Why soreness happened as late as 30 hours after excerising?

Question

Two days ago at the evening (30 h ago) I did interval excercise after a month of inactivity (except for everyday biking to and back from work).

Yesterday I felt little soreness and did nothing more than biking to and back from work (I thought that soreness was everything I could expect and I would be ready to excercise the next day, i.e. today). But today I feel horrible, soreness is really extensive.

Why it happened 2 days after (30 hours later)? What did I wrong? How could I prevent the soreness from appearing so late?

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 20 '16 at 07:24

1

It's called "Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness" (DOMS), keyword being "Delayed".

The soreness is caused by eccentric exercise, that is, exercise consisting of eccentric (lengthening) contractions of the muscle. Isometric (static) exercise causes much less soreness, and concentric (shortening) exercise causes none.

It's normal for DOMS to occur a day or two after the training, and last for another day or two.

Source: Muscle Soreness and Damage and the Repeated-Bout Effect by Ken Nosaka, PhD.

answered Jul 20 '16 at 07:24

Alec

17,953
6
49
75

I could have sworn your answer wasn't there when I wrote mine... – John Jul 20 '16 at 07:45
The timestamps explain why. Mine came a few minutes after yours. – Alec Jul 20 '16 at 07:50

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 20 '16 at 07:20

Congrats, you got Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS for short).

You are fine. If you warm up before exercising again your should have more blood pumping around your muscles and it will go away. After a few sessions you should not get them any more.

DOMS take 24-72 hours before they hit sometimes.

Why soreness happened as late as 30 hours after excerising?

2 Answers2