you might be wondering what this title is all about. what indeed is DOMS? if you have made it this far, trust us, lets go a little bit further with understanding what we mean by DOMS?

its known as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). anyone who’s done some serious workouts or any form of strenuous exercise must have experienced DOMS.exercise is always a physical stress. muscles, bones and connective tissues, it seems, grow stronger by actually sustaining damage. at a very shallow level, DOMS, as the name suggests, is the soreness you will experience in your muscles after strenuous exercise. and this could happen hours, or even a day or two after your exercise session (after that strenuous exercise session).

according to “the First 20 minutes” by gretchen reynolds (a great book to read by the way) skeletal muscle in particular responds to unfamiliar exercise with a measure of harm. it is a unique tissue, made of long, thin fibres that are composed of several different proteins. it seems that these proteins interlock like legos inside fibrous compartments called sadcomeres (that can stretch - and during exercise they are pulled past their tolerance). and it is this process that results in micro-tears throughout our muscle tissues. blood vessels dilate in the affected sections of muscle, white blood cells and other immune-system- DOMS related cells flood in, tissues swell and warm, and in general, mayhem reigns inside our muscles. that according to gretchen reynolds leads to DOMS.

okay, enough of the science and the processes! is this good or bad is what bothers you right? so lets shoot to the point.

this soreness is a good thing! a very good thing indeed. we have to stress the muscles and connective tissues if we want to get the best out of any workout, be it lifting a dumbell in our POWER class or use the muscles in our legs to enable us to jump on the trampoline during a UBOUND session. these very tissues rebuild themselves and it becomes stronger and more pliable (a process known as adaptation which basically is the very foundation of fitness).

but here’s the most important lesson of DOMS which we want to throw at you in this very article so that after saturday’s marathon, half marathon, 10k or 5k run, you will be more than willing to apply. RECOVERY!

its only effective if we recover properly and most of us probably fail miserably at this.

there are many ways in how you can recover or perhaps speed up the recovery processes. some of us engage is a good cool down soon after a workout. others, more professionals perhaps, go through a good massage session whilst a lot of us opt for the icing option soon after a streneous exercise session. pills such as advil and ibuprofen are also very common drugs (nonsteroidal anti inflammatory drugs - NSAIDs) that assists in the recovery phase or shortens this process (though there are research proving otherwise!) as well.

so rest well. a swim in the beautiful beaches of addu could be the perfect option. or simply do nothing as you chill in one of those white sandy beaches in the city of of addu. whatever you do, do it right, do it in the name of recovery!