Delayed onset Muscle Soreness
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To the best of my knowledge, the exact reason isn’t totally understood, but the prevailing theory is that it’s because of a kind of inflammation cascade.
Basically, when you work out you’re causing tiny bits of damage to your muscles. Afterwards, your muscles will heal, and heal even stronger than before which is what helps you actually gain strength.
However, if you haven’t worked out a muscle much before your body will sort of overreact to the damage. It’ll rush a bunch of blood to the area to try and repair/remove the damaged/dead cells, and in the process start to cause damage to other surrounding cells that causes additional soreness. It’s not immediate though, it takes time for the other cells to start getting damaged, which is why it’s a delayed soreness. Your muscles are quick to adjust though, so this process gets more efficient and you’ll generally stop experiencing DOMS if you’re working out regularly.
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