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Who hasn't felt pain after exercising, especially when starting a physical activity? Pain is unavoidable for both beginners and athletes, but the important thing is to know to what extent it is considered normal or if it is becoming harmful.
If you are a beginner, if you have not exercised for a long time, any activity will cause muscle pain the next day and may last for up to two more days. This is because the organism needs time to adapt to new efforts.
In the muscular system, there will be microruptures in the muscle groups requested during exercise and accumulation of lactic acid, generating a defense process in the body that leads to an inflammatory process. In addition to the muscular part, you will also feel new adaptations in other systems such as the metabolic, cardiovascular, etc.
If you do the same workout for a certain period (on average 2 to 3 months) your body will adapt to the intensity of the exercise done and this pain will gradually disappear.
But whenever you do physical exercises or different physical activities or increase the intensity of the exercises you are already doing or even stay a while without doing the exercises and return to them providing new stimuli to the body, this pain will appear.
The more intense workouts will make this more likely to happen, so athletes also learn to live with pain and avoid injury. It's not that you have to feel pain to do exercises, and that they have an effect, in fact, if you feel pain during exercise it's a sign that you're pushing beyond what you should or that it's time to stop and reduce the pace or intensity of the exercise.
Now it all depends on your goal. If you want to improve your performance, increase your muscle mass and improve your cardiorespiratory conditioning, you will have to work with limits and more intense training, which can cause muscle pain in the days following the exercise performed.
If you trained and felt pain the next day, try to train other muscle groups or do activities with less intensity so as not to make the situation worse. That's why it's very important to do a physical assessment before starting the exercises and know exactly your conditioning level, working properly with the right intensity that can improve your performance without causing injuries, respecting your limit.
Making ice packs, which is an anti-inflammatory process, can help reduce inflammation in the muscles. Do at least 2x a day for 10 minutes.
Some people need to take an anti-inflammatory, but in these cases it is essential that a doctor prescribe the best medicine for you.
Do not forget to do a lot of stretching before and after the exercises, as these also help to relax the musculature after the effort.
Respect the rest period by not training the same muscle group on consecutive days or alternating intense activities with moderate activities on consecutive days.
How to avoid muscle injuries
When we exercise, our body increases muscle temperature and the use of muscles causes micro-injuries in tissues. This causes the muscles to contract and become sore. The recovery process is necessary for the muscle to be able to recover and become stronger. When muscle fatigue occurs, it means that the muscle has suffered micro-injuries and needs time to recover. Therefore, it is normal to feel pain in your muscles after performing an intense workout.
To prevent muscle injuries, it is important to follow some basic tips:
1. Stretch before and after exercise. This helps maintain muscle flexibility.
2. Warm up your muscles before exercising. Some activities include light stretching to warm up the muscles.
3. Avoid overloading your muscles with very intense exercise. Increasing exercise intensity gradually is better than increasing it all at once.
4. Use correct exercise techniques. This helps reduce the risk of injury.
5. Use proper equipment, such as shoes suitable for the type of exercise.
6. Drink water often to avoid dehydration.
7. Respect your body's limits. If you feel pain or discomfort during an exercise, stop and rest.
If you're in a lot of pain, don't train. Take a rest!
Good exercises!