PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT: yesterday, I ran a half marathon. It was my third ever, but only my second running the entire thing. I am a classic under-trainer, and therefore I did not beat my best time, and I am a little waddly. But tomorrow morning when I wake up, I GUARANTEE you that I won’t even be able to sit on the toilet seat.
Why does that happen? Why are we more sore two days after we do a hard workout? (To my credit l did fine with the whole running-13.1-miles thing. It just turns out that the beautiful city of San Francisco has MAD HILLS YO.)
The answer is probably simple. It’s probably because that pain means the muscles are rebuilding, because our hard workout creates microtears in our muscles and one day later they still exist, but two days later our little miracle that we call the body is able to rebuilt itself (#XMen).
The real answer? Spoiler alert: good guess, Amanda, buuuuut no.
“The answer: This common and super annoying occurrence is a result of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), which generates inflammation in your muscles after a really tough workout—especially if you haven’t worked out in a while, says Metzl. Though your workout is to blame for the inflammation, a healing process called the inflammatory response cascade is what’s really causing your pain 48 hours after your sweat session, he says.
The response is a series of events that happens during a period of four to five days, says Metzl. On day one, your body responds to the injured area by releasing hormones called cytokines. These hormones direct cells to go heal your inflamed muscles. At the same time, prostaglandins, hormones that also affect how cells respond to injury, send blood to the area to heal it. This migration of cells to your tired muscles starts out slowly during the 24 hours after your workout—the healing process hasn’t kicked into high gear yet. However, on dreaded day two, the flood of cells to the area of inflammation, a.k.a. your muscles, reaches it’s peak and continues the healing response, he says. This means you’re going to struggle getting out of bed.” Thanks, Women’s Health Mag!
So, don’t believe anything I say, regardless of how convincing I sound. Wait until WHM verifies. Also, please don’t remember how I will be walking tomorrow. #PenguinGirl
In other news, I want to give a shout out to two areas:
1) the miracle of technology: I’m writing this from a doctor’s office… ON MY PHONE.
2) modern medicine: I’m able to get help for a super physical and chronic ailment in the same place that I’m able to get help for a super nonphysical disease. (More to come.) I don’t know how people did it even just 100 years ago. Except maybe chew on coca leaves or smoke opium.
I have so many things to share with you. Real personal things. Weird things (duh, I said they were personal, and my only speed is offbeat). I just ask that you get hashtag-supportive, because I totes can’t handle anything otherwise.
LOVE YA.