Soreness, scientifically known as Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), is a physiological response to exercise characterized by pain and stiffness in the muscles that develop after physical activity. intense or unusual. Below, we will talk in detail about soreness, including what they are, why they appear, their duration, how to alleviate the pain, and the supplements and treatments that can help reduce them and avoid body aches and pains after exercising.
Why we have aches and pains and why do they appear and how to avoid body aches and pains after exercising?
Sore muscles are micro-injuries to muscle fibers that occur after physical exercise, especially when the muscle is subjected to eccentric efforts. These microinjuries cause inflammation and muscle pain.
Muscle microlesions are small tears in muscle fibers that appear due to the stress of exercise. The body’s inflammatory response to these microlesions contributes to muscle pain and stiffness. Also, and although there has been much debate about this, the buildup of lactic acid is believed to contribute to muscle pain.
Soreness appears due to the practice of eccentric exercises that include the need for movements in which the muscle lengthens while under tension. They are very common when practicing new activities and performing exercises to which the body is not accustomed and can also appear when there is an increase in intensity in the performance of the usual exercise, such as increasing the load or duration of the exercise so significant.
Soreness usually appears 12-24 hours after exercise and peaks around 24-72 hours after exercise. The duration of pain can vary between 3 to 7 days, depending on the intensity of the exercise and the level of previous physical conditioning.
What are the best practices to alleviate pain in the days after exercising?
This period of physical conditioning caused by soreness and pain derived from sports practice can be reduced in different ways, ranging from physical activities and sports rehabilitation, including ideal nutritional supplementation with products that contain anti-inflammatories, acids and amino acids that promote the reduction. from muscle damage, to oxygen therapy treatments such as the hyperbaric chamber that uses oxygen to achieve superior sports performance and significantly improves the resolution of pain derived from and injuries caused by playing sports.
Within the physical sphere, the best practice is to maintain active rest, that is, perform low-intensity activities, such as walking or swimming, which can help increase blood flow and accelerate recovery, and also performing exercise that involves the same mass. affected muscle, but at a low intensity in a concentric manner.
Apart from maintaining good hydration that helps eliminate toxins and improve muscle recovery, you can also count on techniques such as massages that help improve blood circulation and reduce muscle tension, or gentle stretching routines that relieve stiffness and improve flexibility. Another option that can be used in conjunction with the previous ones is to use hot and cold compresses that allow alternating between cold and heat and help reduce inflammation and relieve pain.
In the nutritional field, apart from maintaining a balanced diet rich in vitamins and essential fatty acids, there are several food supplements that help reduce soreness and pain caused, for example, Curcumin, a powerful natural anti-inflammatory present in turmeric, can help reduce inflammation and muscle pain.
The branched chain amino acids (BCCAs), leucine, isoleucine and valine, are three of the essential amino acids that the body cannot synthesize and therefore must be consumed through the diet. The effective dose is 3g/day which can be easily obtained from food. They are included in animal sources such as lean beef, pork, chicken, eggs or fish; dairy products such as milk, yogurt or low-fat cheeses; and in vegetarian sources such as quinoa, soy, beans, peas, lentils, nuts and seeds. Also products that provide Omega-3 include essential fatty acids with anti-inflammatory properties that can help reduce muscle pain and inflammation.
Other supplements can be taurine, an amino acid that can help reduce muscle damage and improve recovery, vitamin C, which contributes to tissue repair and has antioxidant properties that can help reduce muscle damage, and beet juice, rich in nitrates, which can improve blood flow and muscle oxygenation, aiding recovery.
Finally, in the field of medical treatments that can help recovery after sports practice is oxygen therapy. Oxygen plays an important role in exercise physiology. When an athlete breathes 100% pure oxygen inside a hyperbaric chamber, the oxygen dissolved in the blood is increased more than 20 times, allowing the oxygen necessary for better sports performance to be available and significantly improving the resolution of resulting pain and injuries. caused by doing sports.
In short, soreness is a natural response of the body to intense or unfamiliar exercise. Understanding its cause and knowing how to alleviate pain and speed recovery is key to maintaining a healthy exercise routine. The combination of recovery techniques, adequate supplementation and treatments such as oxygenation in a hyperbaric chamber can help minimize the impact of soreness and improve long-term performance.