Tips to prevent muscle soreness and injuries

After a good training session, we often start to feel that characteristic muscle soreness. We can avoid injuries, but unfortunately, we can't avoid DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). However, there are some tips to prevent DOMS.

It was once thought that DOMS was caused by lactic acid accumulation in muscle tissue, but the truth is that DOMS are micro-tears in muscle fibers produced by intense physical exertion to which our body is not accustomed.

When you haven't trained for a while, after a vacation, or simply because you haven't been able to exercise for months, you resume physical activity with that fear of "I'm going to be full of DOMS for a week."

We don't get away from it; in my opinion, it's almost impossible not to feel DOMS at some point in our lives, at the beginning, or when our routine changes, and we do something new. They cannot be eliminated, but we can make them less intense by following these tips to prevent DOMS.

Tips to follow for DOMS:

• If you haven't exercised in weeks, months, or years, start extremely slowly and gently! Don't expect to be in shape in a week because your muscles need time to adapt again. This is probably the case of DOMS that ALL OF US ALWAYS FALL INTO. Why? Because we get carried away after so long without training, and no matter how much we know, no matter how much we are warned... we always do more than we should! So, you know: slowly, as the song says, one or two weeks doing circuit training with very light weights and low repetitions. Will you have DOMS? Yes, you can't escape that, but much less and less painful and annoying.
• Do a good warm-up.
• Hydrate. Drinking water before, during, and after exercise has been shown to reduce pain and inflammation.
• Don't stop! That is, do an "active recovery" in the following days. I know you don't feel like lifting a sheet of paper, but precisely continuing to move will make the DOMS lessen. Walk, keep doing gentle movements with light weight. I say it and I will continue to say it: DOMS goes away by exercising.
• Amino acids and/or protein shakes after training. Remember when it was once said to drink sugar water? Completely false. What has been shown to be effective and works is to take amino acids such as BCAA + Glutamine or directly a Whey Protein shake, whose nutrients are rapidly absorbed and go almost directly to your muscles and those recently worked fibers that need to repair themselves.
• Stretch after training. It is highly recommended always, but in my opinion and experience, I don't think it prevents DOMS. However, STRETCH. Because stretching does prevent contractures and possible injuries.
• A massage in the affected area. When you have DOMS, you have inflammation in the muscle; a sports massage is highly recommended to reduce that inflammation and relieve pain. You can use a specific anti-inflammatory cream like the new CBD Cream, whose main active ingredient is Cannabidiol, but it is also complemented with other natural plants such as arnica, eucalyptus, and calendula, all with anti-inflammatory and soothing properties.

And what to do for INJURIES?

Well, in this section, everything mentioned above is valid, as all the points previously cited ARE INJURY PREVENTIVE.

But here I want to add the most important tip of all to avoid injury: TECHNIQUE. Good technique is the safest method to avoid injury. And of course, here I have to mention one of the most reliable and effective techniques of all time: THE WEIDER TRAINING METHOD. Whether you follow the Weider method or any other, DO NOT NEGLECT YOUR TECHNIQUE; it is more important than the weight you lift, it is more important than reaching your goal faster, good technique will keep you far away from injuries.