(29-10-10) Sore Muscles After a Workout: Good or Bad?

Christian Finn


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.

In his excellent review of the subject on ampedtraining.com, New Zealand
personal trainer and coach Matt Perryman points out that many of the
assumptions regarding soreness and growth are just plain wrong.

"There's no link between muscle soreness and protein synthesis; no link
between muscle soreness and long-term growth; and no link between muscle
soreness and muscle fiber damage."

"Muscle soreness happens when you create enough total damage to aggravate the
connective tissues," adds Perryman. "This will sometimes correlate with a
muscle-stimulating, growth-inducing workout. But just as often, it has nothing
to do with muscle stimulation."

"Just because you're not sore doesn't mean your muscles aren't inflamed and
growing. Likewise, sore muscles don't mean you had a good workout."

"Being sore, stiff, and exhausted might feel good," Perryman concludes. "But
it's not a replacement for training intelligently."

Source:
www.thefactsaboutfitness.com

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