Last Updated on July 30, 2021
Are you in into strength training and wonder why you constantly suffer from chronic muscle soreness and dull pain?
When you go and visit the physician or physiotherapist on suspicion of an injury or muscle tear, they could not find anything wrong with you. Nothing shows up in scans and tests. And yet, you find that you tend to fight constant muscle soreness, pain and even overall feeling of tiredness. What could be the cause?
The possible cause- toxins that got trapped as you built your muscles. These trapped toxins causes chronic discomfort and pain. Let me elaborate further and let’s see if my explanations make sense to you:
The cause of toxin accumulations in muscles and organs could be attributed to one or more of the following factors:
1. You do not have the habit of drinking enough of water or hydrating yourself. Keeping yourself sufficiently hydrated is crucial to ensure toxins are removed efficiently from your body.
2. A person who constantly suffer from constipation also endanger their health because if the waste are not removed, it can get reabsorbed into the blood stream.
3. Previously you were not physically active, so the overall circulation in your body is no good. So chemical waste from your body does not get transported out efficiently and thus stay trapped near fat/muscle layers.
4. Eating too much of chemically enriched and processed food. The body have to work hard to process and try to remove the chemicals. With the above factors, removal becomes difficult and toxins get stuck.
So what happens when you do strength training under this condition:
As you began pumping iron, muscles began to form in your body. As you are well aware of, muscles are hard as compared to fat tissues that are soft. Without sufficient drainage from the above possible causes, the chemical waste in your body gets trapped in between the muscles. They cannot get out- at least if they are between fat tissue, they can get out when the person gains good cardiorespiratory health (by doing cardio).
But the generation of people today tend to focus more on strength training and cut down the cardio workouts. Some even take various supplements like creatine to built muscles faster. So even though on the outside, the person looks physically well built, but on the inside, toxins are trapped in between of muscles. Depending on where the concentration of toxins that are trapped- the person will experience constant and seemingly incurable chronic pain in the area such as: lower back, trapezius muscles (back of the shoulders), stomach, thighs, etc.
This is different from lean people who built muscle due to the nature of their jobs such as farmers or laborers- as they are physically active and their muscles are built gradually- not by pumping iron but ignoring cardio, eating processed food and supplements to promote the grown of muscles.
Any other ways to identify?
These areas feel hard- the toxins will eventually harden into crystal like formations. When you press the affected areas, it is very stiff and the person also suffers from limited range of motion in that area.
How to minimize this condition?
To plan a workout program, you must balance cardio, strength training and flexibility exercises. If you are new to exercise, you need to do lots of cardio- it need not be all-out attempt that leave on the verge of collapse. Do at moderate speed- slightly harder and make you pant a little but maintained over a long period (20 or 30 minutes. If you feel bored, alternate different cardio exercises on the span of 10 to 15 min each but total to 30 min at least).
Then embark on a gradual weight training program- always stretch before and after to prevent muscle soreness. Yoga is a good form of exercise.
Personally, I also do other forms of exercises such as cane exercise (structure beating with the cane to improve circulation and activate meridian points) and quadsa to improve the circulation of my body.
What you can do if you currently suffering from it
My suggestion is that you work to improve your flexibility. Improved flexibility means improved circulations. I would like to recommend the cane exercise because I find it is really good but I know at the moment it is not available in a lot of places.
You may also want to consider going for deep tissue massage, get the help of an occupational therapist to work on the trouble areas. In this aspect, it is better to opt for a qualified professional rather than from massage parlours- because some people who had not properly learn up massage in respect to the muscle anatomy may end up rubbing you the wrong way, ie rubbing the toxins even more into your tissues.
