Ask anyone who plays in tournaments “Is playing on Sunday worth the pain?” and you will most likely get a very quick and concise answer: ‘That’s a stupid question – of course it is!’ Anyone that has ever played serious racquetball knows exactly what I am talking about: barely being able to swing your legs out of the bed the next morning, walking half bent over, struggling to stand up straight, making weird noises as you try to reach for your morning coffee (or soda in my case) because your arms, shoulders and chest are so stiff and sore that you really just want to crawl back in bed and go to sleep for a week.

The term “DOMS” or “Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness” specifically refers to the soreness caused by exercise that you do not feel on the day that you exercise but rather one or two days later. The delayed effect is strictly due to the time it takes for the body to respond to the damage caused by the exercise. The amount of muscle damage can be determined directly by collecting a sample of the damaged muscle or indirectly by analyzing a blood sample for a few different proteins that are only present in the blood following muscle damage.

Over the years you may have heard numerous explanations for what causes this type of soreness to occur. More than likely, someone has told you that it is due to either lactic acid, a sodium or potassium deficiency and/or dehydration. Rest assured – all of these explanations are wrong! And, yes you can quote me on that. In basic terms, muscle soreness results from actually damaging the muscle itself. Exercise causes very small tears of the muscle fibers (typically called microfiber tears) which result in the body initiating responses to heal the damaged muscle cells. The more intense the exercise, the more muscle damage, the greater the amount of soreness.

The body will respond to the muscle damage in the exact same way it responds to any injury – with inflammation. Inflammation is the body’s way of trying to control the amount of damage, then it helps the body begin the repair process to heal the damaged tissue. Very recent research has shown that excessive inflammation can actually cause additional muscle damage to occur but this is still a theory that is being tested. However, it is this inflammation that is causing you to feel tight and stiff.

Now you may be thinking that all muscle damage and soreness is bad and this is just not true. Simply stated, if you never cause muscle damage, the muscle will never become stronger. Contrary to popular belief, lifting weights or exercise does not cause muscles to grow and get stronger. Muscles only grow and get stronger while they heal in response to the damage induced from lifting weights or exercise. Thus, if you never tear muscle down it can never build up. At the same time, you must use caution because too much high intensity exercise will not only cause severe muscle damage (which can take days or weeks to recover from) but also may lead you to surgery with a torn muscle, tendon or ligament.

Okay, now that you know what is causing the soreness (maybe more than you ever wanted to) let’s discuss what can be done to prevent it from ever occurring, as well as what can be done to deal with it if it does.

Generally speaking, the only way to prevent severe muscle damage and soreness (the kind that lasts for for days following a workout) is to gradually increase your exercise intensity over several weeks. Depending on your current activity level it may take you weeks or months to build up to the point where you can play (or exercise) at an intensity equal to that experienced during tournaments before you no longer feel sore during the following days. Gradually increasing the intensity, duration and frequency of high intensity exercise will allow your body to become used to that amount of stress and thus it will respond by becoming more resistant (i.e. stronger).

On the other hand, if you are already experiencing muscle soreness, there are a few remedies that can be used to help you get through those uncomfortable days. During the days that you are experiencing muscle soreness it is worthwhile to use any method that will increase blood flow to the affected area. Things such as hot tubs or hot baths work but, believe it or not, exercise is best. Exercises that target the affected area (e.g. cycling for sore legs) will increase blood flow to the damaged muscles, which will then speed removal of the dead cellular debris and the fluid associated with the inflammation and will result in improved healing time.

However, do not use any method of applying heat to sore muscles on the day you exercised as the heat will increase blood flow to the affected area and will actually cause more inflammation and end up making things worse.

Cool baths or swimming pools would be of great benefit as the cool water will limit blood flow and also inhibit severe inflammation (think about what ice does to a sprained ankle – it’s the same principle).

But always remember that chronic soreness is a sign that you are either not getting enough rest (rest allows the body time to recover and heal itself) or perhaps there may be some other underlying problem in which case you need to consult with your personal physician.

As always – if you have questions you would like to have addressed here – just send me an email, at timscheett@hotmail.com.