Executive Summary
Muscle fatigue develops during an intense exercise or activity as the muscles fail to generate enough force. Proper warmup, hydration, correct form and training help reduce muscle fatigue.
DOMS starts 12 hours after the activity is over and lasts for 1 to 3 days. It is due to inflammation caused by micro-injuries in exercised muscles. Rest, adequate sleep, hydration, proper nutrition, anti-inflammatory supplements, painkillers, massage, foam-rolling, ice packs and compression garments are some options. However, reducing inflammation can slow down muscle’s adaptation to better strength. Weigh the pros and cons.
If you have done an intense workout or participated in a race, you may have experienced muscle fatigue during the activity and muscle soreness afterwards. The two are caused by different factors and have separate strategies to prevent or manage. Since they share some similar symptoms, you should distinguish them first.
Strenuous Activity, Fatigue and Soreness
When you are performing a hard exercise, you may feel tired during the exercise. This inevitably leads to a slowdown and is called muscle fatigue.
Usually, this pain goes down once you stop exercising. But wait for 12–24 hours, and a different kind of pain comes back strongly. The muscles feel sore, with pain that peaks in 1–2 days and starts coming down after 2–3 days.
Controlling muscle soreness needs a different approach than managing muscle fatigue. Unfortunately, many sports experts confuse the two.
Muscle Fatigue
Muscle fatigue is defined as an exercise-induced decrease in the muscle’s ability to produce force. During a heavy round of exercise, your muscles feel weak and laden with weight. Fatigue is generally felt all over the body, not in a specific muscle. A complex interplay of neural activity, various body chemicals, blood oxygen supply and energy production is involved in fatigue development.
How To Prevent Muscle Fatigue
It is not possible to avoid muscle fatigue altogether as many sports need you to work through the fatigue stage. In a competition, you will be pushing your limits and likely face fatigue. But the following steps will allow you to extend the onset:
- Stretch the relevant muscles for 5 minutes before beginning the workout.
- Learn and use the correct form and controlled movements. You do not want sprains or tears, which injure the muscles, not improve them.
- Drink water or electrolyte-based drinks during exercise, the latter are better for longer-duration workouts.
- If you are doing practice, gradually increase the workload—start with lighter weights and as the muscles become stronger, increase them.
- In a race, sticking to a proper pace can help.
How To Treat Muscle Fatigue
Generally, muscle fatigue goes away after you stop the exercise. There is no need to do anything further. Take rest, sleep, eat good food and drink water and electrolyte-rich fluids. But these are generic things to do after any exercise.
If your fatigue does not go away even after a few days, seek medical help. You may have a vitamin or mineral deficiency or you may be suffering from a medical condition such as diabetes, anaemia, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia or hypothyroidism.
Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS)
Once the exercise is over, the muscle fatigue disappears within an hour. A relatively painless phase follows for 12 to 24 hours.
After that, a dull pain starts in specific muscles used in the activity. The muscles may feel stiff, with a smaller range of motion and painful, when stretched. They may feel tender to the touch and occasionally have swelling. Since this soreness develops after 12–24 hours, it is called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS).
What Causes DOMS?
When your muscles perform strong contractions during an exercise, some microfibres in them are torn. Effectively, your muscles are getting injured but that is not a negative thing. If these microtears are within a limit, they push the body to rebuild the muscles stronger. This is the process of exercise-induced adaptation and improvement, which is the typical goal of such a workout.
DOMS is not caused by the microtears but by their aftereffects. Otherwise, the muscles won’t be relatively pain-free for 12–24 hours after you finish your exercise.
Is DOMS Good or Bad?
The damaged cells in micro-torn muscles secrete certain inflammatory chemicals, some of which rightly summon the body’s clean-up cells (neutrophils and macrophages) to remove the cell debris. This can cause muscle tenderness and swelling. You don’t want this part to be eliminated as otherwise, your muscles will not become stronger.
However, some of the toxic compounds may destroy nearby healthy cells by altering their proteins, fats and DNA. This is the collateral damage that you can try to minimise with the treatment strategies discussed below.
How To Reduce DOMS
Usually, DOMS goes away in 2–3 days after the activity. However, a few steps are found to help recovery from DOMS faster:
- Rest the muscles. You can do light activities but no heavy workouts.
- Sleep helps; get longer than normal sleep to help faster recovery.
- Eat proteins, good fats, vegetables and fruits and complex carbohydrates.
- Consume anti-inflammatory foods.
- Anti-inflammatory supplements such as turmeric (curcumin) or fish oil are found to reduce DOMS faster.
- If the pain is very severe, consider taking anti-inflammatory medicines. However, don’t make it a habit to take NSAID painkillers for aches and pains, unless absolutely needed. Read on this Website: How NSAID Painkillers Cause Stomach Ulcers.
- Drink plenty of water or electrolyte-rich fluids. Avoid coffee, tea and other caffeine-rich beverages that act as diuretics, eliminating water from the body.
- Consider ways to increase blood circulation to the damaged muscles, helping remove inflammatory chemicals that cause pain and bring blood rich in oxygen and nutrients:
- Ice Packs reduce the blood flow to the muscle and after they are removed, the warming brings back nutrient-rich blood. Some experts advise warm water baths but in increased inflammation situations, it is best to avoid them. Read on this website: Cold-Water Baths & Ice Baths: Do You Need Them Post-Exercise?
- Massage is found to be useful but the masseur should have expertise in sports-related massage; otherwise, you run a risk of further injuring the muscles.
- Foam Rolling is a poor man’s massage. Fatigued muscles recover faster when foam-rolled.
- Compression garments are found to help by pushing the blood from the muscle back through the veins to the heart.
If the DOMS-related soreness does not go away for more than 4 to 5 days, seek help. You may have torn the muscle or have a different problem than just soreness.
Do not overdo the recovery part from DOMS. It is meant to signal your body to improve your muscles’ ability. The purpose of treatment is to avoid unnecessary damage to the normal part of the muscle (in professional athletes) and to get back to normal life faster (for amateur sportspersons).
To Read More
- Houston Methodist: Muscle Soreness After a Workout: Can It Be Prevented?
- GoodRx Health: Can You Prevent Muscle Fatigue?
- American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM): Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS)
- MedicalNewsToday: What is delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS)?
- National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM): Muscle Soreness & DOMS: How to Prevent & Treat Sore Muscles
- Physiopedia: Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS)
- Healthline: What Is Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) and What Can You Do About It?
First Published on: 24th February 2024
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