DOMS Case Study

Delayed-onset muscle soreness, also known as DOMS, is considered to be classified as a type one muscle strain. When an athlete is experiencing DOMS they will have minimal to extreme muscle tenderness and/or stiffness to palpation or during movement. Typically an athlete will experience DOMS when first returning to extreme exercise, i.e. preseason. With DOMS, intensity of the pain will increase within the first twenty four hours post-exercise, peaking between twenty four and seventy two hours and subsiding within five to seven days. More often than not, many athletic trainers will have their athletes come in experiencing DOMS and asking what they should be doing to help aid the soreness or stiffness. Typically clinicians will recommend massage therapy, or foam rolling to help alleviate pain, but recent studies have shown that that may not be the case. Below what tools, how athletic trainers should handle athletes experiencing DOMS and what methods are most effective to alleviate soreness will be described. Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), can be described as microscopic tears in connective tissue that sensitizes nociceptors and heightens ones sense of pain. The discomfort one feels during DOMS is a gradual increase of muscle stiffness and/or soreness that develops twelve to twenty-four hours after exercise. This pain can

Research shows that if an athlete spends approximately twenty minutes on the foam roller immediately after exercise and every twenty-four hours thereafter it significantly reduced muscle tenderness and increased active range of motion (1). It is believed these results are seen because foam rolling provides recovery benefits primarily through the treatment of the connective tissue. Connective tissue is the major site of disruption and pain, so through foam rolling one is reducing inflammation and altering blood flow to the injured area