Muscle Soreness After a Workout Sounds Really Disgusting in Science Terms

As True Blood’s Joe Manganiello is demonstrating for us over to the left, people work out. Anyone who has worked out before has experienced a bit of muscle soreness a day or two after the workout. Personally, I’m a two days later kind of guy. When one goes that extra distance and works out much more intensely than one normally does, they don’t experience a mild muscle soreness, but Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), a type of extreme pain and stiffness in one’s muscles that can severely impair the person over the next few days, preventing them from being able to walk up some stairs or even exert enough pressure to dry off with a towel after a shower. This is all common, and people generally experience this type of soreness, for example, after their first few sessions with a physical trainer.

However, what isn’t exactly common is how science describes Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. It is terrifying and disgusting.

Dan Carl, assistant professor of clinical rehabilitative sciences at UC’s College of Allied Health Sciences, says DOMS is, for the most part, unavoidable.

“When you’re truly working the muscle, DOMS is inevitable.

You’re creating microtrauma at the individual fiber level, so you’re actually creating tears and disruption in the protein itself.”

On top of willingly creating microtrauma in your own body, the tears that are being created cause calcium to leak out, which causes a further breakdown of the disrupted protein, but also a stimulation of the body’s inflammatory repair response, which rebuilds the torn fibers in the muscle, making them bigger and stronger. So, while this is simply describing the basic process of how we build muscle, it is horrifying when put into the terms of what the body is actually doing.

Seriously: When you work out, you are willingly creating microtrauma by creating tears in your body’s protein, which in turn begins leaking calcium inside your body. “Nah guys, I can’t come out after work. I have to go make my body suffer microtrauma so calcium leaks out. I’ll catch y’all tomorrow.”

(via Medical Xpress)

Relevant to your interests

• But hey, a least you can eat Twinkies to help gain muscle
• Or maybe take some mustard steroids

Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com

Author

Close

James Plafke