the sore muscles yourself with the help of an electric massager or a foam roller.

3. Rest

Rest is one of the most important aspects of recovery after a workout. No matter how hard you workout, you won’t grow while you’re inside the gym. Your muscles repair themselves and grow while you’re sleeping.

You need at least six hours of sleep every night to recover from your workouts. If your muscles are sore for most of the week, this could be a sign of overtraining. You should take an additional day off from training to recover from your workouts.

4. Active Recovery

On your days off, you don’t have to sit on the couch all day long. You will not be working out and doing the same things which got you sore. Staying active by doing cardio helps in regulating blood throughout your muscles.

Blood carries nutrients to your muscles which help with recovery. Make sure you don’t over-exert your muscles. You can also perform exercises like push-ups, pull-ups, and squats to get a pump without exerting your muscles.

5. Cold and Hot Treatments

Cold and hot treatments can help you with recovery from muscle soreness. Taking a cold shower after a workout is known to help with recovery. You can also apply ice and hot water bags to your sore muscles to speed up the recovery process.

Alternating between applying ice and hot water bags is also an incredibly effective way to get rid of muscle soreness. Using the alternating technique helps you get the best of both worlds. Just make sure you start with the ice treatment and make the hot water bag treatment last twice as long as the ice treatment.

What do you do to get rid of muscle soreness? Let us know in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow Generation Iron on Facebook and Twitter.