Teacher, teacher: what is stiffness?

When a person performs an exercise or sports practice after a period without physical
exercise, he or she suffers from an acute process of muscle pain that is colloquially
known as "soreness", and which from a scientific point of view is called delayed onset
post-exertional muscle pain (DOMS). [Dolor muscular post esfuerzo de aparición tardía
(DOMS)]
This pain, which appears from 24 hours after the end of exercise and can last up to 7
days, its origin in the past has caused doubts. Research on the subject has clarified that
lactic acid (produced by the muscle) is not responsible, but rather the performance of
eccentric contractions, which produce micro-tears at the junction of the muscle with
the tendons.
The eccentric contraction in which there is an elongation of the muscle simultaneously
with the contraction, for the same workload, uses much less oxygen, less ATP and
fewer motor units are recruited, so the number of fibers that support the load will be
lower and therefore the tendency to be injured at the junction with the connective
tissue (tendons, tendons, etc.) will be greater. ligaments and muscle wrappings).
Due to the popular belief that stiffness is caused by lactate crystals, traditionally people
drank water with baking soda and even water with sugar to combat these crystals,
which is a possibility of generating gastrointestinal discomfort, and result without
solution, because these do not disappear.
If lactate were responsible for stiffness, how can we explain the greater sensations of
pain with eccentric contractions, when isometric and concentric contractions are the
ones that generate the greatest amount of lactate?
The most correct alternative is to avoid, when starting a physical exercise program,
those exercises that generate "stiffness", such as running, jumping, starting and
braking, etc., since in these activities the eccentric contractions are very numerous and
of great intensity. Efforts must be measured progressively and gradually. It is, therefore,
a preventive measure. In the event that the soreness has been established, it is
necessary to repeat the same exercise that caused it, but at a lower intensity, since
there is already some adaptation to such an exercise and other exercises to which
there is no adaptation and which can cause delayed pain after exertion must be
avoided.

AFTER THIS READING, ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS BASED ON THE TEXT:

1. WHAT IS LACTIC ACID?

2. WHAT IS AN ECCENTRIC MOVEMENT AND HOW CAN IT OCCUR?

3. HOW DO YOU PREVENT THE ONSET OF MUSCLE SORENESS?

4. HAVE YOU EVER HAD STIFFNESS? WHAT WAS THE EXPERIENCE LIKE?
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