How to relieve muscle soreness after exercise?

Generally, people will experience muscle soreness within twelve to forty-eight hours after exercise. If it is the first training and the person has not adapted to the exercise, the situation will be more serious. This situation has a scientific name: delayed onset muscle soreness. The reason for this situation is not only the accumulation of lactic acid, but also the destruction of the muscle's microstructure after training. In this situation, what should we do to relieve the muscle soreness caused by exercise?

1. Cold compress in the early stage

Immediately after heavy weight training, use ice packs to cool the target muscles. Generally, the cold compress lasts for 10 to 15 minutes. Place clothing or towels between the ice pack and the skin to prevent frostbite. Or a cold shower. The national weightlifting team has a special ice and snow room in the General Administration of Sports' Heavy Duty Arena. After heavy weight training, the national team players go directly into the ice and snow room with a temperature set at 0 degrees in their underwear in order to speed up their recovery.

2. Nutritional supplements

Consuming a large amount of carbohydrates within 2 hours after training can help restore muscle glycogen levels, so you should have a meal within 2 hours after training. There is no need to take supplements for general fitness training. Just make sure to replenish carbohydrates in a timely manner, eat more fruits and vegetables, and supplement food protein.

3. Strengthen stretching

It is mainly to stretch the sore muscles 12 hours after training, or when training other items the next day.

4. Acid removal training

Acid removal training is the training to remove excess lactic acid from muscles.

Training conditions: This training needs to be performed 24 to 48 hours after exercise. If the muscles are still sore at this time, acid-removal training should be performed on the basis of excluding muscle strain and soft tissue injury.

The principle of acid removal training: use slow muscle movements throughout the entire range to increase blood circulation in the painful area, especially to increase blood circulation deep in the muscles in the painful area, clear out lactic acid accumulated in the leg muscles, and ultimately achieve the purpose of relieving pain and increasing recovery speed.

The location of muscle soreness after training varies due to different training methods, so the acid-removal training methods for different muscle soreness are also different. Let me give you a practical example of the sore thigh muscles that often occur the day after your first mountain climb. This method is also suitable for middle-aged and elderly people.

If the muscle soreness is caused by the damage to the muscle microstructure, remember not to take a hot bath or apply hot compress after training. This will accelerate the injured muscles and blood circulation, thereby making the damage more serious. In addition, the soreness will definitely worsen the next day. Not only will the soreness worsen, but it will also increase fatigue and make you sleepy easily.