According to an established opinion, muscle pain is a sign that the training was successful. Although pain is usually an attempt by the body to convey to us: something is wrong. We understand how it is really necessary to perceive the body’s reaction to physical activity, together with a world-class expert.
About muscle pain after sports
Said Alexander Oreshkov, master-trainer of the gym in the Club World Class yartsevskaya.
«Muscle pain, relatively speaking, can be divided into two categories:
The first is the pain that appears in response to the load, if chosen correctly, adequately to its intensity. Unpleasant sensations are due to the fact that the muscles are injured, the inflammatory processes “start” and the body is trying to recover. However, pain does not interfere with everyday life.
The second is the pain that occurs when the tissue is not injured, but the muscle cells themselves. With such pain it is difficult to get up, bend over, laugh or cough. The consequence of these exercises can be tissue fibrosis, a very difficult reversible process; the older a person, the more difficult it is to cope with this. Scars on the skin are connective tissue. With muscles, when they suffer a lot of improper damage, the same thing happens: they overgrow the connective tissue.
So, after training, the muscles can be» pleasantly » pampered. But if it is a question of the fact that the movement of pain must pass through force, a person after a few incorrect workouts will simply cease to engage — few people want to experience such torments on a constant basis.
By the way, muscle pain after exercise is not related to lactic acid — it is excreted from muscle tissue within 1.5 hours after exercise. Muscles are «acidified» during the load, when active contractions do not have time to saturate the oxygen that enters the blood; from lactic acid there is a burning sensation at the end of the exercise. The cause of pain the next day are just the same microtraumas in the muscles.
Should I avoid muscle pain? Or is this the norm?
«Many of those who are actively engaged in fitness, still live with an erroneous belief: if it does not hurt, then poorly trained — says Alexander Oreshkov. — However, you need to understand that each person has his own pain threshold. Someone can do 100 squats and without muscle pain after exercise. Another person after such a charge the next morning can not move.
You can get rid of muscle pain only through trial and error. Each person has his own characteristics, and the coach sometimes can not predict how the body of his ward will react to this or that load. It should gradually increase, training should change, moving from easy to difficult. It is not necessary to set Olympic Records on the first visits to the gym. This does not mean that the load should not be at all: it should be felt, but should not be excessive.»
Is it possible to train «through pain»?
«With pain in the muscles, the bad will train with an emphasis on painful areas. With the help of pain, again, the body “communicates” with us, saying “»I need time to recover.” If, for example, the legs hurt, you can calmly walk on the treadmill so that the blood circulates more actively and “brings” to the muscles the substances that it needs to restore. However, it is not possible to make accelerations in this situation: the muscle is injured, and they again want to work actively, when in fact they need a break to recover.»
How to alleviate muscle pain?
«An adequate Heart Load will help-it will reduce pain by creating a rush of blood, with which the muscles will receive the nutrients they need. Then the recovery will take, say, not 2 days, and 1 or 1,5 — continues Alexander. — The pain is also dulled due to the warming up of muscles and hormones produced during physical activity. Massage works on a similar principle-it is a passive load, which also increases blood circulation.
Another point is proper Nutrition: the diet should contain foods containing proteins necessary for muscle repair. And it’s not only chicken breast, but also red meat, fish, seafood, vegetable protein. The more varied the Nutrition, the better the recovery, because with different foods the body also receives different trace elements.
Eliminate muscle pain will help the regularity of fitness, because in the process of “training” and the central nervous system: over time, thanks to this, we no longer perceive pain in the muscles, we become less exposed.
Finess Head 