What is muscle fatigue? Learn about the causes and how to prevent it

You, who give your all in every workout, surely know how frustrating it is when you can’t maintain the expected performance level because your body simply doesn’t respond. This situation takes a toll not only physically but also emotionally. We’re talking about one of the phenomena that most affects athletes: muscle fatigue.

Do you already know what muscle fatigue is and why it happens? At Sizen we love sports as much as you do, and we work every day to help you reach your highest level. We’ve researched this phenomenon to find the solution you were looking for: let’s see what muscle fatigue is and how you can avoid it.

What is muscle fatigue?

Athletes often live with the feeling of tiredness as part of training. And as long as there isn’t a mismatch between a certain level of fatigue and the intensity of the sessions, there’s nothing to worry about.

The scenario is radically different when the perception of muscle fatigue is excessive and not only that: the first injuries start to appear, ruptures of myofibrils that result in progressive muscle damage. The direct consequence of this phenomenon is then a decrease in sports performance (strength, peak power, or speed), as well as psychological discouragement after training.

In these situations, it’s important to listen to our body and know what to do to restore the important balance between training and recovery. Let’s see what causes this disruption and how to effectively treat muscle fatigue.

Muscle fatigue symptoms

Does muscle fatigue have symptoms? Yes, and in most cases, there are several signs warning us that our body can’t sustain the training level we’re putting it through, including:

• Progressive tiredness in different muscle groups.
• Appearance of joint discomfort, muscle stiffness, severe soreness, and cramps.
• Loss of strength and decreased muscle tone.
• Higher blood pressure and resting pulse.
• Rapid breathing and hyperventilation.
• Decreased hemoglobin levels.
• Poorer coordination and motor precision.
• Higher urea levels.
• Loss of attention and concentration and perception problems.
• Sleep disturbances.
• Decreased appetite.

Given this clinical picture, it’s clear what our body is trying to tell us: we need to know how to treat muscle fatigue and regain control over our training. At Sizen, we will examine the relationship between muscle fatigue and the tiredness so characteristic of this condition, analyzing step by step its causes and the best recovery method.

Causes of muscle fatigue

A deficiency in the athlete’s diet, where carbohydrates stored as glycogen drastically decrease, causes severe dehydration that may underlie muscle fatigue.

For this reason, it’s very important that at least 60% of an athlete’s calories come from carbohydrates, which should be included in breakfast, lunch, and dinner with adequate variety, as well as maintaining optimal hydration levels throughout the day.

However, muscle fatigue is often multifactorial and its origin lies beyond diet. Let’s look at some of these causes:

• Overtraining: poor balance between effort and recovery in the training plan and lack of sleep.
• Wrong strategies for replenishing energy stores. As we’ve seen, glycogen reserves are fundamental in this regard.
• Sudden changes in training. It’s important to plan with proper progression, adapted to goals and fitness level, allowing a necessary adaptation period for the body.
• High-intensity loads. Linked to the previous point, excessive high-intensity loads could prevent the body from properly adapting to the sports demand, releasing large amounts of cortisol into the blood.
• Lack of competitions. Training more intensely and competing less can take a toll on the body, which doesn’t find usual periods of reduced effort (as happens before competitions when they are frequent in the calendar).
• Changes in training conditions. Training in conditions unfamiliar to our body (such as when athletes travel to a country with a different time zone) can disrupt the circadian rhythm and affect athletic performance.
• Genetic causes. Not all muscle types respond the same to physical effort. Type I muscles, with a high proportion of fibers, are more resistant to fatigue than type II muscles, which rely on lactic metabolism and tend to muscle acidification. In these cases, the origin of muscle fatigue lies in metabolic factors and aspects related to altered muscle pH, body temperature, blood flow, or oxidative stress.

At this point, we already know why we might suffer muscle fatigue, but the most important thing remains: discovering how to recover quickly from muscle fatigue that is compromising our training rhythm.

At Sizen, we’re going to help you take care of yourself so you can give your best.

How to avoid muscle fatigue

Following the trail of the symptoms described, we already have great clues on how to eliminate muscle fatigue whenever this phenomenon threatens to limit our sports performance. A good adjustment of training and optimal care in recovery times are the two best-kept secrets of those who want to finish strong.

Stay well hydrated

Hydration is key to avoiding injuries and the onset of muscle fatigue. Ideally, during high-intensity training, we should drink about 150 milliliters of water every twenty minutes. If effort periods last more than an hour, isotonic drinks will help replenish minerals and carbohydrates.

Consume carbohydrates

We’ve already highlighted the crucial importance of sports nutrition, and carbohydrates play a leading role. When subjecting the body to prolonged, high-intensity exercise, carbohydrates are ideal to prevent muscle fatigue due to their ability to prevent blood glucose levels from dropping.

Rest and sleep

The body needs between 7 and 8 hours of sleep each night to recover. It’s also advisable to have two rest days per week during training phases.

Additionally, when training at a high level, it’s necessary to use clinically proven methods to speed up muscle recovery. One example is pressotherapy, which, with its revolutionary intermittent positive pressure system on the legs, promotes blood flow, lymphatic drainage, and thus reduces muscle fatigue.

Avoid overtraining

A good training plan should balance rest times and muscle adaptation periods before moving on to the next phase.

Warm up before and after training

Warming up prepares muscles for exercise intensity and consequently prevents extreme muscle fiber exhaustion.

Now that you know the keys to combat muscle fatigue, get ready with Sizen to take your training to the next level. Let’s go for it!