why do my muscles ache the day after exercise_ _ iflscience
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HEALTH AND MEDICINE
Why Do My Muscles Ache The DayAfter Exercise?September 15, 2015 | by Ken Nosaka
photo credit: Think of it as a useful signal from your body. lzf/Shutterstock
It’s normal to experience muscle pain after exercising ifit’s been a while since you were active or performed a
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certain movement. This type of pain – called delayedonset muscle soreness or DOMS – generally developsseveral hours later and exacerbates over the next fewdays.
The exercise that induces DOMS consists of eccentric(lengthening) muscle contractions in which contractingmuscles are lengthened. Walking down a set of stairs orslope, where front thigh muscles are lengthened whensupporting the body weight, is one example of eccentricexercise.
Another is using weights, such as a dumbbells. Whenlowering a heavy object slowly from an elbow flexed to anextended position, the muscles to flex the elbow jointperform eccentric exercise, since the external load(dumbbell) is greater than the force generated by themuscle.
Exercise consisting of mainly concentric (shortening)contractions, where muscles contract and are shortened,such as walking up stairs and lifting a dumbbell, does notinduce DOMS at all.
DOMS is technically considered an indicator of “muscledamage”, as muscle function decreases and, in somecases, muscle-specific proteins increase in the blood,indicating plasma membrane damage. But it appears thatvery few muscle fibres are actually injured or destroyed(less than 1% of total muscle fibres).
Interestingly, other structures such as fascia (the sheathof tissue surrounding the muscle) and connective tissuewithin the muscle appear to be more affected byeccentric contractions.
A study my colleagues and I recently published tested thehypothesis that fascia would become more sensitive thanmuscle when DOMS is induced. We probed the musclesof volunteer eccentric exercisers with an acupuncture
Structure of skeletal muscle. Designua/Shutterstock
needle designed to introduce a steadily increasingelectrical current from its tip, until they reported musclepain.
The results showed that DOMS was associated with theincreased sensitivity of muscle fascia to the stimulus,suggesting the source of pain is fascia (connectivetissue) rather than the muscle fibres themselves.
We still don’t know how eccentric contractions affectconnective tissue surrounding muscle fibres. It’s possiblethey have different levels of elasticity. So, as thecontracting muscle is stretched, a shear force maydevelop between muscle fibres and their surroundingconnective tissue. This may damage the structure andcause inflammation.
It’s still a mystery why there’s a delay between theexercise and muscle soreness. Researchers speculatethat it’s due to the time it takes for inflammation todevelop after the micro-injury.
It doesn’t appear that DOMS is a warning sign not tomove the affected muscles, since moving the musclesameliorates the pain and does not hamper the recovery. Itmay be that DOMS is a simple message from the bodythat the muscle lacked a good stimulus for a while, whichit received.
But is it necessary for developing bigger and strongermuscles?
There’s no scientific evidence to support the theory of “nopain no gain”. Research shows eccentric exercise trainingproduces greater increases in muscle strength and sizewhen compared with concentric exercise training, but thisis not necessarily associated with “muscle damage.”
Don’t be afraid of DOMS, although it could bother you forseveral days after exercise. DOMS reduces when thesame eccentric exercise is repeated. If the intensity andvolume of eccentric exercise are gradually increased, youcan minimise DOMS.
In the meantime, think of DOMS as a useful signal fromyour body.
Ken Nosaka, Professor of Exercise and Sports Science,Edith Cowan University
This article was originally published on The Conversation.Read the original article.
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⚑−Mike Pilgrim6 days ago
Incompetent journalism and çrâp science. Post exercise pain is caused by Introns thatthe body produces as a byproduct after illness or exercise.
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⚑−Hard Poops7 days ago
In the case of the woman in the picture it is probably from running in the middle of theroad?
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