DOMS makes more people cry than The Notebook. I’ll give you 15 different ways to make getting off the toilet after leg day just a little easier.
Before you start, I’m thinking of getting some sweet-ass Aesthetic Physiques t-shirts made. If you’re interested in wearing the hottest gear this fall go here.
I love leg day. It’s a strong point for me, it boosts testosterone and growth hormone and I feel like a monster after. So much so, that I made an entire workout program for doing legs everyday and did it for 130+ days.
But, a day later, my ass feels like I dropped the soap in prison and they were not kind to it. Not to mention there have been several occasions where I almost fell down a flight of stairs from my legs giving out after an epic leg day.
And I’m sure you’ve experienced it at least once whether you lifted weights, went skiing, or played basketball for the first time in years. The next day you wake up and your body feels like you aged 40 years. The mere thought of moving hurts. That pain you feel is DOMS or Delayed On-set Muscle Soreness for those scientific types.
I’ll break this to you now, you can’t stop DOMS from happening. It’s like sex with Kobe Bryant (Too soon? or too old?) No matter what the guy from GNC will tell you, there is no product currently on earth that will stop DOMS from kicking your ass. Believe me, if there were, that person would be Scrooge McDuck rich.
DOMS is caused by microtrauma in the muscle and connective tissue (tendons, ligaments) which in-turn cause an inflammatory response. It’s on the same mechanism at work when you sprain your ankle or pull a muscle. That’s when the pain sets in and that’s when you hate life.
DOMS is not a build up of lactic acid. There is no evidence to prove this, it was a best guess of some Bro and another Bro said “Dude that’s genius. Check out my sweet Zubaz.”
If this question were a relationship status, it would get “It’s complicated”. DOMS is a sign that you added stress to your body in a way that it’s not used to, but it shouldn’t be the measuring stick to determine a good workout.
Confusing I know.
Let’s take a step back for a second, and point out the 3 key points that contribute to muscle hypertrophy (muscles getting bigger):
Guess which category DOMS falls into?
Hypertrophy can happen with Door #1 and 2 but most people try to pummel their muscles into submission then crawl their way out of the gym like some badge of honor. Yes, I’m guilty of it too so you’re in good company.
But this is a bad practice. Unless you have a gym addiction, the next day or two you want nothing to do with moving, let alone work out again. So you have loss of motivation, and if you are just starting off, that is a bad thing to have.
Next, your strength that you so desperately want to gain, is reduced considerably because the muscles need to repair.
Loss of motivation and loss of strength are not good tricks to use when trying to look better naked.
DOMS is emphasized on the eccentric or lowering portion of the movement. Typically, when you do leg exercises, the weight is greater than other exercises and you tend to go slower on the lowering portion then you would for say a barbell curl. Be honest, you lower the weight fast on a barbell curl. I’ve seen you.
The eccentric portion puts the most stress on the muscle. So combine slower eccentric portions + heavy weights + repetitions = muscle damage = DOMS bitches!
There is. The more you lift or do the activity the less DOMS you’ll feel. So move your ass.
Like I said before, there is no preventing DOMS or stopping it quickly, the best we can do is manage it and go slowly down the stairs.
So here is a list of 15 things that I’ve used and are proven to ease your suffering Sally:
Now let’s get into the weird stuff where you say really? That works?
Ibuprofen will help with some of the soreness but there a whole host of downside that I don’t want you to mess with.
For instance, chronic use of ibuprofen does a number on your stomach lining especially taken on an empty stomach, it also wreaks havoc on kidney and liver function.
By far the worse thing of all, it is suggested that it may take away from your gainz by reducing protein synthesis and we can’t have that noise.
If you’ve made it this far you probably liked this. If that’s the case, please share this article to the left or below. I’m sure you know someone that could benefit from reading this. Thanks.
Dave
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Zubaz,Sweet Brown
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