Muscle Soreness

Muscle Soreness

You used to be able to run around all day and wake up the next morning without the faintest trace of muscle soreness. These days, however, overdoing it on the tennis court or even in the garden can cause some unpleasant consequences like sore muscles, a restricted range of motion, or general all-over achiness. These symptoms can make the exercise motto “No pain, no gain” seem like something best left for the grandkids.

But sore muscles actually have a bright side. If you weren’t active, you wouldn’t get them. It’s perfectly normal, says William J. Evans, Ph.D., director of the nutrition, metabolism, and exercise laboratory at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. But, he adds, your symptoms will be much worse if you’ve exercised too much too quickly.

Since there are so many health benefits to exercise, such as lowering cholesterol and helping to prevent bone and muscle loss, you don’t want aches and pains to prevent you from keeping active. The trick is to make sure that exercise doesn’t leave you groaning every time you move the day after. And for that, there are plenty of things you can do before, during, and after your workout.

Most of these suggestions apply to dull aches and pains experienced during or after a workout. If you’re experiencing acute pain, that’s a signal from your body that something is not right. See your doctor if you have sharp pains, says Dr. Evans. Don’t try to exercise right through it.

Try This First

Have an ice day. You may be able to recover from muscle pain more quickly by icing the muscles that are complaining, says Dr. Evans. “Your muscles swell somewhat when you damage them from overuse. Ice can help to reduce the inflammation.” Wrap a frozen ice pack in a thin towel and place it on the affected area for no more than 20 minutes each hour. You can repeat as often as necessary until the area is no longer sore. If an ice pack isn’t handy, you can use a bag of frozen peas wrapped in a towel instead.

Other Wise Ways

Ask for acetaminophen. Other over-the-counter medications will probably reduce pain, but acetaminophen (Tylenol) is the best choice for muscle pain, says Dr. Evans. Why? Other possible painkillers on the pharmacy shelf—aspirin, ibuprofen, ketoprofen, and naproxen—all share a single drawback. These anti-inflammatory drugs block your body’s production of chemicals that cause swelling and pain, but in so doing, they interfere with your body’s muscle-repair process.

Acetaminophen, on the other hand, blocks pain impulses within the brain itself, allowing the muscle-repair process to proceed normally, says Dr. Evans. It’s also the pain reliever that causes the least number of side effects when taken in normal amounts. Just make sure to follow the directions on the label, and never take more than 12 of the 325-milligram pills in a single day.

Turn up the heat. When the aches and pains are particularly bad the day after you’ve exercised hard, take a warm bath, says Priscilla Clarkson, Ph.D., professor and associate dean in the department of exercise science at the University of Massachusetts School of Public Health and Health Sciences in Amherst. You can soak for as long as you like, she says. “The warm water helps your muscles relax and promotes circulation, which will have a soothing effect. The pain will come back 15 minutes or so after you get out, but it still makes for a nice break.”

Rub it out. Massage can significantly reduce muscle soreness, and it’s a safe alternative if you don’t want to take over-the-counter medication. In addition, it may decrease levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) and increase production of serotonin, a compound produced in the brain that has a calming, pain-killing effect, says Maria Hernandez-Reif, Ph.D., director of the massage therapy research program and senior research associate at the University of Miami School of Medicine’s Touch Research Institute. Here are some self-massage tips from Dr. Hernandez-Reif.

• Use a massage oil or lotion to make the experience a lot more pleasant. Put a little oil or lotion on the palm of your hand, then rub your hands together to warm it before beginning the massage. The heat helps loosen muscles more quickly.

• Don’t skimp on the pressure. You’ll know that you’re not applying enough pressure if the rubdown feels like light tickling. Ideally, you should cause some muscle stimulation but not so much that you feel pain.

• Rub the right way. Cup your hand and glide it along the skin’s surface. This is most effective when you can massage a large surface all at once, like the side of your leg from the ankle to the knee. “It’s taught in massage therapy classes to rub in one direction toward the heart,” says Dr. Hernandez-Reif.

Note: Never apply pressure to any joint area, says Dr. Hernandez-Reif. You might injure that joint.

Eat an orange after exercise. Vitamin C after heavy exercise may reduce day-after swelling and pain, reports Dr. Clarkson. When your muscles are damaged by overuse, she says, they produce free radicals, the wide-ranging, highly charged atoms that can damage tissue and age your cells. Antioxidants such as vitamin C may absorb the free radicals before they can cause too many problems, according to Dr. Clarkson. So make sure you’re getting the Daily Value (60 milligrams a day) of vitamin C, she says. You’ll find more than that amount in the average orange.

Distract yourself. Another simple way to handle muscle soreness is to just do your best to ignore it until it goes away, says Dr. Clarkson. “Unless you seriously overdid it, the pain will go away within three days.” This means that every time you distract yourself with a favorite book or CD, or by taking the dog for a walk, you may return from that activity to find that the pain has diminished just a little bit more. (See a doctor if your pain lasts for more than a week.)

Start up slowly. The easiest way to avoid severe muscle pain after exercise is to start slowly any time you try a new activity, says Dr. Evans. Even if it’s an activity you’re used to, start slowly if you haven’t done it in awhile, he adds. “Muscle soreness occurs primarily when you force your body to do something it’s not accustomed to doing,” he says. “If you know you’re going to be playing tennis a week from now, do some jogging and light exercises a few days beforehand.”

Keep your exercise on an even keel. The key is to keep yourself at a baseline level of fitness where an occasional game or weight-lifting session is no huge shock to your system. If you sit around all winter long and then throw yourself into a day’s worth of heavy-duty gardening, you’re just asking for trouble, notes Dr. Clarkson. Try to get 30 minutes of aerobic activity such as walking, jogging, or swimming at least three times a week.

Conditioning your body in this way should significantly reduce muscle pain after exercise, says Dr. Evans.

Follow the 10-percent rule. One of the best ways to not overexert yourself is to obey what’s called the 10-percent rule, says Dr. Clarkson. Quite simply, it means that you never increase the difficulty of your workout more than 10 percent from week to week. “Because muscle pain usually hits 24 hours after exercising, it’s easy to do a lot of damage to your muscles without realizing it at the time,” she says. “This rule prevents you from doing that.”

How does this translate into your regular exercise routine? Easily. For example, if you take 30-minute power walks three times a week, try to add three extra minutes, but go no further until you’re used to the new time frame.

Get ready with a home stretch. When you stretch before exercising, you warm up your muscles, which may help prevent the tiny muscle tears that lead to morning-after pain, says Dr. Clarkson.

Before your next round of vigorous activity, perform this all-around stretching routine, suggests Barbara Sanders, Ph.D., chairperson of the physical therapy department at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos. Keep in mind, these stretches should be slow and gradual, not bouncy. Don’t try to complete any stretch that causes pain.

• Shoulder rolls. Stand straight with your head high, your chin in, and your arms at your sides. Rotate your shoulders up, back, down, then forward. Repeat five times.

• Side bends. Stand with your right arm above your head, your left arm across in front of your stomach, your knees bent slightly, and your feet about shoulder-width apart. Lean to the left as far as you comfortably can. Hold for five seconds, stand up straight again, then repeat. Now reverse the arm positions and follow the same process, leaning to the right.

• Hip stretch. Lie on your back with your lower back snugly resting against the floor. Keeping your left leg extended, clasp your right leg with your right hand under the knee and bring it to your chest, letting your knee bend double. Hold for five seconds, release your leg, straighten it, and lower it to the floor. Repeat once, then do the same stretch with your left leg and left hand.

• Hamstring stretch. Sit on the floor with your right leg relaxed and your right knee bent so that your foot is flat on the floor. Extend your left leg straight in front of you. Now reach for the toes of your left leg with the fingertips of both your hands, feeling the stretch in that hamstring (the long muscle on the back of your thigh). If you can’t reach your toes, grab onto your ankles. Stretch for 20 seconds, relax, and then do it again. Now change the position to extend your right leg, and repeat the stretch.

• Calf and Achilles tendon stretch. Stand three to four feet from a wall and lean toward it, supporting yourself with your hands at roughly shoulder level on the wall. Bring your right leg forward, bending at the knee. As you lean forward, keep your left leg straight with your left foot flat on the floor, while pressing your right knee toward the wall until you feel a comfortable stretch in the straight left leg. (Don’t arch your back.) Hold for 20 seconds, then repeat with your left leg forward with your knee bent, and your right leg extended behind.

• Shoulder stretch. Stand straight with your arms extending straight behind your lower back. Grab your left wrist with your right hand and slowly pull both arms back from your spine as far as possible without causing pain, all the time staying as upright as possible. Keep your neck straight, not arched. Maintain the stretch for a few seconds, relax, then repeat with your left hand grabbing your right wrist.