LIFESTYLE
Late muscle pain: what it is and how to avoid it
It will have happened to everyone, and perhaps more than once, to perceive , following the resumption of physical activity or a particularly intense workout, a muscle soreness , sometimes so annoying as to make even the simplest daily gestures difficult.
Here then, after an intense workout to strengthen the lower limbs, the next day or two days later, it becomes difficult even to get up from a chair or that following a workout to tone the abdominal muscles even a laugh is perceived as painful and almost impossible.
For many that pain, defined as late , as it does not appear immediately during physical activity but after 24/48 hours from training, is synonymous with effective work and gives a sort of personal gratification . In reality, if perceiving late pain every now and then is to be considered physiological and makes us realize muscles that perhaps we almost didn’t know existed, it would not be so positive if this sensation constantly accompanied our training.
How can we understand if it is, however, late muscle pain or other muscle trauma?
The observation to make concerns the symmetry of the painful muscle parts or rather, if the pain concerns only one limb, it most likely means that we are in the presence of another muscle injury (stretching, contractures, etc.), if instead the pain is bilateral, because it affects both limbs, then we will almost certainly be in the presence of late muscle pain.
What does late muscle pain depend on?
This phenomenon is still under study and there are several theories about it. In the meantime, it seems there is a tendency to discard the cause linked to the presence of lactic acid in the muscle , as this substance is disposed of quite quickly and therefore the onset of pain 24/48 hours after the training session would not be justified. It is also true, however, that the presence of lactic acid generates an inflammatory process within the muscle and this could cause pain.
It is also thought that late pain depends on the breakdown of myofibrils, i.e. the cells that make up muscle fibers , following excessive contractions, due to particularly intense workouts or the resumption of physical activities after periods of sedentary lifestyle or stop for injuries.
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How can late muscle pain be prevented?
- Starting the workout with a correct warm-up;
- Progressively increasing the workload, proceeding step by step;
- Ending the workout with stretching and cool-down exercises.
Tips to recover faster:
- Starting the workout with a correct warm-up;
- Progressively increasing the workload, proceeding step by step;
- Ending the workout with stretching and cool-down exercises.
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