Sore muscles – Nothing to worry about as there can be many factors that can contribute to being sore after a workout.

Typically muscle soreness is a result from muscle contractions that happen throughout a workout, either eccentric (when a muscle lengthens), concentric (when a muscle shortens) or isometric (does not change length, holding a weight).

But they only get sore 2-3 days later?

The soreness that is presented days after the workout is called ‘delayed onset muscle soreness’ (DOMS), which is a result of micro tears to the muscle fibres. When the force presented against the muscle is new or the load is much greater than normal, the muscles will become inflamed as a response. DOMS gradually subside and have no lasting effects as you become more frequent with exercise.

Does getting DOMS mean I’m building more muscle?

Short answer is: No.

Though it does give us some satisfaction and belief that having sore muscles post-workout proposes that you’ll be building more muscle oppose to if you weren’t sore. This isn’t the case and in-fact muscle growth occurs not in the gym when we’re exercising, but when we’re resting and paying attention to other factors of growth such as; nutrition and sleep which play a major role in the repair of broken muscle cells.

Are sore muscles going to be always this painful?

While it may feel uncomfortable to go through DOMS, the fact of the matter is that this is a process that you have to go through when you are training hard in the gym, looking to achieve great results. After about 2-3 weeks of sticking to a efficient training plan, you will begin to recover much quicker and be presented with less muscle soreness after working out. To reduce the severity and longevity of DOMS the following suggestions need to be followed:

• Take exercise slow, if you are a beginner you should build yourself up slowly with exercise starting with 3-4 days of training with a day rest in-between.
• Practice safe stretching techniques before and after working out.
• Make sure do a thorough cool-down following your workout, this will also prevent injuries to occur.
• Make sure you allow 48-72 hours before training the sore muscle group again.