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Picture this scenario: You get through a tough workout on Sunday—whether it’s a tough round of 800-meter repeats or 16 miles at marathon pace—and, surprisingly, you feel fine afterwards.
The next morning, you’re a little stiff, but nothing too serious. You take a day to rest, and then head back out on Tuesday for an easy run.
Then, boom. Your legs feel like they’re made of lead, you’re sore all over, and what’s supposed to be an easy run feels like you’re wading through molasses. What the heck happened?!
This is what Cory Smith, running coach and founder of Run Your Personal Best, calls “second-day syndrome.” The official term is delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS, but he likes to use second-day syndrome because it nails home the point that the ailment often happens two days after a hard workout, which a lot of people don’t expect.
Why the Two-Day Delay?
Before getting to the bottom of why DOMS happens, let’s start with simple definitions. The American College of Sports Medicine defines DOMS as, “A sore, aching, painful feeling in the muscles after unfamiliar and unaccustomed intense exercise.” Basically, whenever you lift weights, run a tough workout, go rock climbing, or do an activity beyond your current level of fitness, you’re creating tiny tears in muscle tissue. In response, your body releases chemicals, lipids, alongside white blood cells like cytokines, macrophages, and neutrophils to quickly repair those muscles. This flurry of activity in localized areas of the body also initiates an inflammatory response. The muscle tears, rebuilding process, and inflammation creates that soreness and stiffness DOMS is recognized for.
“The soreness peaks anywhere from 24 to 48 hours after the initial stress, so it’s common for runners to feel fine the next morning and think they’re all good and recovered,” Smith says. “But then, on that second day, you might feel worse than you did yesterday.” This is because there’s a delay in delivery of blood flow to the muscle also called the “inflammatory cascade.” Think of muscle repair as a slow ramp-up process; sometimes it takes a few days to reach peak soreness.
Is DOMS Inevitable?
Though it can be painful, annoying, and hindering, DOMS shouldn’t last long-term. In fact, it won’t be a recurring sensation.
“Eventually, through repeating the cycle of damaging and healing, you’ll grow stronger,” Smith says. “Your body is going to be accustomed to this stress and you’ll feel DOMS less and less.”
Depending on the severity of your workout and how often you repeat it, DOMS generally goes away in a few weeks. Your muscles heal, rebuild stronger, and eventually become accustomed to the intense exercise. Contrary to popular belief, just because that soreness goes away doesn’t mean you didn’t have a hard workout. Your body has just adapted and may require less recovery.
“If you’re not almost recovered from a normal workout on the third day, you probably went too hard,” Smith says. “Generally, it depends on the type of workout that you’re doing— some light temp work—you may only need a day in between and you’ll be recovered. Whereas if you’re doing hard 800s, you’ll probably need two full days to recover. For a long run at marathon pace, you might need three days.”
The Latest Science
Since defining DOMS, research has traditionally been focused on muscle tissue damage. But a recent study published by the International Journal of Molecular Sciences has shown that connective tissue, like deep fascia, may be more involved than previously thought. Deep fascia is connective tissue surrounding muscles, and it facilitates movement between muscles and acts as a pathway for blood vessels.
Authors of the study believe that they’ve found evidence that proves further research and effort needs to be focused on the fascia, rather than just muscle tissue. This also means that runners may want to pay more attention to their fascia, as it doesn’t respond to conventional static stretching, rather multiple planes of stretching and mobility. It’s less about stretching individual muscles, but lengthening the connections made by the fascia.
There are several ways to target this connective tissue. One effective method is pedal during yoga: downward facing dog, the extended side angle pose, and the standing figure-four stretch.
Stay Stretched and Keep Moving
There’s no fix-all method to preventing DOMS, but recovery protocols may dictate how severe or sustained your soreness will be. Smith recommends static stretching no more than six minutes after your run. It’s important to get those muscles stretched as quickly as possible after a run so they don’t tighten up. Tight muscles can prevent cells from expanding and bringing blood flow to the muscles. You need fresh blood and oxygen delivered to the worked out muscles, as it carries away the lactic acid buildup there. A massage gun can produce the same results.
“Movement is key! My go-to for runners is walking for 20 to 30 minutes after a hard workout, but an easy spin or recovery swim will also work,” says physical therapist and running coach Amy Parkerson-Mitchell.
Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate
The American Council on Exercise recommends drinking 7-10 ounces of water every 10-20 minutes during your run, and an additional 8 ounces within 30 minutes after. When you sweat, you lose water, which is important for oxygen delivery to the muscles. Plus, water acts as a sort of medium within the body to deliver nutrients like amino acids and electrolytes to damaged muscles.
Focus on Heat
You might be inclined to reach for an ice pack when you’re recovering from a long run, but Parkerson-Mitchell says that heat is key. In a study comparing heat and cold therapies for recovery, researchers found that applying heat directly after a workout produced less muscle damage. Ice, on the other hand, is great for when you’re in the midst of DOMS, rather than before it happens, because it eases swelling and numbs pain.
There are two types of heat therapy: dry heat in the form of heating pads, and moist heat in the form of steam towels or a hot bath. Both are effective, but the Orthopedic Institute of Pennsylvania says that moist heat works faster in changing the muscles temperature.
Don’t Rush It
Amy Parkerson-Mitchell says warming up and cooling down is more important than people think, and skipping these steps can increase the time required for recovery from DOMS. Dynamic mobility exercises like walking high-kicks, knee-to-chest, and walking lunges are good for cold muscles prior to a run because you’re moving your joints through their full range of motion. One of the biggest mistakes you can make with DOMS is going too fast too soon after a hard workout.
“This is why, with my clients, we do two hard workouts a week,” Smith says. “Typically, I give two days for runners to recover from a difficult run. If you do too much too soon, that’s when you lead into stagnant performance and overtraining.”
But the too-often overlooked component of DOMS is the negative implications it has on your mindset. You might feel discouraged by how tough a run feels when you experience DOMS, especially after conquering a longer, tougher workout just a few days prior. Don’t fret or feel like you’re losing progress—remember that what you’re experiencing is completely normal, and something you can minimize for a sustainable, long-term running life.