NO PAIN, NO GAIN. RIGHT?
I am ex-military. "No pain, no gain", and "pain is a weakness leaving the body" are phrases I have heard before more than once. Yet, my teachings have taught me that pain is first and foremost, pain. It is mechanical pressure applied to a nerve, that causes pain receptors (sensors) to transmit pain to the brain. Can pain bear a positive meaning, or is it always of negative implications. pain is most definitely a warning sign, the body's neural equivalent of a warning "text message".
You have been to the gym or worked out elsewhere, a day of two have passed, and it starts. Your muscles start feeling sore, there is this dull and diffuse pain, tenderness, stiffness, and reduced strength production by the skeletal muscle that have been exercised. Are you injured? Should you see a physician asap? Can you workout again? How concerned should you be? - Let's figure it out together, shall we?
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The phenomenon you are experiencing is called D.O.M.S., which stands for delayed onset muscle soreness. Delayed - since the symptoms appear between 24-72 hours after the workout that caused the D.O.M.S.; Onset - has the meaning of local, since the symptoms are concentrated in the skeletal muscles worked; Muscle - since D.O.M.S. influences skeletal muscles; Soreness. - the most prominent symptom is soreness.
D.O.M.S. is a type of skeletal muscle injury known as micro-trauma. This is not macro-trauma, meaning that it is not a severe injury to the skeletal muscles, rather than a localized reaction to the muscles being challenged mechanically more than they can deal with. D.O.M.S. usually lasts up to a week after the workout that caused the D.O.M.S. to begin with.
D.O.M.S. is a sign that the workout did not match completely the exercised muscles' ability to withstand that extent of mechanical loading. On the other hand, D.O.M.S. has been found to act as a stimulus for the exercised muscles to heal, recover, and improve by building more muscle mass than before, increasing the muscles' ability to withstand mechanical loading compared to before the last workout.
It is important to understand that a muscle undergoing D.O.M.S. is injured, and is not at its best. It needs time to recover and heal, before it can show maximal capacities again. While working out the same muscles is not prohibited, any workout of the same muscles must take the occurrence of D.O.M.S. into consideration. For example, while D.O.M.S. is still onset, it is ill-advised to max-out these muscles.
We need to accommodate these muscles' healing and recovery by proper hydration, proper blood supply and circulation, diet, electrolytes and rest. Massages (foam rolls advised), compression garments, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) consumption if necessary and as necessary. Most common NSAIDs include aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen. Additional treatment options include ice packs, warm baths, or combination heat and ice treatments. Incorporating gentle mild stretches can be beneficial to treating D.O.M.S..
It should never be your goal to cause D.O.M.S. on purpose, it is not a good strategy to have, yet on the other hand, it happens, more so to people that are beginners as it pertains to weight lifting, or when best practices are not respected. We must realize, that while eventually, D.O.M.S. leads to positive adaptations to skeletal muscle mass and function, you have wasted up to a week while the muscles were negatively affected. Most definitely, before a competition, D.O.M.S. will most likely impair and reduce your level of performance.
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I owe you an answer; You are not doomed if you experience D.O.M.S., yet it is not the best of workouts compared to a workout that follows all the professional principles of exercising, strength and conditioning, and resistance training (weight lifting).
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