Soreness Solutions
Recently I was discussing strategies to relieve pain or soreness with a patient. I thought this would be a good subject to write more about and share since we’ve all been achy from time to time. I’ll start by explaining some physiologic reasons for muscular soreness, and then some ways to self manage it.
Why are we sore in the first place?
Exercise induced soreness
Usually caused by micro- tears in the muscle if the exercise was strenuous enough. This micro-tearing results in an inflammatory response that is a normal response to help the tissue to heal. During that response several things happen that change the chemistry in the muscle, including increased fluid pressure within the muscle and increased waste products which lowers the PH and this causes soreness.
Tonic muscle guarding and referred pain
There are certain structures in the body that when irritated will manifest as pain or tightness in a muscular region. We call these ‘tonic muscles in guarding.’ Due to a reduction in circulation to the area these muscles will contain waste products and this change in chemistry is what we feel as pain.
Here are some examples of structures that can refer pain:
Neuropathic pain- A disc lesion that is irritating a nearby nerve root and this nerve root innervates certain muscles in your hip. You feel pain around your hip region.
Facet joint- A joint in your back becomes stiff and can refer pain to a certain area away from that joint.
Viscera- It’s not uncommon to have hip or low back pain related to bowel, bladder, or other internal organs.
Trauma
If there is an injury to the area such as a tear, fracture, sprain etc there will be pain. This is due to the associated inflammatory response that occurs after trauma AND the fact that many tissues have pain receptors and will signal a pain response when injured.
What can we do about it?
Vascularity training!
One of the best ways to reduce soreness and guarding in a muscle is to provide it with fresh blood which brings oxygen, changing the PH, and reducing pain.
Exercise dosed for vascularity: I lovingly call this concept the “blood sponge.” You want to perform an exercise that pumps the muscle ‘on’ and then ‘off'.’
If the load (weight) is too high the intramuscular pressure will be high, which results in decreased local circulation so keep it light!
About 60% 1 Rep Max is when enough O2 demand occurs, without excessive fatigue or intramuscular pressure, which increases local muscle circulation and reduces pain.
60% 1RM is equivalent to about 25 reps of 1 exercise. We talk a lot about reps from 0-10 (power and strength range) but this higher rep load has another purpose entirely. Cool right?!?
How about an example?
You’ve been working on the computer too much this week and your neck is sore. You start to feel pain into your shoulder blade. 3 Exercises dosed for ‘vascularity’ that may help loosen up some of those guarded neck muscles!
Shrug your shoulders and then relax x 25 reps.
Lay on your back and turn your head to one side then back to the center x 25 reps and then repeat on the other side.
Lay yon your back and tilt your head up and down (nodding your chin towards your chest and then relaxing) x 25 reps.
If you continue to have pain in an area for more than 4-7 days (which is the normal timeline for an inflammatory response) please reach out to your local PT or MD to assess the root cause of the problem!