It is quite normal to have muscle soreness after a workout. Here are some reasons you might get muscle soreness:

• You started a new activity you’ve never done before (dancing, running long distance, circuit training, zumba, yoga, box jumps, etc.)
• You increased the intensity level, the length of your workout, or maybe even the weight load of your exercises.
• You worked the same body parts but did different exercises (for example you normally do squats but this time you did squat jump)

Sometimes I feel sore the day after a workout and sometimes I get “delayed onset muscle soreness” which is up to 48 hours later. This time it’s the day after soreness.

To prevent muscle soreness, I always try to ease into a workout (that doesn’t always happen) but you want to make sure to gradually build up strength and endurance. This can also prevent injury.

Post workout, I try to have some sort of protein and carbs to repair my muscles from any damage to muscle fibers/tissues. I will usually choose a protein shake, some yogurt (greek is higher in protein), or peanut butter and banana.

Bananas are a great source of potassium. Having enough potassium in your body is supposed to prevent or lessen the amount of muscle soreness.

I also make sure to drink tons of water during and after my workouts. Dehydration will make my muscles less protected and more vulnerable to sore muscles.

Now that my muscles are sore I am going to make sure to do some sort of light workout today followed by a lot of stretching.  Warming up my muscles always seems to do the trick. They feel much loser after I move even though the first 5 minutes of the workout is always painful and tough. Time to get moving!!!

Do you have any tricks to prevent or heal muscle soreness from workouts?