No Pain No Gain
By Beau
It's either your first session or you haven't exercised in a while and you're thinking, "Awesome! This is the start of my journey to a better body"...... Then the next day comes and you get out of bed feeling like you have been hit by a bus! Welcome to the world of Delayed Onset Muscle Sorness, or DOMS for short. I have seen so many people fail and stop a program because of the unfamiliar experience. Like they say NO PAIN NO GAIN.
I don't think people actually understand what's going on when they go the gym and lift weights. You're pretty much ripping your muscles apart. When contracting a muscle under tension it's making micro tears in your muscle fibre that then repair over a period called your super compensation phase with the help of proteins and amino acids. The reason why it's sore is also a combination of lactic acid that's developed from HIIT or Sarcoplasmic weight training. After about a month your body has just about adjusted and built a tolerance to DOMS. I'm not saying you're not going to get it again, but you can pretty much expect to not experience the same thing as what you did in the first week of training. Most of the time when doing strength training the body doesn't produce enough lactic acid for the DOMS to occur.
There are some things we can do to help ease the pain and see better results from training are things like
*Stretching
Stretching can help ease pain in the muscles, but this isn't an overnight quick fix. Following our stretching guide will help over time to let the muscle relax and not be as inflamed which means the repairing can be isolated to muscle recovery.
*Protein
Making sure your intake of protein is high enough and at the right times of training can help the recovery phase of muscles. Getting your muscles back to normal is important for everyday things like walking down stairs, standing up, just life in general haha.
*L-glutamine
This is an amino acid that is very affordable and easy to take. It can either be synthesised or made from fermented vegetables and it helps the immune system repair and your muscles recover.
*Epsom salt bath
I've had a few training sessions where my body has just been absolutely hammered and left me feeling like an abandoned baby gazelle. Filling up a warm bath with Epsom salts are a sure fire way to help the body relax.
*Magnesium
Increasing your magnesium intake can help recovery of the muscles and also ease cramping and over contractions of the muscles to assist in day to day functionality. Taken in either tablet form or applied as a topical lotion or spray magnesium will assist in your muscles staying hydrated and mobile.
If you stop training because it hurts then you're only holding your self back. It's going to be exactly the same when you realise you need to get back on top of your game and start training again. Just deal with it. No pain no gain!