One of the biggest issues from training is muscle soreness, the dreaded DOMS.  Delayed Onset Muscular Soreness is a condition that occurs after exercise as a result of micro tears within the muscle during the muscle rebuilding phase.  Pain or discomfort is often felt 24 to 72 hours after exercising and will subside generally within two to three days (extreme cases, a little longer).   Assuming you are training hard enough, and at IAP you do, DOMS is going to affect you and your recovery process.  This is a concern for a lot of people; the pain in the legs while sitting down and standing up, the soreness through the chest and arms when reaching back, and the general stiffness through your back muscles.  We have all felt it and know how it effects our daily activities outside of exercising.  Now what can be done to minimize this pain and soreness as much as possible?…. A number of things!

Self Myofascial Release (Foam Rolling)

Foam rolling is a self massage technique used to improve flexibility, function, performance, reduce injuries, and recover from muscle soreness.  By simply using your own body weight to roll on a round foam roll, you can massage away pain and any restrictions to allowing your muscle to extend properly.  There are a variety of positions used with the foam roll to target the major muscle groups affected by DOMS.  A few simple guidelines include:

1. Spend about one to two minutes rolling on each of the most affected areas.
2. When a lot of pain is found, stop rolling and rest on the painful area for up to 45 seconds.  Resting will help reduce muscular tension and pain.
3. Try to foam roll each day if possible or if soreness is still present.

Hot Cold Contrast Therapy

Hot cold contrast therapy is a very simple concept based on the fact that cold is used to relieve pain and heat is used to induce relaxation.  Heat will cause expansion and cold will cause contraction.  What this technically means is that heat is used as a vasodilator (brings nutrient rich blood to surface areas) and cold as a vasoconstrictor (drives blood to the body’s core).  When used for therapy and recovery, pain reduction occurs because the body’s pain receptors are particularly sensitive to temperature changes.  Variations in heat and cold momentarily distract the brain from sending or receiving pain messages.

Methods of hot cold contrast therapy can vary depending on where you are and what equipment you have access too.  To keep it simple, all you will need is a shower!  The steps are:

1. Run hot water and spin around allowing the water to heat all of your muscles and simply target the most affected areas for one to two minutes.  Remember, the water does not need to be scolding hot.  Between 100 and 115 degrees is the recommended range.
2. After one to two minutes of hot water, simply switch to cold water and repeat the same process.  Temperature range should be 40 to 65 degrees.
3. Continue one to two minutes of hot then cold five times to complete your hot cold contrast.

Active Recovery – Cardiovascular Exercise

Cardio exercise can help improve recovery time.  By simply doing some circulation type movements to increase the heart rate and get the blood pumping and an active dynamic warm up is going to aid in the recovery process.  Rather than sitting around and not moving because you are sore, do something about it!  Be active.  Plan something out for a cardiovascular workout.  Maybe you can go for a run on the treadmill, or use the step-mill, elliptical, bicycle.  As far as using machines, your options are endless.  Other ways outside of the gym could be hiking, jogging, cycling, something that is active, which you enjoy and that will get your heart rate up.  That is the key, getting the blood moving through the body to clear any waste products built up from training.

Static Stretching and YOGA

One more option to aid in the recovery process and decrease soreness is stretching.  Along with increasing flexibility, stretching can decrease DOMS.  Outside of the five to fifteen minutes spent post workout stretching, try doing some on your non training days.  If exercise isn’t an option for the day, try to at the least get in some stretching.  A few simple guidelines can be holding a specific stretch for ten seconds, relaxing for a few and then repeating this process five time son that specific stretch.  Within each set of ten seconds, try to increase your range of motion for a deeper stretch.

Have you tried out a yoga class yet?!  Do so…  The benefits of yoga are phenomenal.  Outside of increased flexibility, your stress levels can be lowered helping you become more relaxed.  This will all also help prevent the overtraining stimulus.  Now you may be a little nervous about trying a yoga class out with seeing all the random positions and all, but give it a try.  Be open minded, and understand that this recommendation is to help you and the soreness factor, not make things worse.