This post was inspired by the incredible muscle soreness I experienced this week after an insane back workout.

The dead lifts the trick.

Muscle soreness is a big issue for fitness beginner’s. Luckily for you, I’ve got a few tips and tricks for muscle soreness relief.

But… before we get into that, let’s take a look at what muscle soreness is, why do our muscles get sore?, is muscle soreness a good sign? and finally

how the hell to get get rid of it.

Why Do Our Muscles Get Sore?

It is commonly believed that muscle soreness is a result of built up lactic acid in your muscles. However, that is untrue! Muscle soreness is a very simple concept… when you workout, you damage muscle fibers. The damage muscle fibers become fatigued and weakened. As a result you will experience stiff and sore muscles until your body has done it’s magic and repaired the damaged muscle fibers.

Is Muscle Soreness A Good Sign?

When you get a kick ass workout in the next day you may be sore or you may not be sore. Like I mentioned in the beginning of this post, after a hard back workout with heavy dead lifts my entire body was aching. Was this a good sign? Not necessarily. It very well could have been a bad sign telling me that I over trained. However, I know my body and I knew it was just a result of a hard workout. I knew it wasn’t a bad sign and I didn’t injure myself. My body was extra sore simply because I had not done deadlifts in a while and my body was not used to doing them. That is when you will experience the most muscle soreness… when you do something that your body isn’t familiar with.

I know this is getting confusing… but the answer is simple; No. Muscle soreness is not an effective indicator of whether or not you got a good workout in. It’s simply your bodies way of telling you “Hey, I’m not used to that! What the hell is going on?”

I have had plenty of really great workouts where I did not feel sore the next day. And to be quite honest, I’ve had some really terrible workouts where I was sore the next day. I think the whole “If I’m sore it means I got an awesome workout in” is just a guy thing.

How To Get Rid of Muscle Soreness

1. Stretching - Post workout stretching is the simplest way to prevent next day muscle soreness and let’s be honest, most people don’t stretch nearly as much as they should. Try it out. If you’re anything like me your legs are killing the next day. Make sure to stretch your calves especially or you will be walking on your tippy toes.

2. Massage – If you’re married or in a relationship you’re in luck. You’ve got your own personal masseuses Seriously though, massages are a great way to releive sore muscles

3. Hot Showers/Baths - If you’ve never laid in a hot bath the night of a hard workout you’re missing out. Guys, baths aren’t only for women, but if you can’t get over the macho-syndrome then a hot shower will do. Better yet, do you have access to a hot tub? I wish I did.

4. Work it out – Gently work out your sore muscle and it will begin to relieve itself of any soreness. For me, calves are the worse muscle to get sore. I can barley walk… so what do I do? I walk… It gets the blood flowing and naturally stretches the sore muscle. Of course, I do it gently and start off slowly.

5. Work Out More - Remember when I said that your body is more likely to become sore when you perform unfamiliar exercises? If you familiarize your body with exercise and fitness what do you think is going to happen? In a few months you will not be half as sore as you used to be. When I first started training I remember my entire body aching when I was only working out 2-3 times each week. Now, I train 4-5x a week and soreness is not nearly as common as it used to be. To be perfectly honest, I only have to worry about muscle soreness when I train legs or when I decide to throw a curve ball at my body and do something unfamiliar or an exercise I haven’t done in a while (like the dead lifts)

That’s all I’ve got for relieving muscle soreness.

If you have got any muscle soreness relief tips or tricks I’d appreciate you letting me and all of the other readers know by leaving a comment. Thanks.

Tags: muscle soreness, muscle soreness relief, relieve muscle soreness, relieving muscle soreness, sore muscle, sore muscles

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 15th, 2009 at 3:56 pm and is filed under muscle soreness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.