I believe most, if not all of you have felt some phenomenon of muscular fatigue at one time or another. However, in order to demystify this collectively painful, yet sometimes thought to be beneficial 'burn' sensation, I will try to explain the mechanism of muscular fatigue.
LACTIC ACIDDuring resistance exercise, muscle require glycogen in your body for fuel and the metabolic by-product is lactic acid. Most people tend to lay the blame on lactic acid build-up in the muscular system for the 'burn' sensation, which is wrong. When your body makes lactic acid, it splits into lactate ion (lactate) and hydrogen ion. Hydrogen ion is the acid in lactic acid. It interferes with electrical signals in your muscles and nerves, slows energy reactions, and impairs muscle contractions. The burn you feel in intense exercise is caused by hydrogen ion buildup.
Lactic acid build-up in your system will be removed metabolically by the body. The matter of 'burn' is due to the amount of lactic acid created exceeds the removal rate. With decrease in the level of exercise, the situation reverses itself.
The good news about this is that with the body being conditioned through training, the body gets better and better at removing the by-product. The bad news is that there is a certain limit, which is determined by the individuals' genetic makeup. Say for example Ian Thorpe the Olympic record swimmer, compared to say yours truly. If all things being equal, I can safely say that his genetic makeup allows his body to remove lactic buildup at a faster rate than mine, even if we had undergone the same training, eat the same kind of food and supplements.
Bottomline is
'BURN DOES NOT HELP YOU AT ALL.'
DOMS - Delayed Onset Muscle SorenessMost people will carry on their belief that lactic acid is the cause of the muscular aching that they experience 1 to 2 days after intensive workout. As per the above explanation, lactic acid is removed from the system after the tapering down of exercise level. As such, the 'burn' does not technically 'burn' your muscle into aching.
DOMS is an entirely different syndrome that usually occurs 24 - 48 hours after intensive workout and the discomfort usually peaks anytime between 48-72 hours. DOMS is a direct result of the micro-tear in the muscle fibres that came about through intensive exercise. The micro-injury to the fibres and associated tendons will inadvertently become inflamed and sore. During this period of time, the body tries to rebuild and recover, usually resulting in new muscle fibre growth (hypertrophy). This syndrome affects anyone from the very fit to the very unfit individual.
There is really nothing much one can do about this, except rest and wait it out. Some methods have been commonly used to elevate and expedite the recovery. Contrast temperature showers (alternating between hot and cold water) can help expedite the recovery by first easing the inflamation with cold and then warming up to introduce blood flow to the afflicted area. Static stretching helps also in the sense that it regulates blow circulation to the sore muscle. Ingesting a mixture of cabohydrate and protein immediately after exercise (within the 1st 30 minute window) will help with recovery because the elevated level of growth hormone after exercise will shuttle the nutrients to where it is needed to commence recovery.
I have tried to make this an non-technical as possible. Please feel free to query if in doubt.
Nautilus
