Most everyone who exercises regularly has experienced muscle soreness during or immediately following an intense workout. Although soreness during exercise sessions is annoying, it is inevitable to some degree.
Instant Soreness When Getting Into Shape
Progressive training shouldn’t be undertaken to deliberately inflict pain upon oneself. Exercise should be taken only slightly beyond the comfort zone and never to the point of absolute pain. But, undoubtedly there are occasions when muscle soreness becomes part of the experience for trainees at all fitness levels.
One key type of muscle pain experienced during or soon after exercise is called acute muscle soreness. Intense repetitive movements can cause soreness to muscles most directly involved in an exercise. This form of muscular soreness is temporary not chronic and usually subsides immediately or about one hour following exercise.
How Do I Know If My Muscle Soreness Is Acute?
Acute muscle soreness generates peculiar sensations in muscles under tension. Sensations may be present in the form of a progressively unpleasant burning, tingling, heat or some other discomfort. If the exercise motion causing the pain is continued at the same or greater intensity, discomfort increases to the point where the exercise must be halted until the muscles are rested.
Causes of acute or immediate muscle soreness are thought to be induced by diminished blood flow to active muscle tissue along with an accruement of metabolic by-products. The by-products that generally accumulate are lactic acid, hydrogen ions and/or other waste substrates associated to muscle metabolism at the cellular level.
This is why it's especially important to cool down and not abruptly halt bodily movement following intense exercises. Cool downs enable lactic acid to better circulate into various tissues for energy production thereby reducing discomfort within working muscles.
Built-In Protection Against Muscle Injuries
Some types of soreness during workouts result from over-stretching muscles. Stretched muscles activate sensory neurons that communicate with the spinal cord thereby creating a phenomena called stretch reflex. The reflex helps the body control movement by forcefully contracting a muscle to counteract and protect against over-stretch injuries.
Too much tension generated by muscles cause sensors in tendons to activate. Trainees engaged in forceful exercises could do extreme damage to tendons and muscles in the form of tears and strains if sensors such as the golgi tendon organ (GTO) were not monitoring force. GTO suppresses the tension produced in the main muscles at work (agonists) by stimulating opposing muscles forces referred to as antagonists.
Handling The Pain By Applying Overload To My Workouts
In order for training adaptations to occur, an exerciser’s body carries out numerous physiological actions in response to exercise related stress. These actions or healing phases, which may also contribute to sensations of immediate muscle soreness, help the body progress toward higher fitness levels.
As a result of healing, muscles remodel and become more efficient. Weaknesses decrease and exercise tolerance improves enabling trainees to postpone immediate muscle soreness while performing exercises that previously caused pain at the same or lower intensity.
The overload principle states trainees must exercise against a resistance or intensity greater than usually encountered to progress in terms of strength, muscle size and endurance. But increasing levels of intensity can lead to acute muscle soreness. Hence, progressive exercise tends to present a paradox in that continuous training success inherently warrants occasional bouts of muscle soreness.
Dr. Fred Hatfield, Co-Founder and President of the International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA) states, "If you use the same amount of resistance or intensity for the same exercises every workout, there will be no improvement beyond the point one’s body has already adapted." In other words, people interested in reaching exceedingly higher fitness goals must gradually intensify exercises, which undoubtedly will produce various degrees of muscle soreness.
For additional information on acute muscle soreness please read Acute Muscle Soreness by Paige Waehner, CPT and Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness by Michael Ross, MSEd, PT, OC.
References:
Hatfield, F. (1996). Choosing the Best Training System, Fitness the Complete Guide, 137 - 138.
Hatfield, F. (2004). Muscle Soreness, Fitness the Complete Guide, 415.
Mackinnon, L. (2002). Muscle Damage and Muscle Soreness, Exercise Physiology, 35 - 36.
