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You just finish a great workout. Your muscles are warm, your heart rate is up, and you feel pumped up. You’re feeling energized with a sense of accomplishment. The exercise gives you gratifying deep and restful sleep at night. You wake up the next day and BAM! You feel stiff and sore and the simple act of getting out of bed is slow and painful. This normal and unfortunate phenomenon is known as Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness (DOMS). Let’s break down what DOMS is and debunk some myths associated with it.

Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness is a normal pain and stiffening response from muscles after exertion. It typically presents itself 24 to 72 hours after exercise and can last for as long as a week. Contrary to popular belief, we still don’t completely know how DOMS works. The most popular theory is that exercise causes microtrauma or more specifically, the splitting of fibers within the exercised muscle. During the recovery process, the split fibers then become individual fibers which, promotes muscular growth.

Is it harmful to exercise while you’re still recovering from DOMS? Studies have shown that it actually does not cause any harm nor does it extend recovery time from DOMS. Having said that, it’s important to distinguish what kind of pain you’re experiencing as it can be a warning sign of an impending injury.

An incentive to keep up your exercises is the repeated bout effect. Scientists explain this as the gradual reduction in DOMS pain from your body’s ability to adapt to the stress of the exercise. With repetition of the exercise, your muscles will strengthen and have lesser degrees of damage to repair.

So in conclusion, DOMS is normal response to exercise. The pain you feel should only last a few days and as you practice the same exercise routine, your body adapts so that the pain and recovery time reduce. It’s also not harmful to continue exercising the sore muscle as long as it’s not related to injury. A good rule of thumb is if you’re still feeling pain after 1 week of resting, it might be a sign of injury. If you’re still feeling pain after a week, it’s a good idea to rule out injury by seeing your physiotherapist.

Byron Chan, BScPT, GIMS, CAFCI