Water with sugar to cure sore muscles (agujetas)?
Remember that day when you played that sport you're not used to play, or that day you decided you were going to start running? It felt great at the moment, but the day after you had so much muscle pain that waking up from the bed was as hard as it can be. Well, if this is your case, you experienced post exercise muscle soreness. My grandmother told me once to drink water with sugar to stop the pain, but it didn't work... let's see what science say about this.
WHAT CAUSES THE MUSCLE PAIN?
Muscle soreness (muscle pain called "agujetas" in Spanish) is experienced after doing intense physical activity or just some physical activity that our body is not used to do. Muscle pain is the result of micro-tears in the muscle fibers and the cells in the tissue around them, caused by the muscle contractions during exercise. Those micro-tears cause an inflammatory process that continues during 24-48 hours after the exercise, so it's normal to experience even more pain the second day after the physical activity.
WHAT CAN YOU DO BEFORE EXERCISE TO PREVENT MUSCLE PAIN?
Muscle pain is inevitable, but there are many things we can do to minimize it. As a general advice, the key to reduce muscle soreness is to be constant in your training routine. Also, doing a good warm up before the activity is crucial to raise the body temperature and reduce muscle damage.
WHAT CAN YOU DO AFTER EXERCISE TO PREVENT MUSCLE PAIN?
Once the physical activity is finished, it's very important to cool down our body by doing stretches that will help our muscles to go back to their resting state. Series of static stretches of 30 seconds have been found very effective for this purpose.
Also, a cold shower or immerse baths in cold water are also recommended right after the exercise, to reduce the inflammatory process.
Then, once you have that muscle pain, the most effective way to get rid of it is by doing the same physical activity that caused it, but gently, with less intensity. I know it sounds crazy, but this helps because the blood supply increases in the affected area and this facilitates the cleaning of the waste products and the healing of the muscle damage, reducing the pain. Hydrotherapy (spa, jacuzzi, etc), body massage and stretches can also help to fully recover.
WATER WITH SUGAR CAN HELP?
What has the water with sugar has to do with all of this? Nothing at all. Water with sugar won't help you to reduce the pain or to prevent having muscle soreness, so don't bother trying! So, we can say that another MYTH has been BUSTED!
REFERENCES
Peinado, S. (2011). Estirar reduce el dolor muscular y las agujetas después de ejercicios excéntricos. Retrieved from http://www.vitonica.com
Rojas, M. (2016, October 4). ¿Por qué las agujetas son peores dos días después del ejercicio?. Retrieved from http://www.elpais.com
WHAT CAUSES THE MUSCLE PAIN?
Muscle soreness (muscle pain called "agujetas" in Spanish) is experienced after doing intense physical activity or just some physical activity that our body is not used to do. Muscle pain is the result of micro-tears in the muscle fibers and the cells in the tissue around them, caused by the muscle contractions during exercise. Those micro-tears cause an inflammatory process that continues during 24-48 hours after the exercise, so it's normal to experience even more pain the second day after the physical activity.
WHAT CAN YOU DO BEFORE EXERCISE TO PREVENT MUSCLE PAIN?
Muscle pain is inevitable, but there are many things we can do to minimize it. As a general advice, the key to reduce muscle soreness is to be constant in your training routine. Also, doing a good warm up before the activity is crucial to raise the body temperature and reduce muscle damage.
WHAT CAN YOU DO AFTER EXERCISE TO PREVENT MUSCLE PAIN?
Once the physical activity is finished, it's very important to cool down our body by doing stretches that will help our muscles to go back to their resting state. Series of static stretches of 30 seconds have been found very effective for this purpose.
Also, a cold shower or immerse baths in cold water are also recommended right after the exercise, to reduce the inflammatory process.
 |
| Having a cold shower or bath will help reducing the inflammation after exercise and minimize muscle soreness |
Then, once you have that muscle pain, the most effective way to get rid of it is by doing the same physical activity that caused it, but gently, with less intensity. I know it sounds crazy, but this helps because the blood supply increases in the affected area and this facilitates the cleaning of the waste products and the healing of the muscle damage, reducing the pain. Hydrotherapy (spa, jacuzzi, etc), body massage and stretches can also help to fully recover.
 |
| Stretching after exercise will help calming the muscles and reduce soreness |
WATER WITH SUGAR CAN HELP?
What has the water with sugar has to do with all of this? Nothing at all. Water with sugar won't help you to reduce the pain or to prevent having muscle soreness, so don't bother trying! So, we can say that another MYTH has been BUSTED!
REFERENCES
Peinado, S. (2011). Estirar reduce el dolor muscular y las agujetas después de ejercicios excéntricos. Retrieved from http://www.vitonica.com
Rojas, M. (2016, October 4). ¿Por qué las agujetas son peores dos días después del ejercicio?. Retrieved from http://www.elpais.com
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