^

Health

Muscle pain after exercise

, medical expert
Last reviewed: 17.10.2021
Fact-checked
х

All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.

We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.

If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.

Already from the school bench, we know that the pain in the muscles after training is the result of accumulation in the muscle tissue of excess lactic acid. That is why, after each physical education, students are recommended to spend some time in an active state, not to pass immediately into a passive position. In the movement, a natural redistribution of the lactic acid itself occurs, which contributes to the early recovery of the muscle and the cessation of pain.

trusted-source[1], [2], [3]

Trained, trained, yes overtrained

However, do not overdo it. Excessive desire to get beautiful relief muscles, to fix a rejuvenating effect or to achieve excellent physical results in a short time, is fraught with serious consequences leading to sad diagnoses. Sometimes even slow and correct execution of the usual exercise can end sadly. One wrong move can cause a sharp pain in the muscles after training, which will indicate the sprain of the ligaments, muscles or their rupture. Sometimes fractures occur.

Athletes, especially professional, often suffer from joint diseases. A heavy load on the joints, over the years, leads to a thinning of the joint bag and to a decrease or complete disappearance of the joint fluid, which leads to the appearance of severe pain and inflammation in the joints.

Pathological pain in muscles after training does not always manifest itself sharply and intensively from the first minutes. After playing sports can be observed aching, long-lasting pain, accompanied by swelling in the affected area, an increase in local temperature, and after this, and the overall body temperature.

As soon as the swelling of the soft tissues has appeared, you should immediately seek specialized care, because there is every reason to suspect the presence of a deep and serious injury, injury or stretching.

Most often a person, according to his feelings, can independently determine the nature of pain, relate their feelings to the seriousness of the problem. The natural pain in the muscles after training, associated with the fatigue of muscle groups, passes without any unnecessary manifestations. If during the day the pain is not stopped, but on the contrary, is gaining strength, then patience should give way to prompt action to eliminate the cause of pain.

Great attention should be given to such a problem as overtraining. After each training there should be a recovery period. The pain in the muscles after training should be able to go into a state of satisfied muscle fatigue. Enhanced nutrition, aimed at maintaining muscle growth, or a properly balanced diet, combined with vitamin complexes should certainly take place in the life of a person who has associated himself with regular sports activities.

Otherwise, not being able to properly recover after training, the body comes to exhaustion, and pain syndromes called phantom begin to appear. Wandering pains with localization in joints and muscles, inflammatory processes in large and small joints, general decrease in immunity, frequent catarrhal diseases, loss of strength.

If the body remains in this state for a long time, then the processes begin to thinning the muscle fibers, the fragility of the bones and tendons develops and the hormonal secretion decreases to the minimum. In this scenario, serious injuries do not take long to wait.

Training without pain and trauma

Educating your body is very difficult, especially if for a long time he was completely deprived of an active lifestyle. Nevertheless, muscle training always benefits him. The natural, "right" pain in the muscles after training you need to learn how to love. A "bad" pain - trauma, stretching and overtraining of the body should be avoided, warned and directed all efforts to the correct performance of all exercises, to keep their speed and desire to achieve excellent results in a short time.

Lactic acid rejuvenates the body

If the training is permanent, then the muscle tissue, with time, becomes more dense and the accumulation of lactic acid in large quantities no longer occurs. Lactic acid itself does not have harmful properties for the body, although it is a by-product of a large number of physiological processes. The pain in the muscles after training lasts for several hours, during which time the blood intensively flushes all the "deposits" of lactic acid, transferring it from the muscle tissue to the common bloodstream. In connection with this, the overall acidity of the blood rises, and this, in turn, exerts a rejuvenating effect on the whole organism. Here is another positive argument in favor of regular exercise.

Muscle pain after training arrives late

It is possible to work productively with sports and not feel any pain at once, except for strong muscular fatigue. And only after a few hours there is a pain in the muscles after training, which covers all the muscle groups that were involved in the process of training. Such painful sensations are usually called retarded. There is a medical term for "delayed pain in muscles after training," often referring to its abbreviation ZMB. Such terminology is well known to athletes, coaches and everyone who often deals with physical training and medical personnel helping to cope with such troubles.

Such a pain in the muscles after training can comprehend both the beginner and the professional athlete. It is difficult to do without such a result in cases when a new set of exercises is being mastered, the overall load of the whole activity or the duration of the influence on certain muscles increases. If the belated muscle pain develops after training, you can safely assume that the sport is going right, as it should be in science.

The mechanism of occurrence of pain of this kind is the formation of many microscopically sores in the structure of the muscle fiber. Due to the fact that the wound appears, the body receives a command to activate all its protective forces and begins to fight the violation, restoring the integrity of the muscle. High isolation of the corresponding protective hormones promotes rapid healing of all cracks and wounds, warns against the formation of inflammatory processes.

Pay attention to the curious detail. With the spread of these wonderful hormones with blood flow throughout the body, there is an "animating" effect not only on the damaged muscles, the whole organism is rejuvenated and renewed. There is a rapid growth rate of hair and nails, hence, skin cells are renewed at a higher rate. Here is another proof of the wonderful benefits of active sports.

The pain in the muscles after training with each time will be less intense and with time, going out to the usual lessons in the same mode, soon it will disappear completely. If after the first sports you have not felt any pain at all, this can only mean one thing - the inefficiency of all actions. A small load, a small number of repetitions, an incorrectly selected set of exercises - all this can lead to a loss of time and benefit from such activities a little.

Where to go if there is pain in the muscles after training

Knowing that pain after training is different, "good" and "bad", you need to pay attention to the duration of pain, their intensity and location of localization. Observe the behavior of the body in response to muscle pain. If the muscle pain after exercise does not pass within 24 hours, gaining strength, becomes pulsating at rest, accompanied by side effects in the form of movement disorders in the area of pain localization, swelling of surrounding tissues - it's time to visit a traumatologist.

The trauma doctor will conduct a visual examination, if necessary, assign the necessary instrumental examination methods, including an x-ray of the affected area or a computer tomogram.

Injuries received during a sport may not be of great danger, but there are times when it is necessary to give up the sport for a while, in order to allow the damaged muscles or ligament apparatus to recover. After the recovery period, the return to the sport passes gradually, passing the stages of adaptation and raising the muscle tone to normal levels.

Translation Disclaimer: For the convenience of users of the iLive portal this article has been translated into the current language, but has not yet been verified by a native speaker who has the necessary qualifications for this. In this regard, we warn you that the translation of this article may be incorrect, may contain lexical, syntactic and grammatical errors.

You are reporting a typo in the following text:
Simply click the "Send typo report" button to complete the report. You can also include a comment.