If you regularly do some sort of resistance training you have experienced the phenomenon of feeling mild to moderate pain and discomfort after you’ve taken your foot off the gas for a week or more. This is very common during the Holiday season or when away on vacation and the like. To the general public it’s a confusing phenomenon, as shouldn’t you feel nothing when not taxing the body? After all, post-workout soreness one feels in their muscles is due to micro-tears in the muscle fibers that occur during exercise. That kind of pain makes sense. So “why am I sore when I don’t workout”, you ask?
To answer this question we are removing underlying medical conditions such as fibromyalgia and Lyme disease (et cetera) that are quoted by some articles that respond to the very same query. The question is more often posed by generally active and healthy persons who want to better understand why soreness creeps in when taking a break from the gym. Below is a breakdown of what you may be experiencing with a concluding call-to-action for how to correct it.
3 Musculoskeletal Reasons Why You Are Likely Sore When You Haven’t Worked Out in Awhile
1. Weaker Supporting Muscles
When you stop working out, you not only quickly lose strength in your “mover muscles” such as the biceps, triceps, quadriceps, and pectorals. You lose strength in your supporting stabilizer muscles too. These muscles are responsible for maintaining joint stability and alignment during movement. When weak, you begin to feel soreness and discomfort.
2. Lack of Lubrication
Synovial fluid is a naturally existing viscous liquid in your body that lubricates and cushions your joints. This fluid is only produced when you’re mobile, which is part of the reason why many people wake up feeling sore and stiff. However, you needn’t need to be completely immobile for synovial fluid production to be compromised. When you take a break from working out, the production of synovial fluid in your joints tends to decrease. This potentially leads to reduced lubrication and subsequently increased susceptibility to joint pain. This is because the fluid isn’t being actively replenished through the movement your body became accustomed to when maintaining a workout regime.
3. Cooccurring Lifestyle Behaviors
Cessation of resistance exercise is often accompanied by other lifestyle behaviors that promote chronic pain. For instance, have you started consuming more sugary foods and beverages, which are associated with inflammation that contributes to pain? Have you been consuming more alcohol, which also has the same effect? Then there’s the lack of dopamine production from not working out that have added to feelings of anxiety and stress which are also associated with inflammation. Even if your other less-healthy habits and behaviors haven’t changed, they no longer have a regular workout regime to balance out their negative (i.e. soreness) effects.
How Physiotherapy Can Help
Physiotherapy and chiropractic interventions will directly solve non-medical musculoskeletal soreness that occurs when taking a break from working out. Further, the movements, stretches, and exercises that a physiotherapist will put you through at the clinic and subscribe for application at home will supplement your abstinence from the gym and mitigate soreness.
Become Pain-Free Through Physio
(Burnaby residents)