OnFitness Magazine - November/December 2021 - 66

WWW.ONFITNESSMAG.COM | VOL 22 NO 3 | 2021 66
Muscle Science
THEDOMS
ENIGMA
Lindsey Page
DOMS is the all too familiar delayed
onset muscle soreness that occurs fortyeight
to seventy-two hours after a novel
exercise bout. However, the cause of this
soreness has generated many theories as
to the origin of its occurrence and how
exactly this soreness could be curtailed
or prevented.
While there are some good theories on why we get sore after
novel exercise, there are some that are not accurate. The primary
inaccuracy is that lactate acid causes soreness. While it's true
lactate acid is a marker of fatigue and the cause of the burn felt
during intense exercise, it doesn't cause the soreness associated
with the muscle tenderness felt twenty-four to seventy-two hours
after working out.
The cause of soreness is not a metabolite but the very
structure of the muscle itself.
Skeletal muscle is made up of two filaments, myosin, and
actin, which are responsible for two familiar muscle movements:
shortening and lengthening the muscle while under tension.
Of course, isometrics is also a function of myosin and actin
interaction, but here the muscle is neither lengthening nor
shortening. These two filaments, myosin and actin, are the
machinery of muscle movement.
However, these two filaments don't just float around in the
muscle; they must be anchored. While a muscle is anchored to
bones through tendons, the actin and myosin filaments are equally
anchored by structural proteins inside the muscle.
The grouping of actin and myosin and the structures holding
them in place form contractile groups called sarcomeres. A
sarcomere can be thought of as a group of myosin and actin
anchored at two ends just like a muscle between bones attached
by a tendon.
However, instead of being attached to a tendon, the sarcomere
is attached to an adjacent sarcomere, and thus the contraction
strength of the muscle is formed.
Going back to delayed onset muscle soreness then, one
popular theory is that not all these sarcomeres have the same
structural strength and that in fact during exercise of
unaccustomed intensity or duration, some of these sarcomeres will
literally " pop " when placed under eccentric loading in particular.
Additionally, if a muscle has been shortened for a long period,
like when someone has been sitting on the couch for a year and
then is exercised at unaccustomed lengths and a higher intensity
than couch sitting, the weaker sarcomeres will essentially be
stretched and pulled apart.
The result of this destruction of the structural proteins is
debris just sitting in the muscle. However, this is where the
immune system steps in to clean up the mess.
After the damage has been created, the immune system will
send in macrophages and other cleanup artists to remove the
damaged tissue in the muscle and repair and build new
sarcomeres.
While the research is inconclusive, extra sarcomeres may be
inserted into the muscle, making the muscle longer and thus able
to stand the strain of moving at longer lengths like during walking
or running.
Additionally, with the removal of the weaker sarcomeres, the
stronger sarcomeres can split and thus form a muscle with only
strong sarcomeres, affording protection against soreness during
that particular exercise and intensity.
Such protection can last months; of course, if the activity or
intensity is novel the process will take place again.
How does all this popping and elongating help then when
writing a program? If your sedentary and delayed onset muscle
soreness is to be avoided, the intensity and duration of novel
movements should be low.
Resistance training should be relegated to one set of fewer
than eight repetitions at loads that could be done in fifteen
repetitions or more. Aerobic exercise should be limited to ten
minutes of lower intensity to limit the amount of muscle damage
that will occur.
It's impossible to totally eliminate soreness in an individual
who has truly been sedentary, but if adherence is a concern, then
the muscle damage must be limited. Of course, if the participant
doesn't care about soreness, then the progression can be advanced
in lieu of their current health status, age, etc.
In addition to the exercise prescription, there are recovery
strategies that help reduce soreness. For starters, a proper cooldown,
especially after aerobics, is critical in reducing soreness.
Returning the heart rate down toward the pre-exercise rate for five
to ten minutes, along with static stretching, can significantly
reduce soreness.
A cold shower or cold bath is also effective in reducing pain
associated with delayed onset muscle soreness. If you do return to
the gym sore after exercise, the following workout should be
reduced in volume to allow for adaptation and repair to occur.
Exercise doesn't need to be avoided when you're sore, but you
probably won't feel like pushing hard until the peak of delayed
onset muscle soreness passes, roughly seventy-two hours after the
novel exercise.
While the mystery of delayed onset muscle soreness has not
been definitively solved, it does appear that the damage to the
structure of the skeletal muscle incurred after exercise is the
culprit. You must minimize the damage as much as possible if
you're a sedentary individual who struggles with adherence.
The creation of a well-thought-out and planned exercise
program will be critical to ensure the sedentary person can
weather the initial challenges of delayed onset muscle soreness.
For those who are well-trained, protection is afforded to them and
they should be able to tackle novel movements, intensities, and
durations with minimal soreness, providing the progression of the
exercise program is reasonable. Z
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OnFitness Magazine - November/December 2021

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