Why are my muscles sore after exercise? Hint: it’s nothing to do with lactic acid

As a lot of us hit the gym or go for a run to recuperate from the silly season, you would possibly notice a bit of additional muscle soreness.

This is very true if it has been some time between workouts.

A typical misunderstanding is that such soreness is attributable to lactic acid build-up within the muscles.

Research, nevertheless, shows lactic acid has nothing to do with it. The reality is much more interesting, but additionally a bit more complex.

It’s not lactic acid

We’ve known for a long time that lactic acid has nothing to do with muscle soreness after exercise.

In reality, as one in every of us (Robert Andrew Robergs) has long argued, cells produce lactate, not lactic acid. This process actually opposes not causes the build-up of acid within the muscles and bloodstream.

Unfortunately, historical inertia means people still use the term “lactic acid” in relation to exercise.

Lactate doesn’t cause major problems for the muscles you utilize if you exercise. You’d probably be worse off without it attributable to other advantages to your working muscles.

Lactate isn’t the explanation you’re sore just a few days after upping your weights or exercising after a protracted break.

So, if it’s not lactic acid and it’s not lactate, what’s causing all that muscle soreness?

Muscle pain during and after exercise

Once you exercise, quite a lot of chemical reactions occur in your muscle cells. All these chemical reactions accumulate products and by-products which cause water to enter into the cells.

That causes the pressure inside and between muscle cells to extend.

This pressure, combined with the movement of molecules from the muscle cells can stimulate nerve endings and cause discomfort during exercise.

The pain and discomfort you sometimes feel hours to days after an unfamiliar type or amount of exercise has a special list of causes.

If you happen to exercise beyond your usual level or routine, you possibly can cause microscopic damage to your muscles and their connections to tendons.

Such damage causes the discharge of ions and other molecules from the muscles, causing localised swelling and stimulation of nerve endings.

This is usually often called “delayed onset muscle soreness” or DOMS.

While the damage occurs throughout the exercise, the resulting response to the injury builds over the following one to 2 days (longer if the damage is severe). This could sometimes cause pain and difficulty with normal movement.

The upshot

Research is evident; the discomfort from delayed onset muscle soreness has nothing to do with lactate or lactic acid.

The excellent news, though, is that your muscles adapt rapidly to the activity that will initially cause delayed onset muscle soreness.

So, assuming you don’t wait too long (greater than roughly two weeks) before being lively again, the following time you do the identical activity there might be much less damage and discomfort.

If you will have an exercise goal (akin to doing a selected hike or completing a half-marathon), ensure it’s realistic and you could work as much as it by training over several months.

Such training will step by step construct the muscle adaptations needed to stop delayed onset muscle soreness. And being less wrecked by exercise makes it more enjoyable and less difficult to keep on with a routine or habit.

Finally, remove “lactic acid” out of your exercise vocabulary. Its supposed role in muscle soreness is a myth that’s hung around far too long already.