What is sore throat and what are its symptoms?
Why do we feel muscle pain after exercise?How to alleviate your condition?In what cases should you consult a doctor?What helps prevent the appearance of sore throat?
So, you've decided to exercise and become a little healthier and slimmer. Your first workout was productive and fun, leaving home you are proud of yourself. Go to bed with this feeling, and in the morning you can hardly lift your toothbrush to brush your teeth. Sound familiar? Many questions arise: “What happened? Did I do something wrong? Was there too much workload? Don't let the sore throat confuse and scare you! Everyone who engages in any physical activity has experienced muscle pain at least once. We'll tell you everything you need to know about it.
What is sore throat and what are its symptoms?
Krepatura is muscle pain associated with physical activity. Develops after excessive or unusual exercise, including eccentric exercise. These include push-ups, pull-ups, weighted squats, dumbbell up presses and other complexes that involve muscle contraction while lengthening.
Types of muscle contractions
Krepatura is caused by microscopic damage to muscle fibers, which leads to painful sensations.
Symptoms include the following:
- severe muscle pain and fatigue
- decreased range of motion and stiffness
- swelling of the affected muscles
- short-term loss of muscle strength
Regardless of fitness level, soreness can be felt by anyone who begins a new exercise program, increases its duration or intensity, or uses weights that the body is not accustomed to.
The soreness usually lasts from 3 to 5 days. And pain occurs 1 or 2 days after training.
What is muscle soreness?
Most people who train, at one time or another, experience muscle pain that occurs after exercise. Let’s immediately make a reservation that in this material we will not analyze pain caused by injuries to the joint-muscular system, but will touch on a condition that in sports science is called muscle soreness. Such pain usually occurs 20-25 hours after training and can last up to seven days, gradually decreasing. Most often, the pain goes away completely within two to three days. During the golden era of bodybuilding, muscle pain received a lot of attention. Arnold's famous saying, “No pain, no gain.” What does science know about this today?
Why do we feel pain after exercise?
There is a myth that sore throat occurs due to the accumulation of lactic acid. Allegedly, it clogs the muscles and affects blood flow. In fact, the acid remains in the body for up to half an hour, and then is safely eliminated, which indicates that such a hypothesis is unfounded.
The fact is that weight training and eccentric exercises cause micro-tears in muscle fibers, which provoke increased blood flow and minor inflammation (you may even notice a little swelling). This stimulates pain receptors in muscle cells and makes them more sensitive to movement. It sounds scary, but in reality there is nothing dangerous about it. The muscle damage is temporary. They recover and become stronger, withstanding heavier loads. This is an integral part of the adaptation process, which applies to both amateurs and experienced athletes. Soreness decreases as the muscles get used to the new physical activity.
Pain varies
Those who go to work out know that there are two types of pain: the burning of muscles during an intense workout and the pain that occurs the day after visiting the gym. In the first case, the pain is associated with the production of lactic acid. The latter occurs in the body when the muscles lack oxygen due to intense exercise.
“Lactic acid acts as a kind of intermediate product, a mediator in energy processes: it is easier for the body to use it than glucose. If the workout is very intense, then the level of lactic acid production increases, and it has the property of splitting off hydrogen ions. It is he who “burns” your muscles,” Rzhevtseva explained.
According to the expert, the pain that appears the next day is more likely due to damage to muscle fibers during training and their inflammation.
Article on the topic
Go to the gym with a smile. What is smart fitness?
Is soreness a sign of a good workout?
Some people think that if you don't feel very sore and exhausted after a workout, you shouldn't expect good results. As they say, “no pain, no gain.” Is it so?
No . When you start a new workout or add additional loads, soreness is inevitable. But the longer you practice the same pattern and the more muscles you use, the better your body adapts.
Exercises become less painful, but this in no way means that you are not training hard enough. When muscles get used to a certain stress, they quickly adapt and stop overreacting.
If you frequently suffer from muscle pain and stiffness, you may need to add more rest days or reconsider the intensity or duration of your workouts, otherwise you may be at risk of overtraining
.
What is overtraining and how does it manifest itself?
Just a month ago, you did everything to not miss a workout. In the literal sense of the word, they ran to the gym, favorite studio, arena, stadium or park. At some point, it might seem to you that the result has stopped improving, the tasks have become too easy to complete, and following these thoughts, motivation has disappeared. At such moments, inadequate goals are born in the head and a desire appears to jump above one's head - suddenly run a marathon, lift too much weight, or perform 4 sets instead of the usual two. As a rule, overtraining is observed during this period. It is also accompanied by emotional swings, fatigue, irritability, tachycardia, etc. Overtraining can be functional, sympathetic or parasympathetic.
Take a simple test that Finnish physiotherapist Heikki Rusko developed for skiers. Put on the heart rate monitor and lie down in a comfortable position. After 10 minutes, record your pulse while lying down. Then stand up and check your pulse again after 15 seconds, then after 60 and 120 seconds. You will get four indicators. If the difference between the first and fourth measurements is 10 beats or more, you have not recovered enough or are overtrained.
It can be treated simply - rest and moderate exercise. But it is better not to allow such a state to occur in the first place.
Is it possible to exercise during a fever?
Typically, training programs are designed to allow 1 to 2 days between workouts for muscle recovery.
Don't do exercises on muscle groups that hurt. Do a leg workout on one day and an upper body workout on the next to avoid full-body soreness.
Do you need to exercise when you have sore throat?
How to determine a gap?
As already mentioned, most often the biceps muscle hurts due to ruptures that occur due to excessive physical exertion. Determining the occurrence of a rupture is quite simple, because this pathology is manifested by characteristic symptoms, represented by:
- Sometimes an audible click or crunch that can be noticed at the moment of rupture.
- The unexpected appearance of acute painful sensations in the shoulder. Subsequently, there is a gradual decrease in pain and its complete disappearance after 3 weeks from the moment of injury.
- Pain and discomfort that is felt when trying to tense the muscles.
- The appearance of bruises on the shoulder from the front side. After 2-3 days, you can observe a gradual movement of the bruise, which expands and can reach the hand.
- When palpating the muscle, characteristic soreness is also noted.
- Weakness in the movements of the shoulder and elbow joints.
- Difficulty turning the forearm.
Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to independently determine an injury, because this requires a qualified approach. Therefore, it is highly recommended to consult a doctor if your biceps hurt. This should be done immediately to make you feel better and ensure proper recovery.
We recommend reading: Hatha yoga - strength fitness training to reunite mind and body
How to relieve muscle pain after exercise?
When your whole body aches and your limbs have difficulty lifting and turning, it is tempting to rest and avoid any exercise. The reaction is understandable, but wrong, since immobility will only increase pain and stiffness, rather than ease it. This does not mean that you need to overstep yourself and do intense exercise. Small exercises throughout the day are enough. Yoga, moderate walking, cycling or swimming are great options to relieve pain.
In general, the best cure for sore throat is time.
Helper Methods
There is no clear way to treat sore throat, but it is possible to ease the pain. This is actively used by both professional athletes and amateurs.
Massage
Several overseas studies have shown that people who received massage 24 or 48 hours after an intense workout reported significantly less muscle soreness compared to those who did not. Massage was found to be most effective 48 hours after exercise.
Self-massage of painful areas helps: arms, legs, buttocks, shoulders, as well as the use of a foam roller (they are also called rollers). The roller helps relieve tension, improves blood circulation and prevents muscle spasms.
Self-massage of muscles using a roller
Analgesics
Analgesics are medications intended for pain relief. The first to come to mind are Analgin and Aspirin, but there are also more suitable non-steroidal options - Ibuprofen.
You can also use external ointments and gels that contain menthol, capsaicin, methyl salicylate and are applied topically to the skin.
It is important to strictly follow the instructions on the packaging and understand that such products will not give anything other than pain relief. They will not make muscles work better, will not speed up recovery, and will not prevent the appearance of sore throat in the future.
Cold bath
A 2021 study claims that immersing the whole body in a cold water bath (10-15°C) for 10-15 minutes reduces muscle pain.
This is one of the most popular self-medication methods among athletes. Also, some of them apply ice bags to the painful points.
If ice water is too extreme for you, try warm water or wet wraps.
Anti-inflammatory foods
Diet matters too. The more you consume foods rich in vitamins A, C and E, the better your body will tolerate stress. Foods useful for recovery: eggs, cinnamon, starchy vegetables, fish, fruits with a high glycemic index, as well as dark fruits (cherries, blueberries, cherries, etc.).
Is it possible to play sports if your muscles hurt after training - Movement is life
Muscle pain after training is known to everyone who started playing sports after a long break, or changed the program or type of physical activity. This kind of pain is called “soreness.” It was previously believed that its cause was muscle acidification, but scientists soon refuted this assumption. What causes sore throat and is it possible to play sports if muscle pain does not go away?
What is muscle pain like?
Sports-related muscle pain comes in three types: traumatic, burning during exercise, and delayed muscle pain (soreness).
Traumatic pain is acute and occurs during or after training. It is usually described with the words “pulled a muscle” or “strained a ligament.” If you experience such pain, you must urgently complete the workout, relieve the pain syndrome, give yourself a complete rest from training, and, if necessary, consult a doctor.
A burning sensation occurs during physical activity due to the accumulation of lactic acid in the muscles, the concentration of which increases with each muscle contraction. For example, you perform biceps curls and feel a burning sensation in your muscles (calorizer). Towards the end of the approach it reaches its peak. After finishing the approach, you rest, and the burning goes away. Such pain is a natural reaction of the body.
Krepatura is a pain syndrome that occurs the next day after training. During sports, myofibrils rupture in the muscle fiber - the cells become inflamed and retain water. Water puts pressure on nerve endings and causes pain. To heal microtraumas, the body produces hormones and actively synthesizes protein. With each subsequent workout, the pain dulls and the muscles become stronger.
Is it possible to train with sore throat?
Whether to exercise with muscle pain or not depends on the intensity of the pain. If you have severe sore throat, training is not recommended. Firstly, sports should lead to progress, and not to pain and fatigue, and secondly, if unrecovered muscles are given another portion of excessive load, this will lead to overtraining or even the death of muscle fibers. It is necessary to find a middle ground between the need to receive microtraumas for further growth and normal well-being.
Use a 10-point scale to rate your readiness for training, where 0 means you feel no pain and 10 means the maximum intensity of the pain. If it hurts slightly - 3-4 points, then good - go train. If the pain is worse - 5-6 points, that’s also good, you can go to training (calorizator). And if you rate the pain as 7 points or higher, then rest or change the type of physical activity. You can exercise the muscles that don't hurt or do cardio. It is strictly forbidden to repeat the previous workout and load damaged muscles.
Calculate your ideal sports weight!
Krepatura is the case when too strong sensations and their complete absence are bad, and moderate sensations are good. After 2-3 weeks, you will adapt to the loads, increase your level of fitness, and instead of strong soreness, you will only have a pleasant heaviness.
In what cases should you consult a doctor?
You should seek medical help immediately if:
- your sore throat does not go away for more than 7 days
- urine has become too dark
- severe swelling appeared in the arms and legs
Krepatura can be a mild form of metabolic poisoning called rhabdomyolysis, or rhabdo for short. It occurs when large amounts of a protein called myoglobin enters the bloodstream. Myoglobin is responsible for storing oxygen in the body and affects the kidneys, including causing kidney damage or even failure.
Pain that lasts longer than a week, or is so severe that it interferes with full movement, indicates serious muscle problems that can lead to kidney damage. If the discomfort does not decrease and the urine has become dark (the color of black tea), this is an alarming sign indicating that an urgent medical examination is necessary.
Sometimes along with sore throat comes a slight increase in body temperature. As a rule, within 37+. There is nothing wrong with this if it lasts no more than a day.
Medical care for muscle pain
What helps prevent sore throat?
It is impossible to completely avoid sore throat, but there is a chance to reduce the intensity of muscle pain. What does that require?
- Stay hydrated. There are studies that show that muscle pain is significantly reduced by drinking water before, during and after exercise.
- Warm up. To warm up your muscles, spend 5 to 10 minutes before each workout doing some dynamic stretching exercises. This helps prepare the body for intense exercise and protects against possible injuries. Leave static stretching for the post-workout period, it helps increase flexibility in joints and muscles.
- Increase the load gradually. Take pity on your body and don't stress it with sudden changes in the amount and intensity of exercise. Increase sets, reps, and weight by no more than 10% per week. Build up your strength and endurance systematically.
Be patient! If you are taking the first steps on your sports path, start them with classes with a trainer. He will bring you up to date, write out an individual training plan and minimize the risks of injuries, including muscle pain. Half-hour classes at FitCurves provide optimal exercise and help you stay toned.
Why do muscles hurt after training?
It is not always possible to correctly distribute forces and adjust the load. Therefore, as the coach notes, microtraumas are not uncommon during training.
Elena Skoblova
Master trainer at the World Class gym
During exercise, micro-tears often occur in muscle fibers, which is where pain occurs.
This phenomenon is called sore throat. The term probably comes from the Italian verb crepa - “to crack”, because in fact it is the breaks that provoke unpleasant sensations.
Competent training: what exercises should you do first and why?
How to deal with sore throat and is it necessary?
