Muscle Soreness
Is it normal for your muscles to feel sore for
several days after a workout?
After you’ve exercised vigorously, your muscles
may feel fine, but they usually feel sore the next morning. This is called
Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), and it is caused by damage to muscle
fibers. A study from the University of Zurich helps to explain why
it takes days for muscles to recover from hard exercise. Muscles store sugar
as glycogen in their fibers for energy, and this study shows that
for the first few hours after hard exercise, muscles continue to
lose glycogen.
Since recovery depends on refilling muscles with
stored glycogen as soon as possible after hard exercise, athletes
should eat a high-carbohydrate, high protein meal as soon as
possible after a hard workout and then take easy workouts for as
many days as it takes for the soreness to go away. Taking
another hard workout while the muscles feel sore increases risk
for injures, so you should follow your hard workouts with easy
days or days off until the soreness goes away.
European Journal of Nutrition, June 2004
Checked 9/29/08