Strength season is in full swing and you might have alot of muscke soreness!
Delayed onset muscle soreness, also known as DOMS, describes the muscular pain and stiffness that set in after a particularly intense workout.
1. GETTING A MASSAGE
Research from a 2014 study found that a post-exercise massage can significantly reduce pain. And over the long term, regularly getting massages may increase your body’s ability to fight off DOMS. Another 2015 study showed that massaged muscles contain more blood vessels than massage-free ones, which may result in improved recovery. They also display only half of the scar tissue that non-massaged muscles do. Not bad for some low-key me-time.
Try it: Schedule your sports massage directly following your workout. In the study, immediate massage was more effective at promoting tissue regeneration and reducing fibrosis compared to massage delayed 48 hours after exercise. – see the guys at essential wellbeing.
2. FOAM ROLLING
The science: Similar to massage, form rolling is all about myofascial release, which relieves tension in the muscle’s connective tissue. And your trainer is right: Reaserch has found that rolling out your muscles like dough can help reduce delayed onset muscle soreness. It can also improve performance in subsequent workouts.
Try it: we have two in the club and spend about 10 to 15 minutes with it each day. You can make it part of your warm-up, cool-down, part of overall recovery.
3. PERFORMING RECOVERY WORKOUTS
The science: Consider this permission to turn down the dial from time to time. In one 2012 study women who performed a 20-minute bout of low- or moderate-intensity cycling immediately following their DOMS-inducing strength workout enjoyed a reduction in muscle pain along with a added boost in strength. Light recovery workouts increase blood flow, which does a number of things to naturally nudge the inflammatory process along, such as lymphatic draining, moving immune cells, and clearing inflammatory mediators.
Come and see us at the club for more advice.
Everybodys team
