Why did my muscles stop hurting after training?
What does muscle pain after exercise indicate - the main reasons
When we exercise, the body requires more energy, so it uses carbohydrates, more precisely, glucose. It breaks down without the participation of oxygen; its final oxidation product is lactic acid ion or lactate. During intense physical activity, all the lactate does not have time to be eliminated, and lactic acid accumulates in the muscles. After training, the burning stops - within a couple of hours, lactic acid is removed from the muscle fibers.
The burning goes away, but the muscles are moderately sore. This is a pleasant fatigue from a lack of energy and nutritional material. After 4-6 hours, reserves are restored and the feeling of fatigue goes away. But it is replaced by pain.
Post-workout muscle pain does not mean muscle growth, and it is not an indicator of quality training, as many amateur athletes think. Painful sensations indicate microtraumas - destruction of the internal structure of the muscles. It sounds menacing, in fact, there is nothing terrible, it is not a serious muscle rupture, and there is no need to see a doctor. This is a normal condition after a strenuous workout. For more information about the mechanism of “correct” muscle pain (it is also called anabolic), read our article “Why muscles hurt and how to live with it.”
From this beneficial muscle pain after a workout, many fitness enthusiasts get literally masochistic pleasure, realizing that the efforts were not in vain, the muscles received the necessary physical activity and their growth began.
But there comes a moment when it seems like you trained intensely, but there is no pain. What is the reason? Why don't my muscles hurt after training? Does this mean that the load was insufficient and muscle growth slowed down?
It is important to understand that pain has nothing to do with muscle growth. Muscle fibers grow after recovery during the period of adaptation to future loads.
young woman
Pain does not mean that muscles are growing
Why is there still no muscle pain after exercise?
We will have to plunge into the processes of biochemistry of muscle tissue more deeply.
Each workout not only enhances protein synthesis, but also accumulates creatine phosphate in the muscles. The concentration and activity of glycolysis and oxidation enzymes (processes responsible for energy metabolism in muscles) also increases.
Thanks to this response of the body to each workout (precisely regular, without long breaks), it becomes increasingly difficult to exhaust the supply of creatine phosphate, one of the energy sources in the body, and at a high level of physical fitness it is almost impossible. Thanks to this, a stressful situation does not occur.
This is the answer to why post-workout pain is felt especially strongly after the first sessions, practically disappears with regular exercise and appears again after a long break.
But muscles after training may not hurt in other cases.
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Typical reasons for lack of muscle pain
The muscles of one group are constantly loaded
If you perform the same set of exercises for a long time, the pain goes away - the muscles are already accustomed to the constant load.
Review the program and include exercises for other muscle groups.
Light load
If the load is insufficient, the muscles work at half strength, there are no microtears, and there is no post-workout pain.
You need to increase the load - increase the intensity of exercise, do more approaches, reduce the rest time between exercises, increase the training time.
Fast muscle regeneration
This is not a reason to panic, but rather a bonus from nature to your body. Everyone has different genetic data - and if you recover quickly, muscle pain after training may appear only after the first few sessions, when you are still new to the sport.
Why muscles don't hurt with regular exercise
The body adapts to systematic exercise - muscle strength increases and their performance increases. Muscle tissue becomes more elastic, elastic and no longer hurts after training.
Thus, if there is no muscle pain after training and does not appear after increasing the load, this is a sign that an adaptation process has occurred. Many experienced athletes do not experience post-workout muscle pain, and this does not interfere with their progress.
But there are important points to remember:
Increase the load gradually, but not excessively, beware of overtraining. If the body has not yet recovered to the required condition, and you again load it to the point of muscle failure, trying to achieve more, the pain will be stronger. And this is “bad”, unproductive pain that can lead to injury and illness.
Eat a balanced diet, including proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
How much
No matter how much they talk about the benefits of sleep, many people neglect it - they sleep less than 7-8 hours, and go to bed after midnight. But it is proper sleep that has the greatest impact on recovery after training.
Correct technique for performing exercises and proper recovery after exercise are important points. Proper technique requires good stretching, so warming up before training is mandatory.
Recovery occurs faster if you relieve tension with myofascial release on a roll or stretching across all muscle groups. In general, you need to constantly work on stretching. It helps maintain range of motion in your joints so that your muscles don't shorten or weaken.
Summary
Remember, pain is not an indicator of success. Monitor your results and adequately evaluate your progress. If there is no muscle pain, but there is progress, you are doing everything right.
If after each lesson you have a sore throat, and the results do not improve, you are simply overworking. We must follow the path of reducing the volume and intensity of the load.
For you on our website there are 90 training programs for any muscle group and for any purpose. Choose based on your needs and start training regularly.
