Hey folks, how are you doing? Sorry I have been AWOL for the past six days, but I have gist that I have been itching to share. Hmmmm….I have not been able to exercise since Monday, as much as I would have loved to. Well, I actually overdid things a little bit over the weekend so I am now on a self-induced course of rest (actually I didn’t have much of a choice as my legs just won’t carry me) and will hopefully get back in the grind today or tomorrow for sure.

Since my weekend escapade, I have read a lot about a phenomenon known as “Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS)”.  Don’t worry, it is nothing as big as the name sounds and it is probably somewhere we have all been before. This is a condition that happens when you engage in a physically intense exercise, different from what you are used to or a different form of exercise that uses a different set of muscles in the body. Apparently, it is not the same pain you feel as when lactic acid builds up in your muscles from physical activity. Lactic acid often disappears after about an hour, while DOMS actually starts 6-12 hours after the physical activity and can last up to 72 hours post-activity. Mine is now in its 4th day. DOMS is also called Muscle Fever and it is the ‘sweet’ pain and stiffness that you feel several hours to days after unaccustomed or strenuous exercise. Does it ring a bell? You know that pain you feel after you climb up a very steep hill you haven’t climbed before for about 15 minutes and you wake up the next day and can barely feel your legs? Or that pain you feel in your arms when you had to lift very heavy items for an extended period e.g. you went to grind pepper down the road and had to carry the bucket by hand back to the house? Ok, I know children of nowadays don’t know what that feels like since people no longer grind pepper or beans for akara! The good ol’ days!

So, on Saturday, I went to the main football bowl of the National stadium to try out a new type of exercise. It is actually a form of HIIT – High Intensity Interval Training. Three of us went to try out this new exercise under the guidance of a professional physical trainer. Basically, we went up and down the stairs in between the seats for spectators on the top row and had to do this for all the stairs in that section of the football bowl. There were 16 flights of stairs and each flight is made up of 75 stairs. Yes, we covered 75*16 stairs. 1,200 stairs! I completed it because I can see some people *yimuing* at me. It took about 22 minutes to complete – as you guessed, I was the last to finish the 16, but by the time I was done, I was sweating like I had gone for a 5km run. The feeling of completing the exercise was exhilarating as tiring and stressful as it was, but it was a great cardio workout. The trainer also advised that it is very good for building the muscles in the legs which reduces the load on the knees and can lower the risk of developing arthritis in the future. Good reason to do this. Furthermore, I hear that the workout is extremely good for toning the legs, removing cellulite and most importantly it builds the glutes. Ooooh! Do I hear an ‘Amen’ somebody? You had better get off your butt and start climbing stairs. Lol! When we finished the exercise, though my legs were a little tired, I felt fine, we went for a long walk to relax the muscles and while my friends went home, which I shoud have done jejeli, I went to play tennis. This was just 8am in the morning. So I played tennis again for about 2 hours total before retiring for the day. In fact, by the time I woke up later in the evening, it was like two iroko trees were tied to my legs, one on each leg. As if that was not bad enough, the next day, after taking a course of ibuprofen to ease the severe pain, I took my racquets and jumped on the tennis court again. To cut the story short, by Monday morning, no one needed to tell me that I had overdone it. Even if I tried, my body could not move. Going up stairs or descending was severe punishment and dreadful. The pain was searing, but deep down, I loved it and love it. Hehehehe. It is reducing slowly, and my movement has improved.

Why do I love the pain? I love it because from what I have read, my muscles have supposedly undergone some micro tears which have led to the inflammation causing the pain. But what is actually happening is that my muscles are rapidly  adapting to reduce further damage from the same exercise. This is called the “repeated-bout effect” (Source – Wikipedia). I also personally believe that as the muscles repair themselves as they recover from the stress, they also consume more calories (didn’t read this anywhere) and use up more energy. I say this because I have been a lot hungrier in the past two days and it has been a struggle to keep the food in control, but I think I’ve done a good job at controlling my food consumption. The pain also means that I am going to have stronger legs and therefore, I plan to redo the exercise again on Friday, seven days after the first time.

Trust me though, the pain is very painful!(sic) And it can be discouraging for someone who is trying to improve their physical fitness through exercise as a beginner. It is also a good excuse for not working out, but that would be the wrongest reaction. So what do you do to prevent muscle soreness? Not much really. If it is a new exercise routine that involves more eccentric contractions, then you are more prone to developing DOMS. An eccentric muscle contraction is a type of muscle activation that increases tension on a muscle as it lengthens. Eccentric contractions typically occur when a muscle opposes a stronger force, which causes the muscle to lengthen as it contracts. These include walking or running downhill, lowering dumbbells, calf presses, pilates, sprinting e.t.c. The American College of Sports Medicine indicates some of the benefits of these movements as improved muscle coordination, improved balance, increased strength in the entire range of movement in each joint, reduced cardiovascular stress, increased power and speed, and recovery from tendon related injuries. The college also recommends resting for 3-5 days in between exercises involving eccentric contractions. This allows the muscles repair and recover in order to be able to handle the next bout of the same exercise. In the meantime, you can perform exercises that use other muscles in the body different from the ones that are sore.

So that’s it. I have had a very interesting, painful week, walking like I have 20kg weights strapped to my ankles and also providing some comic relief to friends and family in the process. As my sister said when I got home on Saturday, she thinks that my own drive for weight loss has become a case of “By fire by force”.  Lol! It actually is now. I still have 4kgs to lose which I have been struggling to beat these past three weeks and they must go by force. Now that I also know that the stair climbing will help remove the cellulite (and hopefully the stretch marks) and also shape the other key areas below the waist, you can be sure to catch me in the football bowl of the National stadium on some Saturday mornings. So, while I am resting the muscles and recovering for now, we have just begun. No going back, no stopping. Just a break for a few days. For the time being, let me get busy with other things as I look forward to my  nice bowl of fantastically tasting chicken salad. (David Cameron has taught me a new word – Fantastically).