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Sore muscles are noticeable in the same way over and over again. The affected muscles appear weak, powerless, hardened and painful even with the smallest movements. The ability to move is restricted accordingly. Sometimes the affected muscles are sensitive to the touch, stiff or swell up.

The painful sore muscles usually appear one to three days after physical exertion and can last for up to a week .

What helps against sore muscles?

If you train again after a long time in the gym or do a long jog, you often notice the stressed muscles one to three days later: you get sore muscles. How long it lasts varies. Sore muscles can last up to a week. Seven days in which it makes the muscles weak and weak. It is hardened, stiff, sensitive to touch and sufferers have pain with sore muscles even with small movements.

Very often there is sore muscles in the abdomen, calves, thighs and upper arms. Simply because these muscle groups have to work in many common sports and are involved in numerous movement sequences. If your thighs or calves have sore muscles, even normal walking can be a pain. Clearly, you want to get rid of sore muscles as quickly as possible. In fact, there are numerous tips circulating on how to relieve sore muscles. Here are some common methods that are designed to help relieve sore muscles.

Heat: This sore muscle home remedy actually seems to be effective. The reason: Warm baths or saunas stimulate the blood circulation, which stimulates the healing process for sore muscles.

Stretching: Gentle passive stretching (hold position, no springing), for example with sore muscles in the legs, should be able to relieve the muscle pain at least for a short time. Because, according to experts, this relieves cramps and removes any pent-up fluid. Stroking and loosening the muscles can also cause sore muscles under certain circumstances. That is when you overdo it and paint too intensely.

Massage: Massaging the sore muscles when the muscles are sore is not advisable. There are studies that suggest that post-exercise massage can reduce the amount of sore muscles. However, the massage must be precisely dosed, i.e. only moderately strong. Otherwise the treatment will irritate the strained muscle fibers, the sore muscles can get worse and regeneration is delayed.

Nutrition: First of all: “To counter- feed ” the sore muscles is not possible. By choosing the right food after physical exertion, however, the muscle pain may not be quite as severe. Specifically, a mix of carbohydrates and protein should help the muscles to recover after exercise. On the other hand, antioxidants, i.e. food substances that protect our cells from aggressive oxygen compounds, are probably ineffective for sore muscles. Magnesium too. Nevertheless, it can make sense to consciously add the latter after strenuous activities. Because the body excretes it more and more through sweating, the need for this mineral increases.

Movement: Intense strain is taboo with sore muscles, after all, it involves tiny muscle injuries that have to heal. For example, if your back has sore muscles, you shouldn't lift heavily. However, light movement is ok, as it stimulates the metabolism and thus regeneration. For example, a relaxed walk is suitable - even if the steps feel a bit stiff with sore muscles in the buttocks and legs.

Medicines and ointments: There are no medicines that combat sore muscles on their own. The associated muscle pain can be alleviated with anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen or diclofenac. However, drug treatment for sore muscles is not necessarily advisable, as it could impair the regeneration processes.

 

Sore muscles: causes

“What is sore muscles?” - this question cannot be answered with absolute clarity to this day. For a long time it was assumed that sore muscles are caused by too much lactate (lactic acid) in the muscles. That has now been refuted. The mere fact that lactate breaks down again after around 20 minutes speaks against the theory. If the sore muscles start after a day at the earliest, it will have long since disappeared.

Instead, scientists discovered that sore muscles cause tiny tears in the muscle fibrils that make up muscle fibers. So sore muscles are more or less a collection of micro-injuries.

These arise when the muscles are overloaded by unusual movements. The body then tries to repair the damage, which creates foci of inflammation. Water gets into the fibers, the muscles swell and the stretching then causes the typical muscle pain.

Most of the time, physical activity for which the body is not adequately prepared is the cause of sore muscles. Jogging after a long break in sports can also trigger muscle soreness, as can unusual, abrupt braking and starting movements in tennis or football. Above all, braking loads (even going downhill is enough) increase the risk of sore muscles, as fewer muscle fibers are active and they consequently have to withstand greater loads.

However, those affected do not necessarily have to have been active in sports to get sore muscles. Muscle pain can also be caused by a severe cold , for example . Muscle soreness from coughing can occur because the upper body muscles tense again and again due to the constant urge to cough and can be overstrained in such a way that the result is sore muscles. Muscle soreness can also occur after a massage. Namely, when microtraumas arise from the pressure.

Preventing sore muscles: this is how it works

Sore muscles do not appear in the same place twice in quick succession. This could be due to the fact that the body is “prepared” after the first damage. In other words: the coordination is better, more fibers work better in time, the mechanical resilience is higher and, so experts suspect, even particularly sensitive muscle fibers could have been destroyed by the sore muscles, which can no longer tear.

But there are also more pleasant measures that can be used to avoid sore muscles:

For example, regular exercise helps. It also ensures that the muscle fibers become more resilient and work better together, which reduces the risk of sore muscles. Those who then train according to a structured plan and slowly build up the load give the muscles the chance to slowly get used to the activity and adapt to the load. By the way, warming up and stretching has no direct preventive effect on sore muscles. Warmed up muscles are, however, more supple and less prone to injury, which is why a short warm-up before physical activity makes sense.

There are suspicions that active ingredients in certain foods (e.g. cinnamon, ginger, berries), vitamins C and E as well as carnitine (due to its effect on the muscles in the blood supply) can prevent sore muscles. However, it has not been scientifically proven to be effective against sore muscles. Magnesium also has no preventive effect.

Sore muscles and exercise

Whether passionate athletes are allowed to train with sore muscles can be answered with a clear “It depends”. First of all, sore muscles are an injury. And as with all injuries, the same applies here that the person affected should take care of himself. Because the aching muscles lose their strength and flexibility, athletes should definitely avoid intensive and strength-demanding units. As a result, they only make the sore muscles worse or possibly even increase it to a strain or a ruptured muscle fiber .

Athletes do not have to do without training despite sore muscles. Gentle stretching or light forms of movement such as relaxed cycling or aqua jogging stimulate the metabolism and can even help the pain (temporarily) to subside somewhat or to disappear more quickly.

Is Sore Muscle A Good Or Bad?

Sore muscles are not good or bad per se. A little sore muscles is okay. Some athletes are even proud of it because they interpret it as evidence that they have trained well. Indeed, a slight sore muscles can be interpreted as a sign of effective training. However, it is absolutely unsuitable as a benchmark for training quality. If someone doesn't have sore muscles, it doesn't mean the exercise has been ineffective.

Nevertheless, the less trained someone is, i.e. the less they are used to a certain movement or load, the more likely they are to get sore muscles. For example, muscle soreness due to muscle building training is a common phenomenon because the muscles are overwhelmed by the (too heavy) weights. This can delay the progress of the training because exertion should be taboo when sore muscles and the athlete has to take a break first.

Runners tend to get sore muscles if they increase the training volume too quickly or build in intensities that are too high. They don't just pinch their legs, the sore muscles can also sit in their lower back. The reason: In the upright posture while running, the back has to do hold work - and since runners often only run but do not do strength and stabilization training, the back muscles are not adequately prepared for this long load. Such "normal" sore muscles are usually harmless and go away without causing permanent damage.

It is different with sore muscles, which are not sore muscles, but just feel that way. A layperson, for example, cannot always tell immediately whether it is a sore muscles or a strain. In both the muscle strength is reduced, in both the muscle reacts with pain to pressure and stretching. However, the pain becomes more and more severe with a strain. As the muscle fibers tear when pulled, blood leaks into the tissue and causes a visible bruise . Such an injury must be healed, that is: take a break and rest for several weeks.

A “false sore muscles” can also occur during pregnancy: for example, when the uterine ligaments are under great strain. This can manifest itself in abdominal pain that feels like sore muscles. They are harmless in themselves. However, the expectant mother should inform her gynecologist or midwife to rule out causes other than stretch pain.

Sore muscles: when to see a doctor?

In the vast majority of cases, sore muscles are harmless and go away on their own. So those affected usually do not need to see a doctor. You should pay a visit to the doctor, however, if

• the sore muscles do not go away, ie after ten days it still has not disappeared.
• the sore muscles occurred without exercise or other physical activity.