Feeling sore after exercising is normal, and sore muscles can be a common experience. This happens because your muscles get small tears and swell as they adjust to new activities. Research shows that soreness is strongest within a day, especially for younger people, because their muscles experience more damage. 

Fortunately, muscle soreness can be reduced by drinking water, eating healthy, and doing light exercise. This article gives you some quick recommendations on how to reduce muscle soreness in a short amount of time. There are physical methods as well as methods that help with post-workout recovery with the help of compression boots.

Why Do Muscles Hurt After Exercising?

This soreness, called delayed onset muscle soreness, happens when you try new or tough activities. During exercise, tiny tears form in your muscles. It might sound bad, but it helps your muscles grow stronger.

Your body fixes these tears through a repair process. This repair causes swelling, making muscles feel stiff or tender. You usually feel this soreness a day or two later. That’s why it’s called delayed-onset muscle soreness. 

Some exercises, like lifting weights or running downhill, can make soreness worse. These moves stretch your muscles while they work. This can cause more soreness, but it shows your muscles are adjusting to the effort.

Don’t worry about the soreness. It doesn’t mean you did something wrong. It’s a normal part of getting fitter. By resting and taking care of your body, you can reduce soreness and feel ready to exercise again.

Related reading: How Ublives Air Compression Boots Enhance Recovery

Are Sore Muscles A Good Sign

You might wonder if sore muscles after a workout mean you’re doing something right. The short answer? Yes, they can be a good sign. Muscle soreness, especially delayed-onset muscle soreness, shows that your body is adapting to the effort you put in. It’s like your muscles saying, “We’re working hard to get stronger!”

When you exercise, your muscles go through a process called eccentric contraction. This happens when your muscles lengthen while under tension, like when you lower a weight or run downhill. These movements cause tiny tears in the muscle fibers. While it might sound alarming, this is actually a key part of building strength. Your body repairs these tears, making your muscles stronger and more resilient.

Here’s why soreness can be a positive thing:

• It signals that your muscles are engaging effectively during your workout.

• The micro-tears caused by eccentric contractions lead to muscle growth over time.

• It’s a natural part of your body’s repair and recovery process.

But remember, soreness isn’t the only measure of a good workout. If you’re not sore, it doesn’t mean you didn’t work hard. Everyone’s body responds differently. The key is to listen to your body and give it the care it needs to recover. Stay hydrated, eat well, and rest when needed. That way, you’ll keep making progress without overdoing it.

How To Relieve Sore Muscles Fast After a Workout

Sore muscles after a workout make you not even want to climb the stairs? Training is a prerequisite for progress, but recovery is the key. If you just “wait for it to get better”, then recovery is bound to be slower. What we want is systematic recovery, not a lucky break. Here are 8 recovery strategies we've broken down that you can use right away.

Apply Cold or Heat

Cold packs are good for swelling and tingling sensations 0-24 hours after exercise. Cold showers, ice packs, and even frozen beer cans can be used as ice packs. The principle is simple: cold temperature constricts blood vessels and reduces the inflammatory response by decreasing oozing from ruptured tiny blood vessels. Studies have shown that icing within 30 minutes of the end of a workout can reduce the amount of muscle swelling by up to 30%.

Heat packs for relieving tension and stiffness 24 hours after a workout. Hot towels, electric blankets, and hot water baths all promote increased local blood flow. Heat helps oxygen and nutrients get to the site of injury and supports cellular repair. The American College of Sports Medicine states that heat therapy increases localized blood flow to muscles by about 37 percent.

The best strategy is to alternate hot and cold to cross-stimulate faster relief of soreness. 15 minutes of cold + 15 minutes of heat in a cycle of 2-3 rounds. Alternating between hot and cold will encourage alternating vasodilation and contraction, which is equivalent to “pumping” circulation to the muscles, helping to remove metabolic waste.

Use Muscle Recovery Products

The Foam Roller is not for posing, it is based on the principle of Self-Myofascial Release (SMR). Rolling back and forth over each sore spot for 30-60 seconds effectively releases localized fascial adhesions and improves muscle glide. A 2020 systematic review showed that foam shafts used after exercise reduced the intensity of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) by nearly 50%.

The Leg Recovery Sleeve accelerates the removal of lactic acid by applying constant light pressure to the muscles and increasing the rate of venous return. Studies have shown that within 48 hours of wearing the compression garment, athletes experienced a 22% improvement in recovery scores and an 18% reduction in subjective fatigue.

Massage Therapy

In case you didn't know, a 30-minute deep tissue massage is more effective than 2 hours of rest and recovery. It can: activate the lymphatic system to speed up the elimination of metabolic waste; improve local circulation to drive more nutrients into the muscle cells; reduce adhesions and improve joint mobility

Don't want to go to a massage parlor? Use these instead:

Electric fascia gun: strong, suitable for thighs, calves, and other thick muscle areas

Massage balls: suitable for small areas such as inner shoulder blades and soles of the feet.

Roller bar: suitable for fast rolling all over the body, especially the back and forearms

Leg massager: It has a wide range of functions and mainly relaxes the legs.

Each part of the press takes 30 seconds ~ 1 minute, and the total time control is 10-15 minutes.

If you need these devices, you can check out Ublives, a website that offers recovery devices for all kinds of people and receives many positive reviews from customers.

Gentle Stretching & Mobility Work

Stretching should not be done blindly. Just after a workout, don't do long static stretches right away. At that time, the muscle fibers have just produced micro-injury, and pulling too hard will be a secondary injury. The correct method is to carry out dynamic stretching + light walking in 0-2 hours, and then start static stretching the next day, maintaining each movement for 20-30 seconds, and doing 2-3 sets.

Stay Hydrated & Eat Anti-Inflammatory Foods

Dehydration reduces the efficiency of muscle repair. For every 1kg of body weight lost after training, at least 1.5 L of water, which includes electrolytes, needs to be replaced.

Dietary advice:

• Cherry juice: rich in anthocyanins, good anti-inflammatory effect

• Milk: protein + calcium + electrolytes, perfect combination

• Nuts: in particular, eat 50g of Battenwood per day, an 8-week study found this significantly reduced muscle pain scores after training

Get Quality Sleep

More than 70% of muscle repair occurs during the deep sleep phase. During sleep, growth hormone secretion can increase up to 4 times lack of sleep can lead to a rise in the inflammatory factor IL-6, TNF-α, delaying recovery, the optimal length of sleep is 7-9 hours, the optimal time to fall asleep is between 22:00-23:00 (with melatonin secretion rhythms) Want to sleep more soundly? Try this combination of stretching + soaking in a hot bath + turning off the lights and not touching your cell phone for an hour. Or you can pair it with a massage pillow that promotes sleep.

Active Recovery Workouts

Muscles don't recover by lying down. Light exercise helps the circulatory system to “pump up” and carry away accumulated metabolites. We recommend 20 minutes of brisk walking or 30 minutes of easy cycling (without breaking a sweat), or 15 minutes of swimming to relax (low intensity).

Know When to Rest

If you have two days in a row like a “stroke” muscle can not work, and joint pain, muscle swelling continued for more than 72 hours, get up in the morning feeling stiff, tired, do not hold on. These are hints that you should schedule rest days. The real masters know how to use the “train-recovery-overcompensate” rhythm to improve performance.

Conclusion

Taking care of your sore muscles doesn’t have to be complicated. Stay hydrated, eat well, and stretch gently to help your body recover. Use tools like foam rollers or try light activities to ease stiffness. Always listen to your body. If soreness lingers or worsens, don’t hesitate to consult a doctor.