Fitness Talk Friday | How To Prevent DOMS

Fitness Talk Friday | How To Prevent DOMS

DOMS stands for delayed-onset muscle soreness and it happens to all of us. It's what makes you feel the burn while your muscles recover and rebuild.

Even if you’re eating at a calorie deficit, you want to make sure to get enough healthy proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, all which play important roles in repairing and maintaining muscles. A couple hours after working out and when you sleep are two times when protein synthesis aka muscle repair increases. You put your body under a lot of stress when you're working out so don't forget to take care of it after how hard you just pushed it.

What can you do about the post-workout soreness? You can prevent it from happening by doing the right things.

Here are some ideas to try:

1. Drink chocolate milk or eat a protein packed snack after your workout.
2. Drink some tart cherry juice afterwards as it has also been shown to reduce soreness.
3. If you are really big into fitness and constantly have the same sore areas, think about having a sports massage done to help increase your circulation and break up some of those big knots.
4. Take a cold shower after your workout to decrease inflammation in your muscles.
5. Do some good ol' stretching because lengthening your muscles after a workout promotes mobility and helps with recovery.

6. Try a scoop of Beachbody Performance Recover and a pre-bedtime scoop of Beachbody Performance Recharge to assure your body has access to amino acids.

7. Immediately after a tough workout try icing your muscles to starve off inflammation.

8. While ice works immediately after a workout, heat can help increase circulation once your muscles have returned to their resting temperature.

9. Put a foam roller on the floor, use your body weight to apply pressure and roll back and forth over the sore areas for about 60 seconds. *Make sure you rehydrate and get your heart rate back to normal first because when your muscles are hot and loaded with lactic acid, you might make it worse.

10. Add foods that are rich in omega-3s such as salmon, free-range meat, flax, avocado, and walnuts to your diet.

*Stay tuned for next weeks "Fitness Talk Friday" at 7:30pm EST over at Facebook.com/RachelFaulFitness