What's that burning in your muscles mean?

Do you know how much I love my job? I love helping you all feel better and making a difference in your lives. I also love the one-on-one time I get to spend with each one of you, talking, or just being present with you while you sink into relaxation.

Many of the things I write about in my emails and blog posts come from our conversations during the week. Lately, I’ve had a lot of people ask about the burning muscle sensations that they experience after working out.

It’s been a common misconception that the reason massage helps lessen these burning feelings is because it’s helping to flush out lactic acid that’s sitting in the muscles after exercise. This is actually false.

While lactic acid is produced during workouts because the muscles aren’t getting enough oxygen to turn food into energy, the lactic acid is quickly cleared from the system.

What’s really causing the burning is the tiny tears that occur in the muscles.

This is a normal thing and is how your muscles grow.

When you lift weights, run, do push-ups, etc., your muscles tear a little bit, and then during recovery the body fuses the muscle fibers together to form mybrofils, which increase in thickness and number, and viola! Muscle growth!

The real reason massage helps with the healing process is because it’s bringing fresh blood, and therefore oxygen, to the muscles that is needed to facilitate healing, by increasing the circulation in the damaged area.

Along with massage, here are some self help tips for you to use:

• Drink a lot of water.
• Get plenty of sleep.
• Move! Take a walk, stretch, do some range of motion exercises.
• Avoid inflammatory foods like sugar, coffee and white bread.

 

As always, thank you for reading this, for being my clients and for making my day! If you’re ready to schedule your next appointment, you can do so here.