Why does delayed onsite muscle soreness vary so much?
In my previous article, I explained what delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is.
So does DOMS mean my workouts are more productive?
You don’t need to experience DOMS to know your work outs are productive or building muscle. The reason is that although DOMS is general indicator of the degree of muscle tissue damage it various significantly from person to person and therefore it is not a reliable indicator.
So why does DOMS vary so much?
The short answer is because no two bodies are identical, just like our personalities our bodies are unique. Below is a list of the factors that influence this variation:
- Athletic condition, age & the muscle system
- Structural damage to muscle tissue and tendons
- Inflammatory response
The young are more susceptible to DOMS because their bodies as not yet developed enough to handle intense workouts. While the old are more susceptible because of the hormonal changes associated with ageing and the decreased recover rate. Structural damage to muscle tissue and tendons contributes to the body’s inflammatory response. This inflammatory response created swelling and pain.
References
Brad J Schoenfeld & B Conteras, 2013, Is post exercise muscle soreness a valid indicator of muscular adaptions?, Journal of Strengthening & Conditioning Research, vol 35, (5) pp16-21
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How to prevent Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness?
If your training was effective, you should feel some soreness the next day, and for two days at the most. If the second day is significantly worse than the first, and your soreness lasts into a 3rd day or beyond, you have what they call delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS), and it’s a sign that you trained too hard for you. There are no hard and fast rules on what is too hard as DOMS varies from individual to individual. So now I want to talk about how to prevent Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness.
- Anti-Inflamatories
2. Static Stretching
As its not that beneficial to stretch cold muscles, start with a gentle warm up to wam up your muscles. So both your joints and muscls are prepared and get the most benefits from stretching.3. Constrast Showering
Ideally after stretching, jump in the shower and give yourself around of contrast hydrotherapy by alternating the temperature between hot and cold every two minutes. The contrast effect has definitely proven to be effective for reducing soreness and restoring muscle performance more quickly when its used the day after the workout, and any other day that a muscle is sore.4. Warm Up
Ensuring that you warm up before exercising by lightly working the same muscles that you are going to train can go a long way to reducing DOMS and injuries. References Vaile JM, Gill ND, Blazevich AJ. The effect of contrast water therapy on symptoms of delayed onset muscle soreness. J Strength Cond Res. 2007 Aug;21(3):697-702.
Physical Impact of Stress on the body – Part 1
Stress is a natural human response that enables the body to cope during certain situations. There are three phases to our stress response:
- Phase 1 - The Alarm Phase
- Phase 2 - The Resistance Phase
- Phase 3 - Exhaustion
- Corticotropin
- Growth hormone
- Thyroptropin


