Do you remember the last time you crushed a tough workout at AFAC gym? Maybe you ramped up the loads you were lifting, or raised the number of reps, or tried a brand-new activity. As soon as you were done, you felt amazing!

But, when you woke up the next morning, you were so sore that you struggled to get out of bed.

Regardless of how much it hurt, you wore the aches and pains with pride. Those were hard evidence that you pushed your body to new limits.

That deep muscle ache the day after a workout is known as delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS for short. What is DOMS, and is this discomfort required to make gains at our gym in Thornton, Colorado? In today’s blog, we’ll talk about what DOMS is and the role it plays in your fitness journey.

What Is DOMS?

Delayed onset muscle soreness is the pain and stiffness you feel about 6-8 hours following your workout. It’s most common after strength training, but also can occur after an intense cardio session or other type of workout. Depending on the exercises you did the day before, DOMS might make you waddle like a duck, prevent you from washing your hair, or cause your body to drop into a chair when you try to sit down.

DOMS usually peaks about 24-48 hours post-training and diminishes after about 72 hours. Everyone is different, though, so one person’s DOMS may look nothing like another’s.

What Does DOMS Feel Like?

The most common symptom of DOMS is muscle discomfort, particularly during movement. Other symptoms of DOMS include:

Reduced range of motion
Joint stiffness
Muscles that feel tender when you touch them
Swelling in the affected muscles
Muscle fatigue
Diminished muscle strength for a short time

DOMS should not be confused with the pain you feel during exercise. The burn you feel during or immediately after an intense workout is called acute muscle soreness. Acute muscle burning and pain usually dissipates as soon as your movement ends or within a couple minutes after you stop.

Don’t Confuse Muscle Soreness With an Injury

You also shouldn’t confuse DOMS or acute muscle pain with an injury. Sometimes it can be difficult to know the difference, but the following signs could indicate something more serious than simple muscle soreness:

Sharp, sudden pain during or immediately after a workout

Pain that lasts longer than 72 hours following a workout

Sharp, shooting pain that accompanies specific movements

Pain that’s localized to a small area such as a tendon, joint, or bone

Pain that’s asymmetrical (for example, pain in one shoulder but not the other)

Pain that doesn’t get any better once you start moving around

Constant pain that you feel whether you’re moving or sedentary

Pain that’s accompanied by sounds like popping or snapping from a muscle or ligament, or crackling from a joint

Why Does DOMS Happen?

The exact cause of DOMS is not clearly understood by doctors and scientists. Most research suggests, however, that DOMS is caused by microtrauma in the muscles and surrounding connective tissues, which results in inflammation and pain.

You might have heard that DOMS is caused by lactate, or lactic acid, buildup in the muscles, but this is not the case. Lactate is a by-product of the metabolic process and your body produces it all the time, even when you’re not working out. Excess lactate clears out of your system within 30-60 minutes after working out.

What Types of Gym Training Cause DOMS?

DOMS can affect just about anyone at the gym, from beginners to elite athletes. Regardless of your level of fitness, you might experience DOMS.

And, while all kinds of muscle contraction can cause soreness, the workouts most commonly associated with DOMS are listed below.

When you introduce something different into your gym workout such as a new-to-you activity, increased intensity, increased volume, or if you’re new to the gym in general.
Eccentric contraction — when your muscle lengthens as it contracts — is often associated with DOMS. This includes movements like running downhill, lowering down into a squat or pushup position, or lowering weights (such as the lowering phase of a bicep curl). It’s believed that eccentric contractions result in more muscle cell damage than concentric contractions (when the muscle shortens during a contraction against a load).
Upper body movements tend to create more DOMS than lower-body exercises.

Is DOMS Required for a Good Workout at the Gym?

The short answer is no. DOMS can be a sign of a good workout at the gym, but it’s not required for muscle gains.

As previously mentioned, DOMS is highly variable from person to person and can depend on what exercise you’re doing, how long you’ve been doing it, and which body part you’re focusing on.

You might be sore when you first start going to the gym or try a brand-new type of workout, but not as much when you repeat that same regimen over and over. Your body will build up a tolerance to your routine. Your muscles will become more efficient, and they’ll learn to work together to share the load. Your connective tissues will become stronger, too. As you build strength during familiar exercises, you’ll notice a reduction in soreness when you go to the gym.

As long as you’re progressively building strength by lifting more or doing more reps before muscle failure, you’ll know you’re getting stronger.

Some people wear DOMS as a badge of honor, thinking that feeling sore in the days after a hard workout is a key sign of muscle growth. They assume that soreness is an indicator of muscle damage, and that means the muscle will repair itself and grow bigger in the process. Research, however, has shown that muscle soreness does not always equate to muscle damage and pain is not required for muscle growth. In other words, just because your muscles are sore does not mean they’re getting bigger or stronger. And, just because your muscles are not sore does not mean you’re wasting your time.

Therefore, you may feel less and less sore after each workout, but don’t worry that you’re not working out hard enough or you’re missing out on gains. After a tough workout session, you might feel a little extra beat up the next day, but it won’t be anything close to how you felt during your first week at the gym.

We’ve all heard the famous saying, “No pain, no gain.” While you absolutely do need to push yourself at the gym to see progress, you don’t need to chase muscle soreness after every workout. As a matter of fact, DOMS can actually work against your muscle gains. That’s because a muscle can become too damaged to recover before your next workout. Also, a sore muscle can’t do as much work so it hinders your progress. DOMS is also caused by inflammation, and being in a constant state of inflammation is probably not the healthiest thing.

At the end of the day, we don’t completely understand the mechanisms behind DOMS and that’s okay. So, if you make DOMS a core requirement of your workout, you could be setting yourself up for disappointment or failure.

If DOMS Is Not a Good Measure for Gym Progress, What Is?

Instead of relying on DOMS to tell you if your workout is effective, pay attention to how you’re progressing instead. All of the following are signs that your workouts are working:

You’re able to lift more weight over time.
You can do more reps before muscle failure.
You’ve improved your form.
You’ve mastered new exercises that you couldn’t do before.
You’re reaching your goals.
You’re visibly gaining muscle and losing fat (changing your body composition).

Unless your goal is to feel sore, don’t use soreness to measure the effectiveness of your workouts at the gym.

How Can You Prevent and Treat DOMS at the Gym?

One of the best ways to treat DOMS is to tone it down in the first place. While you probably can’t dodge DOMS forever – even if you’re an advanced lifter – there are ways to make it a little easier to manage.

Start slow

The two populations who are almost guaranteed to get DOMS are beginners and those who have been away from the gym for more than two weeks. If you’re brand new at the gym, take your first week to learn how to use the equipment, but with lighter weights. Focus on learning proper movement patterns and not on lifting a ton of weight. Since you’re new, this will be enough of a workout to make you stronger. After your first week, you can load more weight but even then, you don’t have to max yourself out.

Work with a personal trainer

One of the biggest benefits of working with a personal trainer is that they can show you how to ease into weightlifting so that you use proper form and get results without overdoing it or injuring yourself.

Use progressive overload correctly

Progressive overload is a process during which you continually increase the load on your muscles. That means you add 5 pounds to your lifts every week or two – not 50. It refers to the load your muscles can handle according to their strength, but you can still ease into progressive overload and mitigate DOMS. This is particularly true for beginners at the gym. Going slow is nothing to be ashamed of and should lead to gains over time. On the flip side, going too hard, too fast, can make you so sore that you need to take a week off which works against your gains.

Consume proper nutrition

One of the most important things you can do to reduce DOMS is to feed your body with the nutrition it needs. Consuming sufficient protein will expedite the healing process of your muscles, enhance their growth, and lessen soreness. It’s typically recommended that healthy individuals should consume 1 gram of lean protein per pound of bodyweight per day. The remainder of your diet should consist of healthy carbs and healthy fats. Watch your calorie intake to prevent fat gain.

Use cryotherapy

The cryotherapy chamber at AFAC gym provides a fast, comfortable cold-therapy treatment that can reduce inflammation, speed recovery, and lessen the onset of DOMS. To schedule a cryotherapy appointment, speak to a member of our team.

Get a massage

A review of several studies in 2017 found that people who received a massage within 24, 48, or 72 hours after an intense workout experienced less soreness than those who didn’t. Those who got a massage 48 hours post-workout seemed to have the best results.

Use a foam roller

If you’re not able to go to a massage therapist, you can self-massage your thighs, calves, shoulders, arms, and other areas of your body that you can reach with your hands. Using a foam roller right after your workouts is an easy way to give yourself a whole-body massage and can also help stave off DOMS.

Workout and Recover at AFAC Gym

Adventure Fitness Athletic Club not only has a vast array of strength training equipment to work every muscle, but we also have the tools you need to recover after your workouts including cryotherapy, hydromassage, and foam rollers. Our personal trainers are also here to assist you in tailoring your workouts so that you can achieve the results you want while mitigating DOMS.

If you’re not a member of AFAC gym but would like more information about joining the best gym in Thornton, Colorado, please stop by and speak to our team. For more information and assistance, you can also contact our gym owner, Susan, at 720-849-0245 or susan@adventurefitness.club.