Cope with muscle soreness the right way with these steps
Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness or DOMS is a condition that affects every athlete. It’s a painful experience for anyone who has done intense or unfamiliar exercises, which peaks a day or two after doing strenuous exercises. Sometimes DOMS is so severe that movement is severely impaired, and lasts for a few days.
No athlete wants to remain a victim of DOMS for a long time. It cramps your style; it severely impairs how you deal with your day-to-day activities, and worst of all – the pain; but no pain, no gain, right? Fortunately there are better ways to deal with DOMS rather than just letting it run its course. Here are some of the right ways to treat DOMS:
Learn when you need to use hot or cold compress
Most athletes we see in televised games are sporting big bags of ice wrapped in their knees, legs, and shoulders. Most of us believe that if it’s painful, you should ice it and leave it. While there’s nothing really wrong with alleviating muscle pain by applying ice packs, it may be better for some instances to use a hot compress in the place of the ice pack. Heat treatment hastens the healing process by enhancing the blood supply to the area affected by DOMS, and when you’re dealing with DOMS, the faster you get rid of the pain, the better.
Take painkillers
Obvious choice, right? You don’t need to experience every stabbing pain and stiffness that DOMS gives you. Take some painkillers to take your mind off of the pain. Take NSAIDs to alleviate the inflammation on your tendons (tendinitis) and the muscles affected by DOMS. Sometimes, the pain that you feel with DOMS isn’t just with the muscles, but with the tendons as well. In these cases, taking painkillers are the surest course to alleviate pain.
Restrict movement
DOMS happen because your muscles are literally ripped apart because of your training. The muscle fibers that were ripped apart would soon heal and the myofibril that would bridge these ripped muscle fibers would create the bulging appearance of your muscles, resulting in muscle hypertrophy. The best thing you can do for your muscles and for your comfort is to prevent using your muscles for more exercises and restrict your movement. If you just had your leg day, make sure that you restrict yourself from climbing stairs and walking for a long period of time. They say that the burn you feel when working out is a good thing, and that’s true some of the time; but when you’re dealing with DOMS, restricting your movement is the way to go.
Take recovery supplements
There are supplements that you can use to boost the recovery process of your muscles. You can boost recovery by allowing more blood to flow into the affected area. The best muscle building supplements always have some form of blood flow boosters like NitroGenix 365. Take one pill of NitroGenix 365 on your workout days and even on your off days to optimize your recovery process.
