Do Sore Muscles Retain Water?

Sore muscles after a strenuous workout is a common occurrence among so many people. They start some exercise regimen with the hope of losing weight. The initial days are full of intense workouts, driven by a motivation to lose weight.

The poor person endures all the soreness in muscles and body ache, hoping to see at least a pound or two less on the weighing scale. Surprisingly, the pounds are still very much there, rather added by a couple more!

This situation is bound to frustrate anyone and force them to give up their workout routine. The good news is that, the pounds that you have gained, come from water retention in muscles and nothing else. Thus, you can happily go back to working out and experience real weight loss a week or two after that.

When you workout your muscles, microscopic tears appear in muscle fibers. When you rest these muscles after a workout, muscle recovery begins. The repaired muscles are thicker and tougher than the torn muscle fibers. As a result, you see an increase in muscle mass, as well as a visible bulge on the muscles that you work out.

Eventually, the muscles become toned and stronger, due to recurrent tear and repair process. However, when you start with a workout regimen, you may experience soreness in the muscles that have been worked upon, during the first few days. This soreness results from inflammation of torn muscle fibers. Another byproduct of this condition is water retention.

The microscopic tears in muscle fibers render them the property of sponges. The muscle fibers absorb water in the body, just like a sponge does. As a result, you see a weight gain on the weighing scale. The muscles hold water only for a few days.

Once, your workout routine sets in and your body gets used to it, water retention disappears automatically. The water retained in the body is directly proportional to glycogen content in the body. For every 1 gm glycogen, there is 4 gm of water retention in the body. So, if more glycogen content in the muscles, you will have more weight gain from water.

Water retention in sore muscles is mostly caused due to an intense workout such as weightlifting, running, etc. Sometimes, you may experience sore muscles for no reason at all. Even a household activity such as cleaning or washing may trigger soreness in muscles. The soreness that you experience after workout stays for about 24-48 hours.

It is called delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), as it surfaces after 12 hours of workout and not immediately. After a week of regular workout, your muscles will stop holding water and you will not experience any soreness. However, both water retention and soreness are likely to resurface, if you take a prolonged break from your workout.

Usually, there is no need for any kind of sore muscle relief, except in cases of extreme pain and discomfort. The soreness and water retention subside on their own after 24 to 48 hours. If you exert the muscles again the next day, you are likely to have soreness for another day or two.

However, within a week, the soreness should completely subside and you shouldn't experience any muscle pain. However, if the soreness interferes with your ability to work out, you can certainly take some measures to minimize the pain.

Cold compresses, hot showers, steam, etc. work wonders for sore muscles. Massages can also help relax the sore muscles and reduce soreness. If the pain is still unbearable, you may try taking an aspirin or ibuprofen.

Thus, water retention due to sore muscles is an absolutely normal phenomenon. Do not get discouraged upon seeing the initial weight gain and prevent yourself from working out in the direction of your weight loss goal.