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Soreness: The Good Kind or the Bad Kind?

Friday, 21 April 2017 23:10

By Jordan D. Metzl (triathlete.com)

How to tell if your post-workout soreness is the good kind or the bad kind—and how to keep it from turning wicked.

When muscle tissue is injured by exercise, the fibers tear. Ideally, in a day or two the fibers repair themselves and are stronger than before. This is the basis of building muscle, and some muscle soreness after a workout—especially during the first few weeks of intensified activity—is to be expected. It’s totally normal for your quads and glutes to ache after the first hilly run or ride of the season, for example.

But if your muscle soreness is intense and doesn’t begin until 24 to 48 hours after the muscle injury, you may have a serious condition called delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS). It can happen when you apply an excessive loading force to muscle cells. It’s important to distinguish the symptoms of DOMS from the everyday aches and pains that come after hard exercise. This pain can be severe....

Why is DOMS serious? When muscle tissue is injured, a process called rhabdomyolysis causes it to release a protein called myoglobin. We all have a bit of myoglobin released after hard athletic events, and some of it is processed by the kidneys. Several studies that looked at healthy athletes after marathons found mild to moderate amounts of myoglobin in their urine, a condition called myoglobinuria. READ MORE