eli5: why do muscles stop hurting when you exercise consistently when they’re still growing?
In: 8
They stop hurting because they’re growing stronger. Assuming the amount of effort and intensity you put in is the same, your body gets used to that level.
If you mean muscle soreness, it has actually nothing to do with growing directly.
Muscle soreness are micro rips in the tissue, they occure when you do an eccentric exercise that you are not adapted to.
Thats why riding the bike basically gives you no muscle soreness, it’s basically just concentric.
As soon as u build some muscle around the „micro injury“ it stops ripping again. Thats why you shouldnt train for muscle soreness. Its actually a good sign when it stops.
The pain is tiny tears in the muscle fibers and lactic acid build up.
These things are always the worst when a body is pushed far beyond what it is accustomed to.
But when a body becomes accustomed to strenuous workouts, it adapts to counteract these ill-effects. Muscle fibers become more stretchy and pliable, resulting in fewer tears. Also, the muscle tissue grows, so there are more fibers than before to spread out the load of the work being done. Each fiber is asked to do less work because there are so many more fibers.
And the body also produces less lactic acid, and what it does produce is processed faster to alleviate the negative effects it has.
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