You just crushed a really hard workout. You upped the load of your training, or you stepped out of your routine and tried a new activity. You feel great -- until you wake up the next morning, barely able to move.
Enter delayed onset muscle soreness, better known as DOMS. It's an acronym that athletes and fitness buffs wear with pride.
As its name suggests, "DOMS is muscle soreness
that becomes evident six-to-eight hours following activity, peaking
around 24 to 48 hours post-training," says Jon Mike, an exercise
scientist at the University of New Mexico. While the symptoms will often
start to diminish at about 72 hours, "the precise time course and
extent of DOMS is highly variable," Mike says.
DOMS is most pronounced
when you introduce a new training stimulus -- a new activity, increased
intensity or volume -- or if you are new to physical activity in
general.
"Your body is making
adaptations to better prepare your muscles to do that activity again,"
says Lauren Haythe, certified Kinesis Myofascial Integration
Practitioner and yoga teacher. That's why on Day 1 at the gym, after
doing squats or lunges with 10-15 pound weights, you can be brutally
sore the next day.
"But, as you continue on, you can build up from there, and you won't be so sore," she says.
While all kinds of
muscular contraction can cause soreness, eccentric contraction -- where
the muscle lengthens as it contracts -- is most often associated with
DOMS, according to Mike. This includes movements such as running
downhill, lowering weights or lowering down into a squat or push-up
position.
"There is also some evidence that upper body movement creates more soreness than lower body exercises," says Mike.
Muscle discomfort is the
most common characteristic of DOMS, but there are other symptoms.
According to the American College of Sports Medicine, these may include
reduced range of motion and joint stiffness, local swelling and
tenderness, and diminished muscle strength. These symptoms appear
gradually following exercise (not to be confused with acute pain that
may arise during physical activity).
No pain, no gain. Lactic
acid build-up. An indicator of muscle growth. These are all phrases
that we tend to associate with DOMS. While you may think you know
everything you need to know about the condition that has you waddling
like a duck, you may be surprised by what's actually happening in your
body.
Myth #1: DOMS is caused by the build-up of lactic acid.
The verdict: Not true.
During exercise, your
body needs energy, and it breaks down molecules to get that. As a result
of this metabolic process, your cells naturally become more acidic
which makes your muscles feel like they're burning. But this isn't
caused by lactate. Lactate is actually a by-product of the metabolic
process and serves as a buffer and slows down the rate at which the
cells become acidic.
"People produce lactate all the time, even at rest. It clears your system 30-minutes to one-hour after working out," says Mike.
A study in Clinics in
Sports Medicine found that DOMS is the result of microtrauma in the
muscles and surrounding connective tissues, which causes inflammation.
The reason that eccentric muscle contraction (think lowering a dumbbell
back down in a biceps curl) is more likely to be the culprit is because
it places a higher load on your muscles compared to concentric
contraction.
"It's the active
lengthening of muscle fibers under load. It's like you're pulling on a
rope, and there's so much force that the rope starts to tear and pull
apart," says Mike.
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Myth #2: It's not a good workout unless you get DOMS.
We often wear our DOMS
as a badge of honor and believe that if we're not sore, we're not doing
enough during out workouts. But that's just not true.
"It doesn't mean that
you're not getting as good of a workout because you're not crippled the
next day," says Monica Vazquez, NASM certified personal trainer. "You
should feel [soreness] 24 hours to three days after the activity. If,
after three days, you try to do the same exercise and you cannot because
you go immediately to muscle failure, you've done too much."
According to Mike,
studies have shown that soreness itself (using a scale from 0 to 10 to
assess the level of soreness) is poorly correlated as an indicator of
muscle adaptation and growth. There are many factors that influence how
DOMS presents itself in individuals.
"There is great
variability, even between people with similar genetics and even among
highly-trained lifters [and athletes]," he says. So while comparing
notes (and commiserating) is all part of the process, soreness and DOMS
isn't the best gauge of how effective your workout was or who's in
better shape.
Myth #3: The more fit you are, the less susceptible you are to DOMS.
It's true that you will
start to feel less sore as your body adapts to your workouts and learns
to distribute the workload across your muscle fibers more effectively.
That's why you should regularly change up your exercise routine.
However, there is also a genetic component to how sensitive we are to pain and soreness.
"People can be
no-responders, low-responders or high-responders to soreness," says
Mike. If you're a high-responder, you will experience DOMS more acutely
than someone who is a no- or low-responder when given the same training
load. While you can't change your genes, it is important to know where
you fall on the spectrum to understand how your body may respond to
changes in your workouts.
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Myth #4: Muscle damage is a bad thing.
Yes, DOMS appears to be
caused by trauma to your muscle fibers, but it's not a definitive
measure of muscle damage. In fact, a certain degree of soreness seems to
be necessary.
"When muscles repair
themselves, they get larger and stronger than before so that [muscle
soreness] doesn't happen again," says Vazquez.
While these mechanisms
are not completely understood, Mike notes that some muscle trauma is
needed to stimulate protein production and muscle growth.
Myth #5: Pre- and post-workout stretching is a good way to prevent and treat DOMS.
Unfortunately, no. A
review of studies for the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews on the
effects of stretching before or after exercise on the development of
delayed-onset muscle soreness found that pre- and post-workout
stretching did not reduce the effects of DOMS in healthy adults. In
fact, research has found that static stretching prior to working out does not safeguard you against injury and may actually decrease your power and strength.
While you may not be
able to avoid soreness altogether, ACSM suggests advancing slowly with a
new workout, giving your muscles time to adapt and recover. Vazquez
recommends always including a proper warm-up (including dynamic stretching), and cool-down period as part of your routine
