Recently, I’ve been focusing on reducing fat and shaping my body, primarily through running at the gym to burn calories. I’m also supplementing this with some basic strength training to boost my basal metabolism. I’ve noticed a pattern: muscle soreness always lags behind, and not working out every day doesn’t cause as much pain; it’s really noticeable 48-72 hours after exercise.
My training goals are mainly to return to my ideal weight, so the intensity of strength training isn’t planned to be particularly high. Based on my experience hiking Mount Lu in September, this type of soreness usually takes about three days to fully resolve (when I was younger, I had some experiences with dieting and my physical condition was much better, recovery was much faster). Now that my leg muscles have adapted and recovered, but I feel like the main muscle groups throughout my body still need to be reactivated and adjusted one by one.
DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness)
You mentioned this phenomenon is referred to as Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), often abbreviated as DOMS.
Its main characteristic is that the onset of pain has a delay, and it’s not typically at the most intense immediately after exercise or the next day, but rather peaks between 24 to 72 hours post-exercise, which aligns with your experience (noticeable reaction two days later).
Here’s a breakdown of the primary reasons why this occurs:
- Microscopic Muscle Fiber Damage:
- DOMS is believed to be primarily caused by lactic acid buildup rather than lactic acid accumulation (lactic acid is cleared from muscles within an hour of exercise), but instead, it’s due to performing unfamiliar or high-intensity movements, particularly those involving a lot of eccentric contraction (muscle lengthening during exertion – for example, the lowering phase of a squat or running downhill) that cause microscopic tears or damage in muscle fibers and connective tissue.
- Inflammation Response:
- These microscopic injuries trigger the body’s inflammatory response, which is the process of the body repairing damaged tissue.
- The onset, development, and accumulation of this inflammatory response take time. During this process, tissues release chemicals (such as histamine, prostaglandins, etc.) to stimulate nerve endings, causing pain and soreness.
- Therefore, the soreness doesn’t become most noticeable until the second or third day after injury because it needs time for inflammation to fully develop.
Your muscle soreness is delayed because it’s a process of your body undergoing muscle microscopic damage and an inflammatory response, rather than immediate lactic acid buildup. If you are currently doing basic training that includes a lot of strength training and eccentric contraction movements, it’s more likely to cause this delayed soreness.
How to Cope with and Address
- Rest and Recovery: Allow the affected muscles adequate rest time.
- Gentle Activity: Engage in light aerobic exercise or stretching, which can help improve blood circulation, accelerate metabolic waste removal, and promote recovery.
- Massage or Foam Rolling: Can relieve muscle tension and stiffness.
- Adequate Nutrition: It’s also important to replenish protein (to repair muscles) and carbohydrates (to replenish energy) promptly after exercise.
- Progressive Increase in Intensity: Avoid suddenly increasing exercise volume or intensity, allowing the body to gradually adapt to training.