Did you know there are different kinds of muscle soreness?
Acute muscle soreness is the pain you feel during or immediately after a workout. It’s a burning sensation due to a quick buildup of metabolites during intense exercise. It typically disappears shortly after you finish exercising.
Then there’s DOMS.
What Is DOMS?
DOMS stands for delayed onset muscle soreness. This means that symptoms typically take at least 12 to 24 hours after your workout to rear their ugly little heads. The symptoms then generally peak in one to three days before eventually easing.
Conventional wisdom once dictated that a buildup of exercise-induced lactic acid was responsible for DOMS. Such wisdom has been debunked. While lactic acid buildup is the cause of acute muscle soreness, it’s tiny, microscopic tears in your muscle fibers that are responsible for DOMS. Your body slowly responds to the damage by increasing inflammation which leads to the delayed onset of soreness.
Just about any high-intensity exercise can result in DOMS. But it’s eccentric movement that’s known to most commonly trigger it. With eccentric exercises, you’re tensing a muscle at the same time that you’re lengthening it. For example, your quads must both lengthen and tense up when running downhill. Or the downward motion that occurs after a biceps curl when you straighten your forearm. Split squats, Romanian deadlifts, reverse push-ups, and calf lowers are just a few other examples of eccentric movements.
What Are the Symptoms of DOMS?
DOMS symptoms are caused by an inflammatory response with intramuscular fluid and electrolyte shifts. You’ll likely notice pain when stretching muscles that feel tight and contracted. They may even be tender to the touch. Range of motion is reduced because of stiffness and swelling. Muscle fatigue is common, as is a temporary loss of muscle strength.
Loss of muscle strength typically peaks immediately or within 48 hours. It may take one to three days for pain and muscle tenderness to peak, while stiffness and swelling usually peak three to four days after exercise.
DOMS can affect just about anyone – no matter what your level of fitness. Even elite athletes who’ve dialed up their workout intensity, tried a new workout or added more eccentric exercises can experience it.
This is nothing to be worried about, when you first start working muscles that aren’t used a lot, you’re likely to feel sore. After consistently working them, however, your body adapts and you feel less sore.
Can Pilates Help Relieve Some of the Soreness?
It might seem counterintuitive to keep your body moving when you’re experiencing the symptoms of DOMS. But crashing on your couch and staying still could actually increase the pain and stiffness.
Of course, in some cases, your symptoms may be severe enough that you do need to take a day or two of rest to allow your muscles to repair. It really comes down to listening to your body.
If you’re comfortable enough to move, skip the high-intensity and cardio workouts and stick with low- and no-impact movements. Many of the movements of Pilates are ideal for enhancing blood flow and oxygen delivery to your weary muscles and alleviating some of your symptoms. Furthermore, the movements in Pilates can be fine-tuned to meet your unique specifications.
Ease Your Muscle Soreness with Pilates
If you’re looking for relief from your DOMS symptoms, Pilates could be exactly what you need. The slow movements and mindful breathing performed in Pilates can go the distance in helping you recover.
Contact us today to give Pilates a try.
And if you’re experiencing frequent soreness in your workouts, you may want to consult with our Pilates-based physical therapist to create a tailor-made program just for you.