I took the most lovely yoga class on Monday-- got deeper into stretches than I have in a while, held a split side crow for a full 5 breaths, worked hard enough to savor every minute of savasana.
And then there was Tuesday morning. Despite plenty of hydration and even extra sleep the night before, I woke up sore. Decided-to-put-off-chores-for-a-day, incredibly-glad-it-was-my-off-day sore. DOMS sore.
DOMS, for those of you lucky enough be unfamiliar with it, is short for Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. It's your body's response to microdamage to your muscles, usually in response to new or unfamiliar exercise. If it's only a once-in-a-while thing, it dissipates in a couple of days. No harm, no foul. But if we listen to the old adage, "No Pain, No Gain," with every exercise session, that's when we get into trouble.
There's actually no evidence that DOMS is a causal factor in hypertrophy, or muscle growth. Different people experience post-exercise soreness differently, and even within the same person, some muscles are more prone to soreness than others. Worse, consistently overdoing it can lead to Exercise Induced Muscle Damage (days-weeks loss of ability to generate >50% of your usual muscle power) or rhabdomyolysis. Better to find your edge and then back off a bit when training.
This is a case where prevention is the best medicine. Stay hydrated and warm up properly. Lowering, or eccentric, exercises, especially those in a stretched position (twisted triangle, anyone?) are the most likely to cause post-exercise soreness, so be cognizant and decrease your resistance if you need to. If despite your best efforts, you do experience DOMS, caffeine and ice baths may help. When you return to exercising, concentric (shortening) exercises may cause less discomfort. Lastly, don't avoid exercise. Returning to the same exercises (when your body is ready) has been shown to result in decreased discomfort over time.
Guess I'll see y'all back in class next Monday. ;^)
Sources:
http://journals.lww.com/nsca-scj/Fulltext/2013/10000/Is_Postexercise_Muscle_Soreness_a_Valid_Indicator.2.aspx
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-robertson/crossfit-rhabdomyolysis_b_3977598.html
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/really-the-claim-an-ice-bath-can-soothe-sore-muscles/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
http://www.colourbox.com/vector/ouch-comic-book-explosion-vector-4417200
