Athletic experience isn’t required for someone to feel the lasting and aching effects of DOMS (delayed-onset muscle soreness). Oftentimes, the aftermath of those effects may exist along a spectrum that ranges from substantial muscle tenderness to debilitating discomfort. Also, the duration of those effects may exist along a spectrum that ranges from 24 – 72 hours. One misconception correlates a great workout with the subsequent symptoms of delayed-onset muscle soreness, but that just isn’t the case. With that said, DOMS often will happen in accord with doing new exercises or increasing the duration and/or intensity of an existing exercise.
The lingering stiffness and soreness as a result of delayed-onset muscle soreness may frequently cause people to seek methods that ultimately will decrease those symptoms, as well as accelerate their return to the gym. Unfortunately, most of the treatment options in the market have mixed results because of exercise’s individualized nature. Some might get adequate results through techniques, like ibuprofen or massage, while other ones might not; whereby, some techniques prove to be fully ineffective, like stretching and cryotherapy. What’s more, let us look at a freshly proposed DOMS treatment and whether its outcome is promising.
BFR training is used as a way to regain strength
Often, BFR (blood-flow restriction) training is used in physical therapy as a way to regain strength without having to add a heavyweight, with the help of a BFR cuff set which you can find from Source Fitness. A person’s venous blood supply is terminated at the injury area, which, as a result, decreases the quantity of oxygen at the site, encourages muscle hypertrophy, and activates anaerobic metabolism. It’ll prove to be an efficient way to restrengthen the muscle of those who only lift lighter loads. However, where’s the crossover between blood-flow restriction and delayed-onset muscle soreness?
Blood-flow restriction training may attenuate DOMS
Blood-flow restriction is believed to offer an alternative method of training that achieves the same muscle gains as resistance training with heavy loads while additionally decreasing DOMS effects. It has been suggested that blood-flow restriction training might attenuate delayed-onset muscle soreness by preventing calcium-mediated proteolysis, as well as by recruiting quick-twitch motor units. But it also has been thought that BFR training might induce muscle damage through a lack of oxygen within the tissues or through the decrease of neutrophils that help in the inflammatory response.
Study of blood-flow restriction training on DOMS
Researchfrom 2019 examined the impact of BFR training on delayed-onset muscle soreness by using twenty-five untrained females then submitting them to isokinetic forearm flexion training, in which 50% did a bicep curl with a blood-flow restriction cuff at a load that reflected a 30 percent eccentric peak torque than the additional 50% at a load that reflected a 30 percent concentric peak torque. These findings uncovered neither concentric nor eccentric movements with a BFR cuff resulting in delayed-onset muscle soreness following the 7 training days. Those results weren’t consistent with other research that showed a rise in delayed-onset muscle soreness with concentric exercises. Is that inconsistency caused by a lack of diversity, a low number of participants, or the experiment duration being only seven days?
Similar to the other muscle recovery methods, blood-flow restriction training might not be the most efficient method of minimizing DOMS. Exercise may be variable and impacted by genetics, which might be the reason a reliable and consistent method for treating delayed-onset muscle soreness has yet to be discovered.