Muscle Aches!
This week, after all the aches and pains of the marathon, I thought that I would fill you in on all the secrets of how to stop and solve muscle pain. We have all had it, sometimes for days on end, so how do you get rid of it?
Ok well let’s look at what happens when you train:
Your muscles are made up of interconnected fibres. When you train you stretch and tear the fibres apart. That’s the burning sensation you feel!!! After training your muscles grow back together. That’s why food is so important, the better your food the better they grow back. Over the course of time your muscles grow back stronger and firmer.
So that’s what happens when you train. The next point to note is called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. This means that the pain you feel doesn’t kick in until 24-48 hours after you train. That is why you are always in pain 2 days after a tough workout.
Over the course of a few weeks your muscles will grow stronger and you may not get sore anymore. This means you need to step it up. What has happened is two fold: Your muscles have gotten used to the exercises you are doing and your body is recovering faster. This I found out myself recently when I couldn’t walk for 3 days after the mountain half marathon in Donegal.
Now you know all about why muscle pain happens lets look at how to help prevent and solve it. The most important element is stretching. You must stretch/warm down after your workout. The muscles need to cool down after a workout so always ease off at the end.
On your way home after a tough session , drop into the local chemist and purchase some EPSOM salts. They are possibly the cheapest and best way to relieve muscle ache. Simply pour a hot bath, put in 1 or 2 cup fulls of the salts and lie back for 30 minutes or so. The salts diffuse into your muscles and relax them like no other product can do, and you get to chill out in the bath after a hard day.
If your muscles are aching during the day, then purchase some tiger balm or deep heat. They both heat up the affected muscles and sink into the skin to relax them. They are especially good for back aches and leg aches.
If you are sore and have a training session booked in, the best thing you can do is get yourself to the gym and train. After the first 10 minutes your body will actually loosen up and you will be able to get in a great session.
Now you have no excuse not to train, these tips will relieve the muscle aches that you feel and means that keep training. So set those goals and train on……
