DOMS: Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness

Most of us, beginners to advanced people in the habit of exercising, will have experienced DOMS more than once.

First of all, what is DOMS?
DOMS is delayed Onset Muscle Soreness usually experienced within 24 to 72 hours after training. This is NOT the same pain and fatigue felt during training. This is usually experienced after using a new exercise programme, or changed up anything in the exercise programme such as increasing intensity or amt of weight used.

What causes DOMS?
When performing a new exercise (be it increasing reps or weight used or time constraints) you perform eccentric muscle contractions. This leads to microscopic tears in the muscle as well as swelling due to the sudden increase of blood flow to that area during exercise and the blood flow needed to heal. This leads to hypertrophy (aka muscle growth) as the muscle adapts and heals itself. During the process of healing, you experience muscle soreness.

Treatment
No particular treatment that works 100%. In fact, stretching could cause DOMS instead of prevent it! DIY treatments that may work (depending on body and time):
- Sauna
- Massage (sports/pressure)
- Ice bath
- Light stretching
- Yoga
- RICE method (aka method used for muscles pulled etc)
- Rest
- Warm up well before exercise
- Take a break from training

Taking advantage of DOMS
There's a good side to feeling sore? Well, yes. As we aim for hypertrophy to have muscle gains, we have to rely on repeat bout effect. Repeat bout effect is when the muscle sends a message to your brain, telling it that it needs protection from these stressors that come from the exercise done. The brain then solves this problem by enabling the muscle to withstand more load and intensity by building up muscle in the body to keep the tears to a minimum. (OUR GOAL RIGHT HERE)


Thus, this is exactly why many athletes LOVE the pain of going through DOMS the next day after workout because they know it's GOOD and drives them an inch closer to their goals.


Sources:
About.com
medicinenet.com
Repeat bout effect