DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness): What is it actually and what can you do about it?

Who doesn’t know the feeling? After an intense workout, you feel muscles that you never knew you had. We have all experienced sore muscles but what is really causing them to be sore? Should you continue training as usual or take a break? And what can you do to make the lousy pain go away as quickly as possible?

Continue reading for answers to these questions and many more.

Muscle soreness describes a delayed onset of muscle pain after an intense workout.

Basically, it is important to distinguish between functional and structural muscle injuries. Functional muscle injuries include damage to the muscles, e.g. muscle soreness, but also cramps, stiffness and strains.

Structural injuries, e.g. muscle fibre tears, are more serious than functional injuries. However, if functional injuries are not recognised and treated at an early stage, the risk of serious secondary injuries increases.

The following are considered to be the most likely causes of DOMS:

• Unaccustomed loads or movement sequences
• Particularly intense physical stress
• Physical activity after a long period of inactivity (i.e. a long period of inactivity from exercise).
• Eccentric muscle contractions (in this part of the movement the muscle works in a yielding manner. An eccentric contraction occurs during slowing down movements, for example during landing when hopping).
• Skipping a warm-up or doing it incorrectly

The symptoms of muscle soreness do not occur during exercise, but are delayed. Most of the time you will feel the soreness the day after the workout.

Most people describe muscles that are:

• Sensitive to touch
• Swollen
• Stiff and aching
• Weak, lacking strength and challenging to move

The muscle pain usually lasts for 2-3 days. In rare cases, the pain can last up to 5 days. Exactly how long the pain lasts depends on individual factors such as age, training level and intensity, and the muscle group being trained.

If you continue to have severe pain after a week, it is probably not DOMS and you should see a doctor.

There are a multitude of claims about muscle pain. We’ll show you which of these are myths.

In the past, it was increasingly claimed that muscle soreness was caused by lactic acid, or lactate. Lactic acid is produced in the muscles as a result of exercise, but this is not the cause of muscle soreness. Incidentally, if there is a large accumulation of lactate, the muscle’s performance is inhibited.

This assumption is wrong. Doing another demanding workout the day after an intense workout may slow down the recovery process and cause injury to your muscles. This in turn can lead to a longer disruption of your training. However, you can do some light training. To avoid a break, you can simply do an upper body workout after a strenuous leg workout. This allows the area affected by DOMS to take a break.

This is wrong. Even in a hard workout without subsequent DOMS, you can set sufficient stimuli for muscle building. On the flip side, even though your muscles are sore, you may not have had enough stimuli to build them up.

So DOMS should not be used as a measure of muscle growth. The right workout and the right diet are much more important.

However, you should not always train at the same level, but always set new stimuli so that your muscles grow.

You often hear that stretching helps DOMS or prevents them.

Empirically, however, these assumptions cannot be confirmed (Wunderlich, 2016). On the contrary: Hofmeister (2012) found that intensive stretching before or after a hard workout in which microtrauma has occurred can promote or even trigger DOMS. Static stretching in particular increases the risk of injury before the actual exercise. However, dynamic stretching is recommended by some athletes.

Tip: Find out here how to stretch properly and the difference between static and dynamic stretching.

It is difficult to give a clear answer to this question because pain is ultimately subjective. As a rule, there is nothing to be said against light, low-intensity training, especially if it has a regenerative effect. You can do targeted aerobic endurance training, such as swimming, jogging or cycling. The basic rule is this: 

Once the DOMS is resolved, the body can be put under greater strain again.

Before your workout

• Do an effective warm-up
• Start off with exercises without weight or with a minimum weight.

During your workout

• Start with a low intensity and then increase it (e.g. duration of the exercise session / weight), a training plan can help you with this.
• After a longer break from training, you should not immediately start with your last completed intensity.
• Execute the technique cleanly (you should be particularly controlled with eccentric muscle movements).

After your workout

• Cool down after the training session

Generally speaking, you should exercise regularly. If you are more trained, you are less likely to get DOMS. Don’t forget to increase the intensity of the workout so that your body doesn’t get used to the exercises.

If you already have sore muscles, there is unfortunately no miracle cure that will help you get rid of them straight away.

However, our 5 tips will help you to be pain-free again quickly.

If you have severe DOMS, it is best to give the affected muscles a rest. The muscles are overstrained and now need time to repair themselves. Further strain will hinder recovery and, in the worst case, can increase muscle soreness.

Whether it’s a visit to the sauna, heat pads or a soak in the hot tub, warming the affected muscle groups increases blood circulation and thus ensures that the muscle soreness subsides more quickly. Alternating showers are also helpful: taking alternating hot and cold showers stimulates muscles even more!

You also must not sit on the sofa and wait for the pain to subside.

Light exercise can help the body renew muscle cells because it stimulates circulation and metabolism. Blood circulation increases and the muscles are supplied with more oxygen and nutrients. So if you have sore thigh muscles, you shouldn’t go for a fast run but for a short walk instead.

Many athletes now swear by this new form of self-massage: the foam roller aka the fascia roller! Foam rolling is quite simple: take a foam roller and roll over it with the parts of your body that are suffering from DOMS. This loosens the fasciae. Fasciae are connective tissues that coat muscles and organs. Loosening the fasciae is also said to improve circulation.

Topical pain relief ointments containing arnica help best. Pain relief ointments contain various mixtures of active ingredients, including:

• Rosemary oil
• Camphor
• Arnica
• Menthol
• Capsaicin

All these active ingredients have one thing in common: they stimulate blood circulation and can thus relieve muscle pain.

A small dose of painkillers (ibuprofen is best) can also help relieve sore muscles. But be careful! Those who no longer feel the pain also tend to put (a lot of) strain on their muscles again.

Nutrition is a crucial factor when recovering from injuries and after intense training sessions.

In general, you should keep hydrated. You can drink water, but also green tea, which has an anti-inflammatory effect.

In the following section, you can read exactly which foods you should eat and what they do.

(according to Wessinghage, 2009 & Pöttgen, 2019)

There are many reports circulating the internet about athletes who swear by dietary supplements. You often hear about omega-3 fatty acids or L-carnitine, which are said to improve symptoms of DOMS or allegedly have a preventive effect. However, research has not yet reached a consensus about their alleged effects on DOMS.

Regarding the specific intake of omega-3 fatty acids for sore muscles, Pöttgen (2019) says: “The best recommendation may be to consume foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as oily fish, rather than to take supplements. […] It is unclear […] whether supplementation should [still] be made”. In the worst cases, omega-3 fatty acids could lead to bleeding or digestive problems.

L-Carnitine is said to have a performance-enhancing effect, although this has not been scientifically proven. For vegans and vegetarians, however, supplementing with L-Carnitine makes sense because we mainly absorb it from red meat.

If your symptoms of DOMS are only mild, you can continue to train at a low intensity. If the muscle pain is very severe, then further exercise should be put on hold. Particular measures such as heat treatment and good nutrition are excellent ways to accelerate the healing process in the case of severe DOMS. However, to prevent DOMS in the first place, you should build up your training gradually and warm up beforehand.

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