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Writer's pictureBiswajit Sahoo

More the Soreness, better is the muscles growth?

Updated: Jun 10, 2020



A few days back one of my clients mentioned that nowadays he is no more developing any muscles. When I asked him how he concluded that?. He replied that earlier when he used to workout he has to have a lot of soreness in his body but now he is not feeling the same.

To understand all these in a better way lets understand. What causes DOMS after a workout? DOMS ( Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) is a slight muscle discomfort to severe pain which is experienced after 7-8hrs of unaccustomed or strenuous exercise & it peaks after 48-72 hrs later. Well, some think that soreness is due to the formation of lactic acid or lactate in the muscles. But in fact, lactate is gone from your muscles soon after your exercises. So, when you perform a new movement which you have not done before then it leads to inflammation even if it is a single exercise. It is bcoz of the same defense mechanism which causes swelling or pain when there is an injury in your body. Inflammation is the response of our body to an injury. As a part of the repair & recovery process, it produces immune cells. These cells then produce substances that make certain nerve ending more sensitive. When you move these nerves it sends signals to the brain which interpreted as soreness.

Do the muscles grow when they are sore? Researchers have found that both high soreness & low soreness program increased muscle mass & strength similarly. So it is only the total work done during training that impacts muscles remodeling.

How can DOMS be reduced?

Best way to recover from DOMS is to slowly progress in new exercise program & allowing the muscles to adopt the new movement.

Supplements to reduce DOMS: Caffeine, Taurine, Omega3fatty acid.

References: 1.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6392811 2.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2852643/ 3.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29489727 4.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21270317 5.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22344059 6.https://www.strongerbyscience.com/doms/


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