Almost everyone is familiar with sore muscles after physical exertion. Pharmacist Ursula Funke, President of the Hessen State Chamber of Pharmacists, explains what can be done against sore muscles, why overworked muscles hurt and why it is better to take it easy.
Sore muscles always occur when the muscles are used much more than usual: the affected body region hurts, the muscles are sensitive to pressure, feel hard and sometimes swollen.
The unusual or excessive strain causes fine cracks in the muscle tissue that are initially not painful. There are no pain receptors within the muscle fibers to perceive the tears. Fluid slowly leaks into the tissue through the micro-cracks, causing small edema to form, which causes pain when stretched. In addition, inflammatory messengers are released that hit pain receptors when they leave the cell. These processes take several hours. Sometimes the muscle soreness does not appear until 18 hours after the exertion.
Protection is the order of the day
Sore muscles make you feel stiff and you don’t want to train hard. You should listen to this feeling, because as long as the muscle groups are busy regenerating, it is important to avoid heavy loads. Excessive hardness against oneself would not lead to an improvement. On the contrary: performance decreases and injuries such as strains or torn muscle fibers can even occur. The body needs a few days to repair the damaged muscle strands. How long this takes also depends on the severity of the sore muscles and the age.
Support regeneration
While the body is recovering, you can support it with numerous measures. A central factor here is to stimulate blood flow to the affected tissue. Because: A good blood circulation supports the removal of the messenger substances from the aching muscle. Therefore, it is not necessary to give up sports completely. In the recovery phase, the focus should be on loosening exercises and light endurance sports such as swimming or cycling. Walks, a sauna or a hot bath also relieve the symptoms.
There are also a large number of blood circulation-enhancing medicines available in the local pharmacy: creams, oils, gels or roll-ons with natural active ingredients such as arnica, camphor, peppermint, eucalyptus, lavender, bergamot, stone pine, rosemary and spruce needles can increase blood circulation. Oils and creams also care for the skin after the relaxing bath. Regardless of whether you opt for a gel, an ointment or a skin oil; all substances should only be massaged in lightly, since kneading too much can increase damage to the muscle.