Have you ever felt sore after starting a new activity? Or maybe you’ve been pushing yourself harder than usual during a workout?
Muscle tension is not only inconvenient and uncomfortable, but it can also hinder movement. Worst of all, they can make it more difficult to keep to your exercise routine. It will be easier to keep exercising if you understand how to manage and prevent tight muscles. Muscles can become tense for a variety of causes. Muscle tightness is very common after an intense workout or even after prolonged periods of inactivity.
Muscle soreness that shows up one or two days after exercising can affect anyone, regardless of your fitness level. But do not be put off! This type of muscle stiffness or achiness is normal, does not last long, and is a sign of progress with your fitness. Sore muscles after physical activity, known as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), can occur when you start a new exercise programme, change your exercise routine, or increase the duration or intensity of your regular workout. When muscles are required to work harder than they’re used to or in a different way, it’s caused by microscopic damage to the muscle fibres, resulting in muscle soreness or stiffness. DOMS is often mistakenly believed to be caused by a build-up of lactic acid, but lactic acid is not involved in this process.
How can I treat DOMS?
There’s no one simple way to treat DOMS. Nothing is proven to be completely effective.
These things may help ease some of the symptoms:
DOMS does not generally require immediate medical intervention. But you should seek medical advice if the pain becomes unbearable or you experience severe swelling.
Or if you would like to recover quicker seeing a therapist for a sports massage will significantly help.
How can I prevent DOMS?
One of the best ways to prevent DOMS is to start any new activity programme gently and gradually. Allowing the muscle time to adapt to new movements should help minimise soreness. Having a good mobility routine to stretch and loosen up your muscles can also help with your recovery.
So, what causes muscle tightness?
During periods of prolonged inactivity, for example, long days and weeks working at a desk, working at a desk, some muscles can get tight as a result of their restricted movement. When you are seated at a desk, your hips are in a bent, or flexed, position. This puts the muscles on the front of the hip (hip flexors) in a shortened position, and the muscles on the back of the hip (glutes) in a lengthened position. In addition, as you sit at a desk reaching forward to work on a computer, your chest muscles (pectorals) will be in a shortened position, while your upper back muscles (rhomboids) will be in a lengthened position. Over time, this can result in muscle imbalances, with the shortened muscles becoming “tight” and the lengthened muscles becoming weak.
If you look around you, you’ll notice many people have developed poor posture with forward rounded shoulders and underdeveloped glutes. The key to preventing this tightness due to decreased range of motion is three-fold. It is important to maintain proper posture, even while seated. You should also specifically strengthen those small muscles which have become lengthened and weak. Lastly, you should make sure to stretch the tightened muscles, specifically the chest and hip flexors.
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