A few days ago I decided to switch up my workouts by adding a few exercises I hadn’t done in quite a while. I made sure not to overdo it the first time through the workout, and I felt pretty good afterward. But then the next day I got a visit from my good old friend DOMS and he served to remind me of the way the body adapts to new strains and stresses.

DOMS, more formally known as Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, refers to the gradually increasing discomfort that occurs between 24 and 48 hours after activity, and it is perfectly normal.

“Mild soreness is just a natural outcome of any kind of physical activity,” says Rick Sharp, professor of exercise physiology at Iowa State. “And they’re most prevalent in beginning stages of a program.”

After participating in some kind of strenuous physical activity, particularly something new to your body, it is common to experience muscle soreness, say experts.

“Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is a common result of physical activity that stresses the muscle tissue beyond what it is accustomed to,” says David O. Draper, professor and director of the graduate program in sports medicine/athletic training at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

To be more specific, says Draper, delayed onset muscle soreness occurs when the muscle is performing an eccentric or a lengthening contraction. Examples of this would be running downhill or the lengthening portion of a biceps curl.
“Small microscopic tears occur in the muscle,” he says.

The mild muscle strain injury creates microscopic damage to the muscle fibers. Scientists believe this damage, coupled with the inflammation that accompanies these tears, causes the pain.

“The aches and pains should be minor,” says Carol Torgan, an exercise physiologist and fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, “and are simply indications that muscles are adapting to your fitness regimen.”

No one is immune to muscle soreness. Exercise neophytes and body builders alike experience delayed onset muscle soreness.

“Anyone can get cramps or DOMS, from weekend warriors to elite athletes,” says Torgan. “The muscle discomfort is simply a symptom of using your muscles and placing stresses on them that are leading to adaptations to make them stronger and better able to perform the task the next time.”

But for the deconditioned person starting out, this can be intimidating. People starting an exercise program need guidance, Torgan says.

“The big problem is with people that aren’t very fit and go out and try these things; they get all excited to start a new class and the instructors don’t tell them that they might get sore,” she says.

“To them they might feel very sore, and because they aren’t familiar with it, they might worry that they’ve hurt themselves. Then they won’t want to do it again.”

Letting them know it’s OK to be sore may help them work through that first few days without being discouraged.

So what can you do to alleviate the pain?

“Exercise physiologists and athletic trainers have not yet discovered a panacea for DOMS,” says Draper, “however, several remedies such as ice, rest, anti-inflammatory medication, massage, heat, and stretch have been reported as helpful in the process of recovery.”

Stretching and flexibility are underrated, says Sharp.

“People don’t stretch enough,” he says. “Stretching helps break the cycle,” which goes from soreness to muscle spasm to contraction and tightness.

Take it easy for a few days while your body adapts, says Torgan. Or try some light exercise such as walking or swimming, she suggests. Keeping the muscle in motion can also provide some relief.

“Probably the most important thing is to have a cool-down phase after your workout,” says Draper. Right before finishing, include 10 or so minutes of “easy aerobic work such as jogging or walking followed by stretching.”

At Brigham Young, Draper has been researching the use of heat remedies to treat muscle soreness. In clinical tests, a portable air-activated heat wrap — in this case a product called ThermaCare — applied directly to the skin was beneficial to subjects.

“When muscle temperature is increased, blood flow increases, bringing fresh oxygen and healing nutrients to the injured site,” he says. “This increased blood flow also helps to wash away the chemical irritants responsible for pain.”

While sore, don’t expect to set personal records. Most likely, during a bout of DOMS, your exercise potential will be out of reach, says Draper. Delayed onset muscle soreness usually affects only the body parts that were worked, so perhaps you can work other muscle groups while letting the fatigued ones recover.

In a nutshell, don’t beat yourself up. Just take it easy.

“Since there’s a loss in muscle strength, athletic performance won’t be at peak levels for a few days,” says Torgan, “so it’s best to plan a few days of easy exercise to prevent further muscle damage and reduce the likelihood of injury.”

It’s also a process of muscle conditioning. Torgan says delayed onset muscle soreness also has a “repeated bouts” effect.

“If someone does an activity, they will be inoculated for a few weeks to a few months — the next time they do the activity, there will be less muscle tissue damage, less soreness, and a faster strength recovery.”

This is why athletes often cross-train and vary their routines to continue to challenge and develop their muscle strength.

It is important to distinguish the difference between moderate muscle soreness induced by exercise and muscle overuse or injury.

“If soreness prevents you from performing daily activities associated with living and work, then that is too much soreness,” Draper says. “It can psychologically deter someone from continuing a workout program.”

Both Draper and Torgan stress that soreness is not necessary to see improvements.

“There are all kinds of different little roads that your muscles can take to get stronger,” says Torgan. Regardless of whether you’re sore, there are still improvements occurring in your muscles during exercise.

I know, our trainers know, and you know that starting a workout program can be challenging. Making the time to exercise, setting goals, and creating a balanced routine are hard enough, but when you add to that the muscle soreness that comes with adapting to that regimen, it may be difficult to stay on track.

However, moderate muscle pain might go a long way to keeping someone on the path to fitness.

“Soreness can serve as encouragement in a workout program because people like immediate results. Muscle doesn’t visibly [grow] overnight; nor does your time in the mile drop from eight to six minutes,” says Draper. “So something like soreness can give people encouragement that they are in fact working the muscle.”

So whether you are brand new to FT or are an experienced veteran, you can expect some soreness after a workout. Don’t let that soreness discourage you, but rather think of it as one of the many miracles that your body is performing to help you adapt and get stronger – it’s all good…

source: WEB MD

To your health and happiness (and soreness)…

A duck walks into a drugstore and asks for a tube of ChapStick. The cashier says to the duck, “That’ll be $1.49.” The duck replies, “Put it on my bill!”

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One cannibal turns to the other and asks, “This taste funny to you?”

The above are a couple of jokes from a Reader’s Digest story a few years ago about the 50 funniest jokes they had ever published.

Every month, for many, many years, Reader’s Digest has had a column called “Laughter, The Best Medicine”, which included jokes and one-liners.

Apparently the editors at RD were on to something.

Two studies presented last month at the American College of Sports Medicine’s annual meeting in Seattle found that laughter not only can reduce stress, which can damage the heart, it can lead to improved blood flow, which can help ward off high blood pressure.

Joe and Dave are hunting when Dave keels over. Frantic, Joe dials 911 on his cell phone and blurts, “My friend just dropped dead! What should I do?”
A soothing voice at the other end says, “Don’t worry, I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s really dead.”
After a brief silence, the operator hears a shot. Then Joe comes back to the phone. “Okay,” he says nervously to the operator. “What do I do next?”

The first study included a small group of healthy adults who were asked to watch either a comedy or documentary film. They were then checked for activity of the carotid arteries — the main arteries in the neck that bring blood to the brain and face — during the films.
People who watched the comedy displayed improved “arterial compliance” — the amount of blood that moves through the arteries at a given time. Decreased arterial compliance is often linked with high blood pressure and heart disease,

A panda walks into a bar, sits down and orders a sandwich. He eats, pulls out a gun and shoots the waiter dead. As the panda stands up to go, the bartender shouts, “Hey! Where are you going? You just shot my waiter and you didn’t pay for the food.”
The panda yells back, “Hey, man, I’m a panda. Look it up!”
The bartender opens his dictionary to panda: “A tree-climbing mammal of Asian origin, characterized by distinct black and white coloring. Eats shoots and leaves.”

The second study focused on vascular function and the dilation of blood vessels. When a second group of adults watched either a comedy or a serious documentary, there was more dilation of blood vessels during the comedy. Constricted blood vessels can be a cause of high blood pressure, the news release said.

In both studies, the beneficial effects of laughter lasted for 24 hours, the researchers said.

Two campers are hiking in the woods when one is bitten on the rear end by a rattlesnake. “I’ll go into town for a doctor,” the other says. He runs ten miles to a small town and finds the only doctor delivering a baby.
“I can’t leave,” the doctor says. “But here’s what to do. Take a knife, cut a little X where the bite is, suck out the poison and spit it on the ground.”
The guy runs back to his friend, who is in agony. “What did the doctor say?” the victim cries.
“He says you’re gonna die.”

As further evidence of the benefits of laughter, a 2005 Psychology Today article mentions that laughter reduces pain, increases job performance, connects people emotionally, and improves the flow of oxygen to the heart and brain.

So while there is a large volume of evidence to support the healthy benefits of exercise (much of which I try to share with you each week), it appears you can add laughter to the list of healthy activities as well.

Why did the cowboy buy a dachshund?
Someone told him to get a long little doggy.

To your health and happiness.

It has been a great week at our house – our oldest son and his girlfriend were in town for the weekend, our middle son finished the final editing of a documentary he has been working on, and we had the chance to see a lot of our friends, neighbors, and relatives at a party we had to celebrate our youngest son’s high school graduation. My sister and two of her sons (one of whom just graduated high school) came to visit for the weekend; my grand nephew graduated from fifth grade; we went to see “The Taking of Pelham 123″ with John Travolta and Denzel Washington (thought it was quite good), and this afternoon we are going to a graduation party for one of our niece’s. The only downside was that my mom was in the hospital for the week, and has since been moved to a nursing home for some rehab. The good news is that she appears to be doing much better. All things considered, it was an enjoyable way to spend a few days.

It is quite easy to fall out of a healthy routine in the midst of such “special times”, but there is no reason to beat yourself up for not sticking 100% to your goals. The key is to get back to your routine as soon as possible and to congratulate yourself on what you are doing right. And many of you are doing many things right. For those of you I have gotten to know as clients of Fitness Together, I applaud your commitment to fitness and healthier eating. I know that such changes are not easy, and sometimes can be quite difficult.

This fact was highlighted in a story earlier this week in The New York Times, titled “Bad Habits Asserting Themselves“. The article summarizes a study which appeared in the June issue of The American Journal of Medicine. The study compared results from two National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, in 2001-6 and 1988-94. The surveys, done regularly by the National Center for Health Statistics, include a physical examination; each included more than 7,000 respondents 40 to 74 years old. Here are some of the (disappointing) statistics from the story:

• the share of Americans 40 to 74 who eat five fruits and vegetables a day has dropped to 26 percent from 42 percent.
• moderate drinking – roughly one drink a day for women, two for men – increased to 51 percent from 40 percent, even as the number of abstainers went down, to 40 percent from 51 percent. (Advice is mixed on whether this is a healthy trend.)
• the number of smokers in the 40-to-74 group declined only slightly, to 26 percent from 27 percent.
• the obesity rate increased to 36 percent from 28 percent.
• 43 percent of Americans said they worked out at least 30 minutes three times a week, down from just over half.
• in some areas, men’s habits have deteriorated more than women’s. In the earlier period, 57 percent of men and 49 percent of women reported exercising three times a week; now both sexes are at 43 percent. The rate of obesity climbed similarly in both men and women.

Dr. Dana E. King, a professor of family medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, the lead author of the study was surprised that even those with diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol were no more likely to adhere to healthy habits.

“I worry that some people are taking medication instead of following a healthy lifestyle,” he said. “You take a pill and say, ‘I’ll eat whatever I want, and my doctor says my cholesterol is fine.’ Your pill may be lowering your cholesterol, but it’s not doing the other 100 things that proper eating and exercise do for you.”

Dr. King warned that the rise in unhealthy habits could lead to a costly surge in heart disease and other chronic ailments of the elderly. But he added, “The other half of this message is that changes in lifestyle can do so much good.”

Other studies have shown that people who adopted healthy behavior reduced their risk of heart disease and death by 35 percent in just four years. “So to those people who say it’s too late and won’t do any good – the exact opposite is true,” Dr. King said. “There’s a tremendous benefit in people of this age.”

So again, for those of you who are already doing things right (better eating, exercising, managing your weight, stopping unhealthy habits), I applaud you and wish you continued success; you really are among the elite. Don’t let temporary setbacks make you lose sight of your goal of living a healthier, happier life.

For those of you know the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, but aren’t sure where to start or need someone to guide you and hold you accountable, give us a call. There is nothing we value more than helping someone look better, feel better, and live life to the fullest.

To your health and happiness,

Jim

P.S. I have archived all of the previous Wellness Wednesday newsletters at http://www.ftmainline.com/blog/ Just click on the Wellness Wednesday link on the right hand side.

P.P.S. And if you want to see one of our trainers in action, you can watch these videos of Dan completing his qualifying workouts for the International Crossfit competition.. Talk about intense! Video 1 Video 2 Video 3