We all have experienced muscle soreness in some way, How can we manage our sore muscles after vigorous walking, exercise or even massage?
First we need to know why our muscles are sore. When muscles are required to work harder than they’re used to or in a different way, it’s believed to cause microscopic damage to the muscle fibres, resulting in muscle soreness or stiffness. Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) can occur when you start a new exercise program, change the exercise routine or increase the duration or intensity of your regular workout.
Why do we feel muscle soreness right after massage?
Massage eliminates the toxins from our body by carrying blood and nutrients to our muscles. It’s a normal response to the inflammation when our body heals. It can also happen when our body has a buildup of lactic acid. It’s a sign that we carry a lot of tension in the area that we might experience inflammation and soreness.
What can we do to make ourselves feel better?
Rest
Stretching (do it gently)
Ice pack (help reduce inflammation)
Heat pack (help increase blood flow)
Warm bath or shower (soak with Epsom Salts if you have them)
Over the counter pain medicine would help but I don’t recommend that. There is a better way to deal with muscle soreness.
BCAAs - branched-chain amino acids are a group of three essential amino acids: leucine, isoleucine and valine. They are essential and can’t be produced by our body, we need to absorb that from our food or supplements. Food like meat, poultry, fish, soy, eggs, beans and seeds are all high in BCAAs.
Pre/Post workout supplements - we all know we need to eat before exercise. We need to eat right before exercise to increase our performance and after exercise to enhance recovery. Instead of thinking about what kind of food I need to eat, I like to stick with an easier way to skip all the time consuming preparation. Pre/Post workout supplements provide the right amount of the nutrients our body needs, it helps our body decrease muscle protein breakdown, increase muscle protein growth, restore glycogen stores and enhance recovery.