why does it take >24 hours to “feel” a hard workout?
In: Biology
DOMS, why it happens? No exact reason has been determined yet. It’ll go away after your body adapts to working out.
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People will say lactic acid, but that’s false. Lactic acid flushed out of muscles about a minute after doing your exercise.
The correct answer is muscle tears. Basically as you break down muscle during exercise, it heals and builds more muscle.
Exercise physiology is pretty cool stuff
I’m sure there are lots of good ‘scientific’ explanations here…
This won’t be one of those…
Your body probably assumes that your “big workout” was you running away from, perhaps fighting to the death with, a large predator. It doesn’t want you stopping the fight because you’re a little achy across your shoulders. It’s just.. “HERE, TAKE OXYGEN AND ADRENALIN, MAYBE SOME VITAMIN C.. JUST DON’T FUCKING DIE”.. then, a day or so later, it’s like… “Dude/dudette, don’t ever fucking do that again.. or else.” (soreness)
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We have previously thought that the lactic acid theory is behind the delayed soreness but as several comments have stated it has been long refuted. There are 2 theories currently circulating the fitness field, the muscle damage theory and the inflammatory response theory. So far the inflammatory response theory fits well since it goes hand in hand with the delay of the soreness.
Source: https://inspire.edu.lb/inspire/educational-article-resources/DOMS
The article contains intext citations to peer-reviewed articles.
Edit: typos and added a word.
As other said it is called DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). The actual soreness can be attributed to tissue damage (muscle tissue) and the subsequent inflammatory response that follows. Every time you workout your muscles tear or become damaged, with rest, the tissue repairs, resulting in a stronger, bigger muscle. Source: this was undergrad. Fun fact, the purpose of cold water treatment (ice baths, cold tubs, etc.) following workouts is an attempt to dampen/inhibit this inflammatory response (reduce DOMS, increase recovery time). The idea being less of a inflammatory response might cause less overall tissue damage and decrease recovery time. For the past several years, more research is coming out that indicates the cold treatment is more placebo and has the opposite effect, causing a delay in inflammatory response but also lengthening overall recovery time. Source: my thesis was on it.
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Interestingly enough, this is impossible to answer as there is no conclusive answer as to why. Really.
Which seems strange as “new movement” seems like one of the most basic things in human existence, but why the pain appears later, and only initially, but not repeatedly, even from overload (This is called the RBE for Repeated Bout Effect – the fact that you can strain the muscles even harder in the future, tear them up even more, but to no DOMS effect as long as the muscle is regularly undergoing that stress), still isn’t conclusive.
There are certainly existing factors, inflammation, stretching, or the use of, underused muscle fibres, etc – but again, *WHY* that pain appears is still unclear.
Source:
https://www.painscience.com/articles/delayed-onset-muscle-soreness.php
“*The exact cause of DOMS is unknown. Like most relatively minor aches and pains, understanding DOMS is an extremely low priority in medical science. That’s surprising when you consider the impact DOMS has on elite athletes — a group of people whose performance is collectively worth trillions of dollars, and obsessively optimized, seemingly sparing no expense. You’d think this topic, at least, would get more scientific attention. And yet we don’t really know why DOMS happens.*”
Footnoted sources:
Parr JJ, Borsa PA, Fillingim RB, et al. Pain-related fear and catastrophizing predict pain intensity and disability independently using an induced muscle injury model. J Pain. 2012 Apr;13(4):370–8.
Pyne DB. Exercise-induced muscle damage and inflammation: a review. Aust J Sci Med Sport. 1994 Sep-Dec;26(3-4):49–58.
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