No Pain No Gain, But How Much Pain is Good?

If you are new to boxing or to exercise in general, you are going to quickly discover just how much your body can actually talk to you.  After just one workout, you may find yourself sore in places you didn't even know existed and if you don't understand why, then that pain may be enough to turn you off of exercise forever -- and that isn't a good thing.

Why?  Because it hurts.  The more strenuous the activity and the more new you are to it, the louder your body is going to scream at you.  If you've never experienced muscle stiffness or delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) then you are in for a big surprise.  It will start slowly as a mild discomfort after your workout that throughout the evening will crescendo into searing pain that will potentially immobilize you for days following.  Okay, for most people, I'm exaggerating a bit, but if you push yourself hard enough and long enough, the pain can literally cause your body to seize up.

There's good news though, this is a natural process of increasing stamina, size, and muscle strength.  It has to happen at some level or you will not get stronger or faster.  The reason behind delayed onset muscle soreness is what happens to your muscles when you exercise.  You tear them up and they break down.  As they rebuild, they rebuild stronger and better, but in the interim you feel the results of your workout in vivid color.

The soreness is often the worst in your legs as movements such as squats or lunges tend to tear the muscles more.  It is called an eccentric contraction where your muscle is forced to contract as it lengthens (the negative part of most exercises for all you bodybuilders out there).

The trick here is realizing when your body is simply sore and rebuilding and when you are actually injured and require medical attention.  An injury hurts too and sometimes can feel a lot like muscle soreness, especially if it is an aggravated tendon or pulled muscle.  The difference is that you usually get a sudden jolt of pain during the workout rather than it showing up hours or days afterwards.  You may hear a pop as a tendon snaps across a bone as can happen in a sprained ankle or it may be something really obvious like your bicep tearing and curling up under your skin to your shoulder.  Maybe that bench press will turn into a horror show as your pec detaches.  The point I'm trying to make is that injuries are often obvious.  They are serious and more often than not, you KNOW you are injured.  If they happen, stop what you are doing and have it treated.

There are more and more people on the planet saying you do not have to experience muscle soreness.  You don't if you gradually ease into a new exercise, start out slow, and ensure you stretch fully before and after workouts.  That's all good advice, but if you're anything like me, easing into something just doesn't cut the mustard.  I go whole hog and deal with the pain as it comes.  Eventually, when your body begins to adapt to your routine, the soreness doesn't happen anymore and that to me is a signal to mix it up.  Problem with doing this though is that you spend 3/4 of your life in some state of constant soreness and convincing yourself to do squats when you can barely bend your legs is quite the challenge.  The good news is that muscle soreness is temporary and even small amounts of motion in the affected area can ease the pain (at least until you stop what you are doing...)

Here are some tips for preventing or dealing with delayed onset muscle soreness:

1. Fully warmup and cooldown before and after workouts
2. If you are new to a routine, ease into it if you can - start light, slow and progressively increase the intensity
3. Use the R.I.C.E principle when you begin to feel the soreness or immediately after strenous workouts
4. Gently massage the affected areas (increases blood flow that can help the healing)
5. Do some mild exercise with the affected areas (again, increases blood flow)
6. Stay away from vigorous exercise until completely healed
7. Try an anti-inflammatory or performance enhancer

If muscle soreness lasts longer than seven days, you probably did more than you think -- get it checked out before you make things worse.  Do you have any unique ways of dealing with the pain?  If so, let's hear them.

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