After your morning exercise, it may be common to feel discomfort in your muscles. This uncomfortable sensation is called muscle soreness, and it is often associated with a stressed feeling in the muscles after a physical activity. When we exercise, we are applying stress to our muscles; the activity would then cause a side effect to our muscles.
As natural as it seems, having muscle soreness is indeed a troublesome experience. The level of soreness also varies depending on the amount of stress applied to the muscles. Some situations show a more painful experience, wherein moving the body would seem to be a challenging task. With all these said, we might come to think of a more practical way to perform our morning exercise without the consequence of having muscle soreness.
Interestingly, over the years, experts have already developed ways to fight muscle soreness. Preventing them entirely may not be the solution, but reducing the pain could at least solve the problem. There are various methods on how to reduce muscle soreness; it could range from physical to medical solutions. In this article, we are going to look into the list of tips for reducing muscle soreness.
Warm up
First on the list is something we should have already known since we were kids. A simple warm up exercise before performing any physical activities should help in reducing muscle soreness. By doing a warm up exercise, you are ‘warming up’ your muscles and increasing blood flow. This practice helps in conditioning your body before a workout or any other physical activities; it includes simple activities, such as jogging, jumping ropes, and so on. Warming up the body prior to a workout may not completely avoid muscle soreness, but it does help in reducing the side effects after.
Be mindful of the proper workout techniques
One of the most common causes of muscle soreness is improper workout techniques. Even if you only do light workouts, if you don’t practice the correct way of moving your body, muscle soreness is inevitable; it could also lead to muscle strains, as well as injuries. If you are unsure of the proper workout techniques, you could always learn from the experts. Go to your local gym and enroll in a class where a certified instructor could guide you. In addition to this, there are tons of paid courses and e-books online, which shows the proper workout techniques.
Drink water
Most of us probably know the numerous benefits of drinking water. Drinking water is recommended by experts to improve our overall health. It gives various effects to our body, which includes flushing toxins from our bladder; it aids in digestion; protecting our organs and tissues; it carries nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and many more. Interestingly, drinking water also helps control our body temperature; this factor contributes in reducing muscle soreness. Without properly hydrating ourselves, our body would feel very uncomfortable after a workout. Muscle soreness is not the only thing that you would experience; you could also feel fatigue, dizziness, and so on. Picking the right water bottle for your needs can help make it easy to stay hydrated.
Continue to move your body
It may sound weird for some people, but one way to help reducing muscle soreness is to keep on moving your body after a workout. Moving your body does not mean performing heavy tasks; it only includes light tasks, such as walking and lifting light objects. This practice significantly helps in recovering the muscles after a vigorous workout. The muscle soreness is still in there, but you could feel a dramatic improvement in the muscles.
Don’t overdo yourself
Some gym enthusiasts’ most common mistake is to do an intense workout and push themselves way beyond their limits. Dedication and perseverance are great traits to possess when doing a workout, but pushing ourselves too hard might not lead to excellent results. One thing to remember when performing your daily workout is that our bodies have limits. If you are not mindful of these limits, your workout would only lead to poor outcome, and worse, your body might suffer from injuries. So, the next time you do your daily workout, always make sure to take it slowly and don’t overdo it to prevent unpleasing consequences.