What to do if you feel uncomfortable during exercise? Muscle relaxation can help

This is the 4411th article of Da Yi Xiao Hu

"Fitness can increase happiness, fitness can improve cardiopulmonary function..." With the in-depth promotion of some fitness institutions, more and more people are doing fitness. People want to improve their physical condition through exercise training, which is a good starting point, but many people experience muscle soreness and other discomfort after fitness.

In daily life, muscle soreness is likely to occur after a long or intense exercise. Some people may also experience muscle soreness within 24 to 72 hours after exercise, which is called "delayed onset muscle soreness."

Muscle soreness after fitness is mainly due to the dysfunction of the human connective tissue caused by excessive exercise. This dysfunction will be treated as damage by the body, and then a cumulative damage cycle will begin. Trauma to the body's tissues will lead to inflammation, which will stimulate the body's pain receptors, triggering a self-protection mechanism, increasing muscle tension and causing muscle spasms. This muscle spasm is not as severe as a calf cramp, but a micro-spasm caused by the increased activity of muscle spindles in certain locations in a specific muscle. Micro-spasm can cause adhesions (knots or trigger points) to form in the soft tissue. This adhesion leads to the accumulation of metabolites, such as lactic acid, which causes muscle soreness and other discomfort.

What should you do if you experience muscle soreness after working out? Muscle relaxation techniques are a good choice. As the name suggests, muscle relaxation techniques are techniques for relaxing muscles, relieving muscle spasms, and improving local metabolism. Muscle relaxation techniques can not only make our fitness results more effective, but also prevent injuries after exercise. They are a "good news" for people who are keen on fitness.

There are three main types of effective muscle relaxation techniques:

1. Drafting

Stretching is mainly a self-exercise that stretches the muscles by stretching the limbs. Stretching can not only relieve muscle soreness after fitness, but also prevent delayed soreness. But be careful: do not stretch too quickly or too hard. Too much force may further damage the connective tissue. Static stretching in stretching is a simple and effective method. The stretching time should not be too long, and there should be a break in the middle to facilitate blood circulation. Slow and continuous muscle stretching can feel a slight soreness in the muscles. After maintaining this feeling for a period of time, the soreness can gradually ease.

2. Massage

Kneading techniques are often used. When operating, put four fingers together, separate the thumb, and make the hand into a clamp shape. Put the palm and fingers close to the sore skin. Use the thumb and four fingers to pull the muscle slightly upwards and move it in a rotating manner in the centripetal direction. Acupoint massage can also be used in combination. After determining the action point, use the middle finger and thumb to apply pressure to the action point. The fingers continue to slowly apply pressure and rotate deep into the body. Massage each action point for 1-1.5 minutes.

3. Use of cold and hot compresses

If you experience muscle soreness or joint pain during fitness training, it may be because you have not exercised for a long time and suddenly started high-intensity exercise, which has led to a large accumulation of lactic acid in the muscles and made it impossible to breathe aerobicly, or because of high-intensity exercise, you have caused muscle strain. In this case, you can use cold compresses to improve muscle soreness or joint pain; when delayed muscle soreness occurs, you need to apply hot compresses. This can promote blood circulation, speed up metabolism, and relieve symptoms.

Mastering muscle relaxation techniques and using them promptly after training can improve the discomfort symptoms after fitness. Of course, if severe muscle soreness or joint swelling and pain occur and the above muscle relaxation methods do not relieve them, you should go to a medical institution in time to seek help from professional medical staff to avoid delaying the condition.

Author: Guanghua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Rehabilitation Department Chen Jiancheng Shaodan