15 Ways to Prevent and Heal Muscle Soreness
Things you can do before your training session
1) Adequately hydrate yourself - This should go without saying, but it bears repeating. Drinking plenty of water is one of your best defenses against muscle soreness. A good rule of thumb is to drink half an ounce of water per pound of bodyweight. So, if you’re 200 lbs, drink 100 oz of water daily. Sound like a lot? Start chuggin!
2) Front-load your nutrition - The food you eat before you workout is the fuel that your body will use to repair your muscles. Make sure to get plenty of good nutrition the day(s) before a heavy training session. A good rule of thumb for your macronutrient ratios the day before training is 40% protein, 40% carbs, and 20% fats. This should serve as a starting point for individual experimentation. The day of your training session you should be eating a diet high in protein, complex carbs, and “good, healthy” fats.
3) Get plenty of sleep the night(s) before - Again, this is common sense, but if you’re not getting enough quality sleep, then you’re putting your body at a recovery disadvantage from the beginning. 8+ hours should be the minimum before a heavy training day.
Things you can do during your training session
4) Warmup properly - One of the best things you can do to prevent muscles soreness is to perform a joint mobility warmup (a general full-body warmup is preferred, but mobility exercises specific to your exercise selection will work just fine, too), and then to do activity-specific exercises that will prime the sections of your body that you’ll be primarily focusing on during that session. So, if you’re going to be working on squats, for instance, it’s best to include some bodyweight squats in your warmup routine and gradually build up to your desired working intensity level. Your warmup should be both for general preparedness (like increasing your body temperature and the elasticity of your joints), and also specific to the activity that you’re going to do. It’s not enough to just go for a short jog to get your temperature up.
5) Regulate your training intensity - This is another super-important factor in preventing muscle soreness. Put simply, don’t work harder than your body is prepared for. I wrote an entire article on progression in your training program, but the key to remember is to challenge your limits without destroying your body. Stimulate your muscles, don’t annihilate them – good advice from former Mr. Olympia Lee Haney. The more gradually you can increase your performance, the better. Baby steps pay off more in the long haul and they also ensure you’ll prevent DOMS.
6) Shake off the tension between work periods - This is a little secret weapon against muscle soreness, called vibration training. No, you don’t need to stand on one of the high-tech vibrating platforms that they have at high class health clubs. You CAN shake off the tension though, in between sets. You can shake your arms and legs out, even your whole body. I created a tutorial for how to do this here: Vibration Training Video. This simple technique works very well to diminish muscle tension and you don’t need anything to start applying it today. Plus, it has a lot of other cool benefits, too.
7) Establish a cooldown ritual - This is more theory than science, since I haven’t read any literature stating that cooldowns directly prevent DOMS. However, in my experience, those who engage in a workout cooldown ritual are much less likely to suffer from DOMS. Apart from preventing muscle soreness, it’s a good idea anyways. Some joint mobility exercises are ideal here, but what’s most important is that you unload the functional opposite movements that you were training during your session. So, for instance, if you were doing a lot of squatting movements, you’d want to release tension in your hip flexors. Pigeon pose works perfectly for this, as do many other hip flexor stretches. Alternatively, you can create more of a routine by using Prasara Yoga. The perfect cooldown would involve several thorough full body vibrations followed by some targeted joint mobility exercises to improve immediate range of motion at some of your most worked joints, and finished with some Prasara Yoga to release deep tensions that were created during the session.
Things you can do after your training session
8) Get adequate post workout nutrition - There is so much research backing this as a viable recovery strategy, it’s not even debatable anymore. You don’t need to do this, but it will help a lot. Even a post workout shake, like this recipe, will do a lot of good. A good rule of thumb is to consume a carbohydrate to protein ration of 2:1. Eating 50 grams of carbs and 25 grams of protein following your strength session is a good place to begin personal experimentation. I always recommend whole foods over supplements (you’ll notice that supplements didn’t even make my top 15 list).
9) Eat one full meal no more than 2 hours after training - A shake or a snack immediately after your training session is excellent, but an even better strategy is to eat a full meal within an hour or two of your training session. Complex carbs and protein should be abundant in this meal, from foods such as meats, poultry, fish, leafy greens, potatoes, yams, brown rice, couscous, and rolled oats.
10) Perform active recovery frequently - Too often we think of recovery as being a completely restful activity, when the best thing we can often do to recover is get moving. Active recovery can be any form of light activity such as walking, joint mobility exercise, or very light strength training such as bodyweight exercise or swinging light clubbells.
11) Take a hot/cold shower - This is not going to make a big impact on DOMS prevention and treatment, but it will help a little bit. Contrast showers can help to increase bloodflow and aid in getting nutrients in your bloodstream out to your muscles. Alternate showering with warm water and cold water for 20-30 second intervals.
12) Take an Epsom salt bath or soak in a hot tub - Sometimes all we need to prevent muscle soreness is a little relaxation. Spending 30 minutes in a hot tub or Epsom salt bath will decrease muscle inflammation, flush toxins out of your muscles, improve nerve function, and will otherwise relieve stress.
13) Ice your muscles – This is mostly for severe cases of DOMS. Icing your muscles will not necessarily aid in the healing process, but it will reduce swelling and pain. It’s a temporary relief from pain that can serve as a good alternative to taking anti-inflammatory drugs.
14) Get a massage or massage the sore areas yourself – This is also for extreme cases of DOMS. A massage will have many benefits in terms of muscle relaxation, pain reduction, and stress relief. Just make sure that your masseuse knows you’re already in pain!
15) Avoid activities that cause pain – This one’s simple. Don’t do anything that would cause significant pain to your healing body. If you’re experiencing DOMS, then it’s not wise to exercise vigorously until you have fully recovered. DOMS is a result of doing too much work too soon – creating too much stress for your body to handle at once. It will only compound the problem by training through it.
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