Yearn for the SUP Burn!
What is muscle soreness after exercise?
The scientific term for it is Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, or DOMS. DOMS is the discomfort of muscle inflammation, resulting from the muscle being activated in a way that it is not used to. The soreness occurs within 24 hours but may not peak until 48 hours after exercise.
What causes the muscle soreness?
Muscle soreness results from injury to the muscle filaments within the muscle cells (i.e. intracellular injury, visible at the microscopic level only). This is ‘good’ muscle injury, and is not damaging to the muscle cells, as opposed to a muscle tear. Almost any exercise can result in microscopic muscle injury- the exercise just has to stimulate the muscles in a way that they are not adapted to. This might be a new movement, increased resistance, or a change in repetitions.
So why should I love muscle soreness?!
The good news is that Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness goes hand in hand with muscle growth! So here are two reasons why you should love muscle soreness:
- You don’t get muscle growth without muscle soreness, no pain no gain!
- Your muscles burn a huge amount of energy as they recover from the muscle soreness. The microscopic muscle injury must be repaired, and this burns a lot energy in the days following your workout. This means that long after you’ve left the beach and headed home, your muscles are still burning up energy for you! This is in stark contrast to exercise that doesn’t result in muscle soreness, where all the benefits end as soon as your heart rate comes back to normal.
We hope this has shed some light on the question of muscle soreness and stand up paddle boarding. Now go yearn the burn, and have fun doing it!
Happy paddle boarding.
Team Ripple.
