Last week, we talked about the difference between the soreness experienced and muscle soreness does not indicate the effectiveness of training. Today we continue with more fun facts about how our muscles respond to physical training!
Does soreness mean we used the correct muscles?
Our bodies contain different types of muscles, such as tonic and fatigue-resistant muscles. There are also different types of fibers within the muscles with a variety of proportions, including type I fibers (slow, high fatigue-resistance) and type II fibers (fast, low resistance). We will feel a sore or burning sensation when we are using more type II fibers, while the movement quality will worsen, and the motion will become unstable when we are using more type I fibers. Hence, different muscles would react to the training in different ways.
Should we continue our training if our muscles are sore?
We first must understand how our muscles build for strength and endurance. Training stimulates and places stress onto the muscles, which will cause microscopic micro-tears to the muscle fibers. As the muscle fibers are repairing, it helps the muscles to be stronger. Besides, we need to ensure enough recovery time for proper repair. Ideally, we recommend around 48-72 hours of recovery time before training for the next time. If not, our muscles will not heal properly and develop more muscle damage. Thus, a well-planned and personalized program helps build muscles effectively. In a long term, we should not stop exercising due to the repeated bout effect. It describes how our bodies get used to the muscle-damaging response, which means the more we do, the less soreness we experience.
While muscle soreness may be bothering many of us on our journey, next week, we will talk about how we can ease the muscle soreness to aid in recovery!