Muscles Sore After Exercise or Work? Tips to Prevent & Reduce Muscle Pain

Planning to start a new exercise routine or got a weekend work project ahead of you? If you are not normally physically active you know you’re going to end up with sore muscles. You can help prevent getting those sore muscles after a weekend of exercise or work with these tips, and if you’ve already overdone it and have sore muscles, I’ll include a tip for reducing that muscle pain.

A meal containing protein and carbohydrates eaten before you embark on a new exercise or work project will help prevent you muscles from becoming sore. Eating a protein rich sandwich or drinking a yogurt and fruit smoothie before you get started and drink a glass of low fat chocolate milk afterwards. The carbohydrates will give your muscles energy and the protein will be in your system ready to heal and rebuild sore muscles.

If you engage in intense physical activity that you are not normally accustomed too, like a day of rock climbing or roofing, follow the intense physical activity with some low intensity, low impact exercise. Go for a walk, a swim or do some yoga stretches. This will flush out the lactic acid buildup in your muscles that the high intensity activity has created and help prevent muscle soreness.

If you already have sore muscles from over-doing it, stretching and massaging those sore muscles will help reduce muscle pain.

If you remember to eat and stretch before you engage in physically activity, walk it off and stretch after physical activity, you will prevent sore muscle pain afterwards.