What Causes Muscular Soreness?
First, let s recognize that there are basically two types of exercise-related muscle soreness. Immediate muscle soreness quickly dissipates and is the pain you feel during, or immediately after, exercise. Delayed muscle soreness signals a natural adaptive process that the body initiates following intense exercise. It manifests itself 24 to 48 hours after your exercise session and mysteriously and spontaneously decreases after about 72 hours. Numerous studies have been conducted to determine the cause of delayed muscle soreness, and theories have been many and controversial. The most current research attributes DOMS to microscopic tears in the muscle and surrounding connective tissue following eccentric exercise. Now eccentric here doesn t mean like your weird aunt Agnes ; it has a special meaning in exercise: An eccentric movement is when the muscles lengthen to control a specific resistance movement. For example, while performing a biceps curl, the biceps muscle shortens during the co