If you work out, you’re probably no stranger to sore muscles. Some go as far as to subscribe to the “no pain, no gain” ethos, and take muscle pain as an indicator of progress.
But muscle soreness is uncomfortable to deal with, it can slow your progress (by keeping you from working out as regularly as you’d like), and it can sometimes cause anxiety over whether you’ve got a serious injury - particularly when pain shows up some time after your workout has already finished.
This may be DOMS, or Delayed Muscle Onset Soreness. Keep reading and we’ll explain what DOMS is, whether it’s something to be worried about, and how to manage symptoms of DOMS effectively.
What is DOMS?
DOMS - aka Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness - is a term used for muscle soreness that develops some time after physical activity has already been completed.
You’ll usually start to feel soreness 12-24 hours after your workout. From this point, it typically lasts for 24 to 72 hours (one to three days), peaking around 48 hours after exercise, before steadily easing off.
Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness vs Acute Muscle Soreness
DOMS is different from when you feel pain during your workout.
This kind of pain - such as pain you get when approaching your last few reps of an exercise - is known as acute muscle soreness.
Acute muscle soreness generally goes away soon after your workout. DOMS, on the other hand, may not show up until the next day, and lasts a lot longer.
A common example of DOMS is the pain you get when you train legs for the first time in a long time (or another muscle group you haven’t touched in a while - but leg day just hits different).
What Causes DOMS?
There’s no scientific consensus as to what causes DOMS, but belief is that it’s a result of tiny tears to muscle fibers that happens as a result of resistance training.
According to the American College of Sports Medicine, DOMS comes from activities featuring eccentric muscle action.
This type of action is when your muscles lengthen and tense at the same time.
Some activities that are thought to cause DOMS include:
- Strength training exercise
- Walking down hills
- Jogging
- Step aerobics
- Jumping
More repetitions and a higher amount of force increase the chances that DOMS will occur after these exercises.
Is DOMS Good or Bad?
There’s often confusion over whether DOMS is a sign that you did something wrong, or just the signal of a good, hard workout.
The truth is closer to the latter.
DOMS is a sign of the normal muscle damage and repair process that leads to hypertrophy (aka muscle growth).
Resistance training makes tiny tears in your muscles, which the body patches up with protein molecules, and in the end your muscles become bigger and stronger.
However, DOMS is not a prerequisite for growth. You can still achieve gains and increase muscle size without having to deal with a three-day bout of pain.
How to Prevent or Reduce Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness
Being smart about how you train, as well as in supporting areas such as nutrition and recovery, can help minimize the length of time you spend in pain between your workouts, or even prevent DOMS altogether.
Let’s look at some of the best ways to do this.
Monitor Workout Intensity
Lowering the intensity of your workouts should help reduce or prevent muscle soreness, especially if you’re working out muscle groups you haven’t worked in a long time, or trying out new exercises.
This doesn’t necessarily mean sacrificing gains. You might find that working out at 60% intensity instead of 90% allows you to recover faster, work out more frequently, and hit higher volume over time.
Add a Warm Up and Cool Down To Your Routine
You may be more susceptible to DOMS if you go from 0 to 100 and straight back to 0 again.
Your muscles have more give and flexibility if you warm them up before getting straight into intense exercises, which may reduce the soreness you feel later.
Also, consider a short cool-down period at the end of your routine, which helps to increase circulation and start the body’s recovery process faster.
Stay Hydrated
Your muscles will take longer to recover if you’re deprived of key electrolytes as a result of poor hydration.
Make sure you get enough fluids before, during and after your workout, including electrolytes, to replenish what you lose via sweat.
Increase Protein Intake
Upping your protein intake is probably the best way to reduce delayed onset muscle soreness.
As we explained earlier, DOMS is a symptom of small tears to the muscle fibers, which the body uses protein to repair. Getting more protein in your diet will provide your body with more of the building blocks for muscle growth and repair, and reduce the severity of post-exercise muscle pain.
Aim for around 1.8g of protein per KG of body weight. A daily protein shake, ideally taken a little after you work out, will help you hit your protein goals and support your body’s recovery process.
Eat Anti-Inflammatory Foods
DOMS is a form of inflammation. So anything you can do to reduce inflammation in the body will also help alleviate muscle soreness.
Try to eat more anti-inflammatory foods as part of your regular diet, such as foods rich in antioxidants (berries, leafy greens) and omega-3s (fatty fish, olive oil).
Additionally, limit or remove inflammatory foods, such as refined carbs, fried and processed foods, and alcohol.
Massage/Foam Rolling
Pressure-based therapies, such as massage and foam rolling, can be very effective at reducing muscle soreness.
This helps loosen the muscles and increase blood flow, reducing inflammation.
You could get a massage on your rest days, or at the end of your workout, do a few minutes of foam rolling to any muscle groups you hit that day.
Heat Therapy
Heat is another effective technique for increasing blood flow and reducing inflammation, as well as relaxing the muscles, which can reduce soreness.
You can do this with a post-exercise sauna session, or taking a soak in warm water.
Cold Exposure
Going the other way can help, too. Cold exposure has been shown to be a good way to reduce inflammation and exercise-related muscle soreness.
This could be a couple of minutes in an ice bath, or a little longer in water around 50-59°F or 10-15°C.
One thing to mention is that you may want to avoid a cold plunge soon after your workout, as this can reduce hypertrophy.
Thus it may be a better option for your rest day, where a short dip can still be effective at speeding up recovery.
Final Thoughts
DOMS is a normal thing, and in most cases, nothing to worry about.
It’s a symptom of intense exercise, and a sign that your body is working to rebuild itself to be bigger, better and stronger.
You don’t have to accept three days of crippling pain after working out, though. Take the tips we showed above and you’ll be able to keep up a regular training schedule with less soreness in between.
Also Read:
Body Recomposition Workout Plan
Overhead Press vs Shoulder Press: Which is the Best Upper Body Lift
Top 12 Muscular Endurance Exercises to Increase Strength & Stamina
