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Massage and Care During Off Time (Dealing with Soreness)
Taken from Variables for Weight Lifting and Exercise © 2003 Anthony Sell - All Rights Reserved
After training it is not uncommon to have muscular soreness and a sense of general fatigue. An athlete will develop a sense of what feels right and what feels extreme in their body. It is important to record what you feel as your training progresses through stages of intensity. The golden rule, of course is if in doubt, ask for advice. Doctors, trainers, and even fellow weight lifters and training partners can often offer a world of information and advice.
Above and beyond all, there is one method of treatment that is safe to use for many types of injuries and ailments. The acronym is RICE: Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. This is largely the advice given for most sports injuries including pulled muscles, strains, and general soreness.
Of the four terms in that acronym, the most deceiving is Rest. There will be times when you will feel like you are or should be ready to push yourself again, but your body needs more rest. This is one of the conditions that cause overtraining (with the second being malnutrition).
Symptoms of overtraining caused by lack of rest may include general and deep soreness that is longer lasting than usual, stress, muscle tension, eye fatigue, difficulty getting up in the morning. Remember, if your body does not have enough rest between workouts, it will not be able to replenish its supply of Lactic Acid and Creatine Phosphate, two of the major chemical ingredients in developing muscular growth.
Though, working without enough rest is another way of applying stress to the body, which would theoretically cause growth, it is nor recommended for several reasons. One, your body has to be able to replenish its supplies or you will not be able to accomplish as much (you only have so much steam to run on). Second, there are more efficient methods of creating resistance and stress for growth. Last, it is likely that if you push yourself through a lack of rest, that you will injure yourself and severely impede your progress.
Stretching and Massage are two other keys to fast recovery, as they will both clear blockages within the muscle, allowing increased blood flow to the muscle as it repairs itself. This in turn will allow for more nutrients to reach the deeper tissues of the muscle, and will allow for the passage of the body's natural pain killers. It can be a very helpful and relieving practice to knead through the muscle fiber of the major muscle groups the day after the workout.