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What Causes a Sore Muscle?

Muscles become sore after strenuous workouts. For years, scientists have blamed lactic acid buildup for the cause of muscle soreness. However, scientists now know more about muscles, their growth and the reasons that muscles become sore.

  1. The Process

    • To understand why muscles become sore, it's important to know how muscles grow and become stronger. When you train your muscles, you are actually tearing the muscle fibers. That's why you feel mild pain in the muscle that you're working. When your muscle repairs, it will actually grow back larger and denser, creating more strength.

    Soreness

    • For a long time, scientists claimed that muscle soreness was due to lactic acid. Now that theory has dramatically changed. While there is a buildup of lactic acid in muscles after a workout, the lactic acid is actually flushed into the muscle during a workout. That's what gives you a muscle burn. However, scientists don't believe the lactic acid causes the muscle pain that occurs within 24 to 48 hours after a workout. Doctors now believe that the tearing of the muscles is the actual cause of that pain. More specifically, when muscles are torn, fluid retention occurs in those areas. While the muscle tears may cause some mild discomfort, the actual pain comes from the fluid retention, which often presents itself on nerve endings. Thus, we have muscle pain.

    Solutions

    • Severe pain after workouts is traditionally called "Delay Onset Muscle Soreness" (DOMS). All athletes suffer from DOMS at one point or another, and there are ways to minimize the discomfort associated with it. Luckily, muscles will repair themselves in three to seven days, and the pain will go away completely. However, to ease the discomfort of pain, you should use damaged muscles as little as possible. You can also benefit from a light massage in that area, and you can buy a product like Icy Hot that penetrates muscle soreness. Some athletes have even found ice helpful in alleviating muscle soreness.

    Additional Information

    • Most bodybuilders welcome post-workout muscle pain because it's a sign that muscles are rebuilding larger and stronger. However, it is important to know proper techniques in weight training to avoid injury. Also, the more intensity you put into your workout, the greater soreness you will have. One of the greatest allies in muscle recovery is sleep. That's when your muscles repair the most, so get at least eight hours of sleep after a hard workout. There are also many supplements that aid in muscle recovery. Though they won't necessarily prevent or decrease muscle soreness, these supplements will help muscles recover faster; this will decrease the period of time when you're sore. (See the resource section for a list of popular recovery supplements.)

    Warnings

    • If you do use a muscle rub, read the directions. These rubs are medicated, so overdoses can occur. If you have muscle soreness, drink plenty of water, as water will help rebuild muscles. Don't try to work out if you are sore. Alternate body parts so that muscles can rebuild. If your muscle soreness lasts more than seven days, see a doctor.

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