I don’t have muscle pain even after exercising… Does that mean exercise isn’t effective?

 

Just because you don't have muscle soreness doesn't mean your workout isn't effective.

Muscle soreness occurs when microscopic damage occurs to muscles during exercise or when waste products like lactic acid accumulate. If you exercise at an appropriate intensity, you may not experience muscle soreness. Even with a similar amount of exercise, the presence or absence of muscle soreness varies depending on your exercise capacity.

 

Professor Lee Ju-gang of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Gachon University Gil Hospital said, "Just because there is no pain, it does not mean that the amount of exercise was insufficient."

The longer you exercise consistently, the less likely you are to experience muscle soreness. This is because by gradually increasing the amount and intensity of exercise, you raise your threshold for muscle soreness, and you also develop the ability to adjust the intensity of your exercise to a level that doesn't cause too much pain.

 

Professor Jong-Geol Do of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Samsung Medical Center said, "The muscles themselves adapt to exercise, so pain gradually disappears," and "the system for processing lactic acid also develops."

There are also exercises that are prone to causing muscle pain.

Muscle pain is particularly common when performing 'eccentric muscle contraction exercises'.

 

Eccentric muscle contraction is a type of exercise that contracts muscles against an external force. A typical example is slowly releasing the force when returning a stretched rubber band to its original length so that it doesn't return too quickly. Furthermore, high-intensity, non-stop exercise can lead to increased lactic acid accumulation as lactic acid removal cannot keep up with production, leading to increased muscle soreness. Conversely, moderate-intensity, high-repetition exercise does not cause severe muscle soreness. In fact, a domestic study confirmed that moderate-intensity exercise at around 40% of normal strength resulted in the greatest decrease in blood lactate concentration. Furthermore, aerobic exercise is less severe than strength training in terms of muscle soreness.

 

However, if your goal is to bulk up your muscles, it's best to exercise until you feel a dull ache. This is because muscle cells need to be damaged to send signals to the nuclei of the muscle cells to produce protein, which leads to muscle growth.

 

On the other hand, exercising repeatedly while experiencing muscle pain can worsen soreness, leading to inflammation and muscle loss, which can lead to long-term injury. In such cases, it's better to rest properly rather than exercise. If severe muscle pain is a problem, post-workout massage, stretching, or light aerobic exercise can be helpful. This promotes blood circulation, which helps expel waste products like lactic acid. When stretching, hold the stretch for 10 to 20 seconds without bouncing back, fully stretching the muscle.

 

Rebounding can actually cause more damage to surrounding muscles and tendons. Furthermore, adequate hydration before and after exercise is essential. If muscle pain persists for more than a week despite these efforts, you should seek medical attention for a diagnosis.

 

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If you feel fine the next day after working out hard,

Have you ever thought, "Hey! Did I not work out properly yesterday?"

 

I don't exercise much

I've thought about that before

Just because I don't have muscle pain

It's not like I didn't exercise, lol

 

Our staff say that when they do strength training, it's so hard to walk the next day.

On days like that, you have to do more than the day before.

They say that muscle pain is gradually disappearing.

That's the right way too