As a personal trainer with Endless Possibilities located in Omaha, one question I get often mainly from women; “Is muscle soreness normal?” When going from the couch to a workout plan or even if you work out on a normal schedule but increase the intensity of your strength training you will feel the change in your body. You will have muscles awaken in your workout that you didn’t even know you had.
The muscle soreness you might experience after a workout session is called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). A certain percentage of soreness is normal and with time it will go away. When it comes to DOMS I always tell my clients to trust their bodies, not their minds. When you start a workout program you are testing your body in a lot of new ways. I am assisting you to push your body to the point of strength it can accomplish. For example: When you are performing an exercise and your body tells your brain you are tired, you want to stop. As your certified weight trainer, I am there with you to motivate you to accomplish 5 more. Once you achieve the 5 more you realize you can give me 5 more after that. Going past the point your mind told your body to stop, but you keep going is called your Aerobic Threshold. When done right you are basically telling your brain to tell your body, “Yes, I can do this!” And you do it. After a workout where you meet and surpassed your aerobic threshold, you have successfully maximized your energy. You will more than likely become sore as your muscles have been awakened, weakened and now they will rebuild themselves and become stronger.
If you do experience Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), as a personal trainer located in Omaha, NE I recommend drinking a lot of water. Stay away from caffeine or minimize it while you are sore as it is a dietetic and will eliminate the water you are consuming. Eat a banana a day, depending on your body I would suggest heat or ice (people react different to temperature methods). Stretch often, at our fitness center we use foam rollers, and most importantly keep moving. Many times people mistake DOMS for something more serious than it is. Trust me, your body is intelligent enough to know when you have seriously hurt something and it will scream, “stop you idiot!”.
If you have any additional questions regarding Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, how to hire a weight trainer or want to learn some of the stretching techniques we use to help reduce the soreness contact us! We would be happy to help you.