Recovering from Muscle Soreness Effectively

With fall in full swing, many of you are getting back into training. To help you better understand and recover efficiently and safely, here are a few tips to reduce post-workout soreness.

Let’s Clarify a Few Things

Let’s begin by debunking a common myth: muscle soreness is not caused by lactic acid. In fact, it’s the result of micro-tears in muscle fibers, as well as inflammation and swelling, which increase internal pressure in the muscles.

Training is essentially a series of microscopic injuries that stress your muscular system. Your body responds by adapting and becoming stronger in response to this stress.

However, training too aggressively, without a gradual build-up, can overload your muscles and tendons, leading to injury and possibly compromising your long-term training goals.

How to Ease Back into It

Ideally, start with a general workout plan and progressive overload: work with submaximal weights and choose compound exercises that engage multiple muscle groups. Gradually, and with the guidance of your kinesiologist at Centre Multisports, you’ll be able to increase load, vary reps, and explore new movements—safely.

Muscle soreness will always be a part of training, but it should remain mild, non-debilitating, and last no more than 2 to 4 days.

What Can Help?

There’s no magic cure, but here’s what might help:

• Warm up properly with targeted movements (e.g., a few squats before your run).
• Apply heat in the days following your workout to ease tension.
• Try low-intensity activity such as cycling to increase blood flow and promote recovery in sore areas.

Good luck with your return to fitness!