After Hours

How you exercise is important, but so is how you relax post workout.

- Himakshi Batra

Punch your pain harder

After a great workout session, it’s absolutely normal to feel a certain amount of muscle soreness. Pain or soreness in your muscles after intense physical activity is also known as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). DOMS occurs when you are new to an exercise programme, change your exercise routine, or increase the intensity of physical activity.

When muscles work harder or differently than they are used to, it causes microscopic damage to the muscle fibers which is the reason behind pain or soreness. This pain or soreness is actually a sign that your muscles are getting used to physical activity and this pain will eventually disappear when your body adapts and gets stronger.

Sunjay Ghai, Founder & CEO, ‘Revofit’ and ‘Hello Green by Revofit’ says “The biggest mistake that people make is that they do not get into a physical program gradually. They want a Stallone like body in 1 month. So the first point is to let your body adjust to the new stress. Secondly, warm up before intense workouts so that blood is pumping through your muscles as this usually helps reduce DOMS. Thirdly, do dynamic stretching before your workout begins and do static stretches during each set and post your workout. This should also reduce DOMS. Stretching increases your range of motion along with flexibility to perform various other exercises. Force yourself to stretch until you feel the pull in your muscle. Initially this will be difficult, but once you make this your workout routine, it won’t take much time.”