3 Ways To Reduce Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness
Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is the soreness and pain often felt in the days after an intense workout. Since DOMS is not only uncomfortable but can also make it difficult to perform at your best during subsequent workouts, you need to actively minimize soreness. There are several strategies that can reduce discomfort in the coming days.
Create A Good Workout Schedule
Everyone is different in their exercise tolerance, but there are some general guidelines for setting a workout schedule. You should give your body at least one day of rest between intense workouts. Some people exercise on alternating days and either rest or use the days between workouts for active recovery. Active recovery can include light activity, such as walking or yoga. If your workout schedule is more than three days per week, you should divide your workouts into upper and lower body or push-pull splits to avoid working the same muscle groups back-to-back. If you must exercise the same muscle groups during consecutive days, trying lowering the weights or decrease the volume of the workout to give your body a break.
Pay Attention To Nutrition
Your nutrition can also affect DOMS. Including fatty fish into a post-workout meal may reduce DOMS because fatty fish have nutrients associated with reduced inflammation. Omega-3 fatty acids and taurine both reduce DOMS and are found in fish. Caffeine is another ingredient that may reduce DOMS. To make the intake of the right nutrients easier, you may want to use a pre-workout supplement that includes caffeine and taurine, which is often found in many pre-workout drinks or powders. Other helpful foods include some fruits that contain polyphenols, such as blueberries and cherries. Try eating these fruits as a intra- or post-workout snack or tossing them into oatmeal or granola and yogurt for a post-workout meal.
Include Cold Therapy
Cold therapy is a good option for dealing with acute soreness and reducing DOMS. Ideally, if you do full-body workouts, you will have access to whole-body cryotherapy treatments immediately after your workout. Full-body cryotherapy typically involves spending a few minutes inside an extremely cold chamber. Cold therapy helps reduce inflammation and may help you recover faster after intense workouts. As an alternative, you can try sitting in a bathtub filled with cold water. Although sitting in cold water will not be as intense as cryotherapy, it will have some benefits.
DOMS can be an inevitable part of an intense workout schedule, but there are ways to reduce the problem so it does not inhibit performance during the next workout. Trying a combination of both pre-workout and post-workout strategies should be used to minimize discomfort.