Reason For Muscle Pain

There are various kinds of reasons due to which the muscles of the body ache after workouts. The growth of the muscles is beneficial for our health but it also results in slight pains, which is the sign of growing muscles. Most people analyze the quality of their exercise session by the amount of pain they experience afterwards. Various researches have been done on Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, also known as DOMS, which reveal that without pain after workouts muscle growth is impossible.

The high probability that muscular pain after exercise may results from actual muscle damage which is a result of exercising. But the immune system sees this damage as a regular injury and hence the inflammatory response is initiated to start the healing process. During the inflammatory process the body releases several substances and chemicals, which enhance the sensation of pain by excessively stimulating the nerve endings of the damaged tissue. The pain is associated with muscle damage and most physicians and trainers associate the pain to be fair indicator of a “good workout" or running session.

Hypertrophy or enlargement of the muscle fibers are the result of the repair and healing of damaged muscle by the addition of myofibrils. This also increases the cross sectional area. But if the muscle pain is excessive and continues for more than several days or continuously, then this can be an indicator of athlete overtraining or over-reaching. Usually it is emphasized that if pain is experienced, it should be a “good" pain and should resolve within a couple of days.

But as the exercise becomes more regular and the exerciser gets used the same then it becomes increasingly harder to draw out the same painful muscle response. Even though the reasons for the same remain unclear it is suggested that an exercise session that causes DOMS has a protective effect on subsequent exercise. This can also last for several weeks and the exact mechanisms behind this protective effect are still unclear.

The muscles will be less susceptible to the effects of DOMS and hence it is suggested to concentrate on factors such as strict technique and exercise variety so that you can avoid undue stress on the joints. Also the overtraining of single muscle groups should be avoided and hence it is necessary for the muscles to be rested every alternate day. The most common cause of joint and muscle pain is a disease called Systemic Lupus Erythematosus or the SLE. It has been seem that most people suffering from SLE experience muscle and joint pains in course of their illness.

Also this pain is mainly caused by the inflammation of joints and muscles and usually resembles the pain experienced during the viral flu. This is like an acute pain in joints and muscles, which can make someone, feel really sick. Theses symptoms resemble those of arthritis because the joints have an aching pain. They also get swollen and become tender resulting in loss of energy. Hence the pain should not be taken lightly if it persists over a few weeks and tends to get worse over time.

• Emma Bullock
• 07/05/2009, 6:59 PM
• 0 Comments