7 steps to alleviate sore muscles

By Joe Frollo | Posted 7/28/2015

Being an athlete means knowing firsthand what sore muscles feel like – waking up in the morning after an intense workout or practice and feeling discomfort.

That’s called delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), and it’s the body’s natural reaction to unaccustomed stress from intense activity. It generally sets in 12 to 48 hours after exercise and can take days more to dissipate.

According to the American College of Sports Medicine, one common misconception is that DOMS is result of lactic acid accumulation. Lactic acid is not a component of this process. DOMS is a side effect of the repair process that develops in response to microscopic muscle damage.

Matt Tanneberg on Stack.com recently offered some simple solutions to alleviate symptoms and help individuals through DOMS.

  • Nutrition. Recovery starts at home before and after workouts. Athletes need to be properly hydrated during practice, drinking half their body weight in ounces of water every day. Potassium and sodium are primary electrolytes lost during exercise, so eat bananas, raisins, celery and bell peppers to replace those.
  • Dynamic warmups. Get athletes up and active during warmups, doing exercises that are relevant to the work they will be doing that day. Front and lateral kicks. Hip openers. Lunges. Carioca. High knees. These are all football movements that gets the heart rate up and blood pumping to the muscles.
  • Cool down. Be sure to gather at the end of practice to repeat those dynamic exercises but with players moving at 50 percent speed, gradually slowing down to a jog.
  • Controlled static stretching. After the dynamic cool down, slowly stretch muscles out while they are still warm. Keep the stretches slow but strong, focusing on flexibility – not maxing out.
  • Foam rolling. Move the foam roller around until you find a tender spot that feels like a bruise, then stay on that spot with pressure for 30 seconds. After hitting those tender spots, give your major muscle groups a once over to cover everything.
  • Ice. Ice constricts blood vessels, alleviates inflammation and speeds recovery. Use an ice pack or bag for 15 minutes – or until the area is numb – three times per day.
  • Rest. This doesn’t mean sitting around on the couch doing nothing. Athletic rest can be as simple as varying exercises so you are using different muscle groups. If arms or shoulders are sore, cardio and legs can be a way to go. Recovery days also can include an easy bike ride or a light jog that doesn’t push too hard.
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