Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS)

By Mary Finck, PT, DPT

Post WOD muscle inflammation and damage.

We’ve all experienced muscle pain up to several days after exercise from Crossfit; it’s a normal response and there is an explanation!  It is called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), which is a phenomenon that occurs 2-5 days after exercise from more eccentric (lengthening of the muscle) movements.  DOMS occurs from small microscopic tears that occur to the muscle fibers.  This is a normal response after exercise and can help build up muscle hypertrophy, increase stamina, and help with muscle recovery as you increase load/resistance.

 

Muscle pain or fatigue should go away after a few days, but if pain persists you should consult your local physical therapist (me!)  There is controversial research to support the best treatment outcomes for dealing with DOMS. Most research suggests gentle stretching, ice and pain medication.   In my opinion, soft tissue mobilization will help with realigning muscle fibers and break up adhesions in the tissue.  Don’t dig into a sore muscle; you will probably just hurt it worse!  Ice is good for pain in any case in the first day or two after injury.  Gentle dynamic stretching and doing a WOD will help increase blood flow and oxygenation to the muscle tissue which can aide in healing.  If you are really sore, you should have a NoCoast coach help substitute a movement, or modify your WOD, so that you don’t cause injury. When the muscles are already fatigue and healing, you are more prone to have poor co-contraction (muscles firing at the right time) and have an injury occur, especially if your lifting heavy load. Manual therapy, such as soft tissue massage can assist with fiber alignment, decrease edema, and increase blood flow as well.  Kinesiotaping helps increase lymphatic flow and decrease pain signal to the brain through the concept of desensitization. 

If you are ever unclear if your pain is DOMS, or a more serious injury, please feel free to contact me anytime and I will do an assessment & give recommendations!  Keep up the hard work NoCoast athletes; hopefully your experience with DOMS will build a stronger mind and stronger body to maximize your functional potential.  

Mary is available for appointments at NoCoast. Contact mary@nocoastcrossfit.com

Mindset: A Break-Takers Guide to Not Taking Breaks

Kristi in the zone.

By Leah Hosburgh

Since I began doing CrossFit workouts, I’ve been trying to figure out the pain barrier. And I’ve realized that the ones who are best at pain management, just are, and don’t think about it too much. But, I came into CrossFit pretty soft mentally. And physically. Like most people do. So for the non-freaks, what’s an average, inexperienced athlete to do with all this pain! Coach Dan wrote an article about mental toughness, and basically said that it’s in the discomfort where all the magic happens: you get stronger mentally, physically, spiritually. So how do we make the change practically? I have not mastered this at all, but I have learned a few things. Here are some tips:

1. Make a plan for YOUR workout. Sometimes, you just have to go for it, all out, get crazy, just get a WOD done. I think there is definitely a time and place to “just do it.” Sometimes you get thrown off and just completing a WOD becomes the task at hand. In general, however, if I think about how I will tackle a workout based on my strengths and weaknesses, I’ll have a better time managing it. Or as I like to say-stay in control of it. If I don’t, wallball shots can easily control me. But if I develop a plan prior to going in, and maybe even modify that plan if needed, I make the choice. I maintain control over the situation, the workout doesn't control me. I might be slower on some movements, but as long as it doesn't crush me, I can keep moving and driving. As a side note, the plan should take you to the limit. So it should be hard. That brings me to...

2. Countdown. If you’ve managed things well enough with a plan (Step 1) that you aren’t physically destroyed and heading for a trash can, then KEEP MOVING. Countdown 5 seconds or 3 big breaths, and go. Once in a while you get stuck with heavy weight or a technical movement, like handstand push up or muscle up.  But if you are staring at a wall or barbell for 2 minutes between each rep, you didn’t scale right. Like we’ve said in class very often, doing Rx’d Fran in 18 minutes, probably needs some reevaluation. And unless you are in a competition (and scaling wasn’t an option) or you are doing a VERY strength biased WOD or WOD not for time (the Bear complex), I don’t recommend coming to a complete and utter halt in your workout. 95% of the time, your workouts should be set up to allow you to keep moving. Pick a number to countdown between reps and stick with it.

3. Keep an Eye on your Targets. In a WOD with a few or more movements, complete one and get your eyes on the next one. Finish that last pull up, and set your eyes on that barbell. Do the countdown and keep moving. Once you’re done with the barbell, get your eyes on the box. Leave no room to get distracted. Turn your focus from what you were doing, straight to the next thing.

4. Self Talk. Short. Sweet. Positive. Powerful. My self talk is a lot like that. One word that means a lot, and keeps me going. There isn’t a lot of opportunity to get poetic in a CrossFit WOD. Pick a few words that will carry you through.

5. Take out the Distractions. I admit. I might be addicted to the chalk bucket. Here are some things I see athletes use as a break opportunity: chalk, water bottle, adjusting shoes/wraps/etc, random stretches, wiping off sweat with a hand towel, looking at the clock a million times. I’ve been guilty of a lot of this behavior. What I have found for me, is it’s like a twitch. I just do it without thinking about it, and it’s wasted energy. Sometimes I DO need that chalk, but not nearly as much as I find myself doing it. A trip to the chalk bucket is usually a lot longer than my countdown rule…

5-3-1 Strength Program

By Dan Finck This week we are beginning a new strength program. We will be spending the next 8 weeks focusing on the back squat, shoulder press, deadlift, and weighted pull up / ring row. Hopefully you were able to make it in last week for the CrossFit Total, 1 rep max for the back squat, shoulder press, and deadlift.

We will be using percentages so you’ll know exactly how much weight to put on the bar for every set. The program also tells you how many reps to do in each set except for the last one. You’re last set will be referred to as a “plus set.” In this set perform as many reps as possible, while maintaining good form.

We will explain the program in more detail in class, but here are a few things you should know about the 5-3-1 strength program before we get started from Jim Wendler’s 5-3-1: The Simplest and Most Effective Training System to Increase Raw Strength:

Start Too Light

“My coaches emphasized this to me when I was in high school, but unfortunately, I didn’t listen.

Hopefully you will. Starting too light allows for more time for you to progress forward. Your lifts will go up for a few months, but then they’ll stall, and stall, and stall some more. Lifters get frustrated and don’t understand that the way around this is to prolong the time it takes to get to the goal. You have to keep inching forward. This is a very hard pill to swallow for most lifters. They want to start heavy, and they want to start now. This is nothing more than ego, and nothing will destroy a lifter faster, or for longer, than ego.”

Break Personal Records (PR’s)

“This is where the fun of this program begins and ends. This program allows you to break a wide variety of rep records throughout the entire year. Most people live and die by their 1 rep max. To me, this is foolish and shortsighted. If your squat goes from 225x6 to 225x9, you’ve gotten stronger. If you keep setting and breaking rep records, you’ll get stronger. Don’t get stuck just trying to increase your one rep max. If you keep breaking your rep records, it’ll go up.”

The Last Set

“You’ll notice that the last set of the day reads, ‘or more reps.’ This is where the fun begins. The last set of the day is the all out set. You’ll be going for as many reps as possible. I hesitate to tell anyone to do anything to failure, because that’s not what I’m after. This last set should be a ball buster, though, and it’s the one you really need to focus on. This is when you dig in and try to move the world; it should take some life out of you.”

Lastly, when you come to class please be prepared to lift. We will be trying to get a lot done during our hour class on Wednesdays and Fridays: 2 lifts plus a short, intense conditioning workout. Our goal is to get the 2 lifts completed within 25 minutes, this means that we will be timing your rest. You will be doing a set every 2 minutes, so please have your numbers ready. You can be prepared by uploading a copy the 5-3-1 Excel document (on our Facebook group page), enter your 1 rep max lifts and print out the second tab of the document. You can also download the “Big Lifts” app on your phone. This app allows you to enter your 1 rep max lifts, gives you the weights you need to lift for each movement, and gives you a place to enter and track your results. We will also have a percentage chart and a calculator at the gym if you’d like to do it the old fashion way.

We are looking forward to seeing some big strength improvements! Be consistent and hit your “plus sets” hard and your CrossFit Total numbers are going to go up.