Written by Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) is something almost every single athlete, amateur or pro, has experienced in their lifetime. It starts off with an intense exercise followed by a day of feeling fine, then followed by aches, sores, and pains.
This is caused by introducing new stress to the muscles, or by repeatedly stressing the muscle (overtraining). This delay of muscle soreness occurs because the muscles are trying to repair the microscopic tears that occur in our muscle fibers when we perform high intensity activities.
During any type of workout, low intensity or high, there will be muscle tears, but it is the degree of how you approach rest and recovery that’ll determine how useful it was for you to perform that activity in the first place.
Think of it like this, your car CAN go 120 mph, but will you let it go that speed every time you’re on the freeway? Of course not, you want to conserve your car’s battery life and fuel tank so it doesn’t run out quickly. Now, unlike humans, cars don’t really need to sleep to perform again, but it’s more about maintaining them, exactly how’d you maintain an athlete. If you’re overusing your car every day the battery is going to die faster and there will be more problems with it in the long run.
Physical exhaustion is healthy, but only in spurts when the athlete has gotten proper hydration and recovery. If DOMS occurs then that should be a clear sign to rest and recover, and that next time there should be an added warm up, cool down, and stretch to their workout.
Overtraining leads to underperforming in more ways than just physical exhaustion. Finding that sweet spot of load to rest ratio might be tough at first, but realizing there is one is the first step to elevating the athlete’s performance.
Next time you see athletes that are burnt out or feeling sore just make sure that they are being properly rested, hydrated, and taken care before they go out on the field and try to perform the job they’re asked.