While exercise is essential for health and fitness, can it reduce muscle soreness from intense workouts?
Muscle soreness is a sign of muscle damage from intense exercise, and the subsequent recovery process. CK is a byproduct from the body’s aerobic function.
Muscle soreness and recovery can be a normal part of high intensity exercise. However, you can reduce creatine kinase and lactic acid production to help reduce pain.
Proper nutrition and the right fitness habits can help reduce muscle soreness and pain after a workout. Continue reading to learn how to reduce muscle soreness.
What causes muscle soreness after a workout?
It’s no secret that intense exercise and workouts have many health benefits. But, what causes muscle pain after an intense workout?
There are many reasons that muscles feel pain after a workout. Some are unavoidable. Your muscles can become damaged or micro-ripped after you use them for strenuous exercise. This micro-muscle tear releases creatine kinase, and the recovery process causes muscle pain and soreness around the affected area.
Fluids, including lactic acid, can build up in muscle tissue and other areas, making them tighter, sore, and more painful.
What is Lactic Acid?
The natural side effect of intense training is lactic acid. It is essential for the proper functioning of our bodies. It serves three major functions:
- It is the primary source of energy for the mitochondria.
- It is a precursor to glucose production.
- It acts as a signaling molecule.
It forms in the lungs, so it is a normal part of your body. It can be produced in high-intensity, intensive aerobic exercise. Because your muscles require more oxygen during such workouts, this is why it happens.
Lactic acid builds up in the blood if your heart and lungs aren’t able to keep up with this demand. This causes muscles to become sore and adds to the discomfort caused by our bodies trying repair damaged muscle tissue.
How to Reduce Muscle Soreness
After high-intensity aerobic training sessions, you can reduce muscle soreness and pain. You can help your body reduce muscle pain and soreness by incorporating proper nutrition into your fitness routine. These are five methods to reduce muscle soreness.
1. Hydration Is Key
Hydration is an essential part of any fitness or health journey. The same goes for muscle recovery.
Your body’s fluids are maintained by the water you drink. This water helps to reduce inflammation, flush out fluids, nourish your body, and replenish your muscles. Water can also be used to flush out lactic acid buildup in your bloodstream.
But, it isn’t a reliable indicator of dehydration. You can’t depend on your thirst to tell you when to drink water. A good indicator of dehydration is your urine color. A deeper yellow color indicates possible dehydration.
The American Council on Exercise recommends drinking 16-24 ounces of water for each pound of bodyweight lost during a workout.
2. Good nutrition is important
Yes, nutrition is important in relieving the soreness that you feel after intense training. Certain types of nutritious food can provide the nutrients you need to speed up muscle recovery, reduce pain, and accelerate the healing process.
If you want to reduce muscle soreness, there are two types you need to be aware of: antioxidant-rich foods and protein-rich foods.
Your muscles’ recovery process is aided by protein. Protein plays an important role in building damaged muscle tissue. You can add carbohydrate-rich foods to your workout, in addition to protein. This will help replenish the energy you use for muscle contractions.
The International Society of Sports Nutrition recommends that you consume between 1.4 and 2 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight every day that you are physically active. It is possible to spread your protein intake evenly throughout the day.
Consuming foods rich in antioxidants can also help reduce muscle soreness. Antioxidant properties are found in many fruits, vegetables, legumes, and other foods that can help protect us from oxidative stress.
It has been suggested that antioxidants may help with muscle pain because they increase our body’s natural healing processes and have anti-inflammatory properties. You can eat pineapple, watermelon and tart cherry juice after a workout.
3. Supplementation
Muscle recovery is only possible with the help of supplementation. Supplementation, for example, can help bridge the gap if your body does not consume enough protein.
There are many supplements to choose from, so make sure you pick the ones that target your specific needs.
- Reduce lactic acid buildup
- reducing creatine kinase levels
- reduce inflammation
- Our muscles recover faster
- Assisting in the muscle healing process
Extreme endurance(r) is one such product. It provides many vitamins and minerals that help with muscle recovery. It also contains papain, black pepper fruit, calcium carbonate and magnesium. These minerals contribute to better muscle function, recovery, and athletic performance.
Extreme endurance(r) offers a lot. It has been shown to reduce lactic acid buildup by 26%, as well as reducing oxidative stresses by 39%, and reducing CK levels by 63.55% within a span of just 10 days. This can reduce muscle damage and improve the body’s performance. It can also lower inflammation and help to balance our body’s pH.
Supplementation with Extreme Endurance(r), increases the body’s aerobic threshold to 41% and boosts the body’s power wattage to between 10% and 25% at the same heart rate. It also increases VO2 max ability in as little as two weeks.
Extreme Endurance(r), the first US-based sports nutrition product to be certified drug-free was also certified by Informed Sports.
4. Foam rollers are a great option.
There are many physical ways to reduce muscle soreness other than nutrition. One well-known method is to use a foam roll.
Many people use a foam roller to relieve tension in their muscles and tendons. After a hard workout, this helps to move and disperse fluids such as lactic acids.
A 2015 International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy review revealed that SMR can improve circulation. Specific body parts receive more nutrients and oxygen, including damaged muscles. This will reduce swelling, soreness, or tenderness that you might feel after a workout.
5. Recovery Workouts
It seems counterintuitive to exercise to recover from previous workouts. But not all workouts are created equal. The recovery workouts are a series of exercises that are more intense than your primary high-octane sessions.
It’s not beneficial, but it is possible. In 2012, a study looked at women who exercised with low- or moderate intensity (in this instance, cycling) after a high-intensity workout. They felt less muscle pain and had an increase in their body strength.
Your blood flow can be increased through recovery exercises, which can help speed up the inflammation process. You can increase blood flow to your body and help it with lymphatic drainage.
How to help your body recover
To keep your body functioning properly, there are many fitness and nutrition factors that interact. This includes your body’s natural recovery function, which helps it heal the majority of the damage that it has done. Proper nutrition, hydration, and post-workout exercises can all help speed up your body’s healing process and reduce pain.
After a hard workout, you can avoid feeling sore and tired. You can speed up your body’s recovery by knowing how to take the right nutrients and performing some post-workout exercises. These tips can make a big difference in your workout.
