Well, I woke up this morning an hour earlier than usual feeling good, tho I made a point to claim that remaining hour of sleep! As the day progressed I started to get the first hints of DOMS. I knew it was coming, and I was ok with that.
What is DOMS you say? No, no it’s not the kinky sort. You may not know the lingo but I bet you are acquainted with it! DOMS stands for delayed onset muscle soreness. It’s those muscle aches and soreness that typically start around 24-48 hours following a challenging bout of exercise (hence “delayed onset”). It’s commonly thought to be a buildup of lactic acid, but it’s actually caused by microtrauma to the tiny fibers within our muscles, which leads to inflammation, swelling, and other changes like in normal levels of electrolytes and other fluids near the affected muscles.
It’s simply the result of exercise that is a bit too intense, too long, or too challenging but rest assured, under normal circumstances it is temporary (2-4 days) and harmless, tho you may find the muscles are weaker and you may have reduced range of motions during the healing process. Bright side is, once the muscles heal, they will be stronger than they were before.
So far it’s not too bad. Legs mostly since we did a lot of jumping and squatting. I was expecting that. The worst is usually the second day after so I guess we shall see what tomorrow brings! I anticipate my hamstrings will be very unhappy.