Causes of Muscle Soreness
Why do some types of exercise seem to cause
more muscle soreness than others?
Hard exercise tears your muscle fibers to shreds. If a
researcher cuts out a piece of your muscle on the day after you
exercise vigorously and looks at it under a microscope, he will
see bleeding and disruption of filaments that hold the fibers
together as they slide over each other during a contraction.
Muscles contain chemicals called enzymes that help you
to convert foodstuffs to energy. When muscles are damaged by
hard exercise, they release enzymes, such as CPK, into the
bloodstream. Doctors can then measure levels of CPK enzymes
in the bloodstream to determine how badly muscles are
damaged. Those exercisers with the highest post-exercise blood
levels of CPK also have the most muscle soreness. Running
fast downhill and lifting very heavy weights cause more
post-exercise soreness than other exercises because they cause
the most muscle damage; they also take the longest time for
recovery.
You can prevent muscle soreness by stopping exercising
when your muscles start to feel sore, but then you will not
improve. All athletic training is done by stressing your muscles
with a hard workout, taking easy workouts until the soreness
disappears, and then taking another hard workout.
Checked 9/29/08