Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. Everyone gets it when they train. The degree at which you get this varies with how hard you push the intensity. Usually it’s bad the day after training, and worse the day after that, then it gets better.

Is it ok to train muscles that are sore? Don’t I need to give that muscle group a full day in between workouts to recover? Yes you can train muscles that are sore. However, if the soreness doesn’t start letting up or go away completely during your warm-up, then odds are you need a bit more rest time.

As for needing a full day in between workouts? Well… what are you training for? Personally I am training for life, and what life throws at me might not be so considerate as to give me a full day to get over something before I have to tackle something similar again. Know what I’m saying?

Now, what can we do to mitigate DOMS? Well diet-wise it’s a good idea to be well hydrated, and get plenty of meat and fat (those building blocks remember?) Ibuprofen is a lifesaver so hopefully you’re able to take it. Fish oil is probably the only supplement I would recommend taking to get your Omega’s in balance, thus cutting down on inflammation.

Massage is also a great way to get rid of the soreness, working out the lactic acid and breaking up knots and minute scars. Now I’m not talking about hot rocks and incense here, I’m talking the therapeutic soft tissue work that is probably more painful then the DOMS itself, but really feels better in the long run.

If you can’t afford your own personal masseuse, then the next best thing would be a foam roller, which can be purchased for about 25 bucks. It’s a dense solid foam tube about 4 inches in diameter. What you do with this beauty is lay on it and slowly roll yourself around until you find a spot that hurts like crazy (odds are you will giggle when you find one) Once you find a spot, just stay on it, relax your muscle into the foam, and hold it for a minute or 2. The pain will intensify, but then will start to get better. Hold it there until the pain is less then it was originally, or gone entirely. You can use these things on any muscle that you can make solid contact with. You want to avoid contact on the spine proper if you’re rolling your back.

If you want to find out what DOMS is exactly here is a simple workout you can do. First I will explain Tabatas to you. It is a work interval of 20 seconds, followed by 10 seconds of rest. We will do this 8 times, making it 4 minutes straight.

The workout will be a modified “Tabata something else”. You will do all 8 rounds of Tabatas on air squats, then rest 1 minute. Then you will do 8 rounds of Tabata push ups, rest 1 minute, then Tabata situps, rest 1 minute and lastly (if you have a bar and are able) do Tabata pull-ups.

For this variation we will add up your reps from every round, not just scoring it by the least amount of reps done in any given round. Your score is the total amount of all reps done in all the exercises.

Chris Walls is a Personal Trainer at the Crossfit Kelowna training centre. For more information on Crossfit, please visit http://www.crossfitkelowna.com