Like many a child before me, my deciduous teeth fell out in order to make way for permanent ones. As I impatiently waited for a newly minted lateral incisor to reveal itself, curiosity was met with crickets, for one never did burst out to fill the glaring gap in my mouth! Self-conscious, I immediately booked an appointment with a specialist to insert a one-inch titanium rod into my gums with an incisor attached, but not before he used a Frankenstein-sized needle to inject Novacaine into my tissue!
Peering through his shielded spectacles as he stood over me, doc pinched a portion of my upper lip just over the procedural site, and in a circular fashion, wiggled it while simultaneously inserting the world’s largest needle into my frozen trepidation. Astonishingly, pain was minimal, for fear had gotten the best of me.
So what gives? Why didn’t I experience as much agony as expected? Come to find out, doc’s wiggling of my lip and nearby gum tissue was done for the purpose of dispersing nerves in order to mitigate pain. Literally, they were clumped together, and he did not want to pierce through too many of them at once. In hindsight, I am grateful for this experience because it taught me about two independent networks of muscles and the nerves resting on top of them, and why one experiences soreness after a workout, especially an intensely prolonged version.
Nerves, specifically dormant ones resting on top of dense muscles such as calves: when they’re agitated and shoved off accustomed resting points, until they regain their footing and settle back onto the remodeled muscle, one will experience a degree of soreness. Muscles, independent from nerves, generally speaking, will take 48-72 hours to repair themselves. If you thoroughly address them, depending on their density, understand that discomfort may last longer than that!
Couple this with inflammatory micro tears in muscle fibers, a byproduct of strenuous exercise, and you will definitely disagree insofar that a muscle is ready and able for additional work three days later. However, like my dental adventure, and in the case of an exercised muscle, when nerves are routinely dispersed on a stretched out flexible muscle, two things happen: they are not as sardine packed together, and because the muscle has developed, additional growth levels off, limiting their mandate to abruptly resettle on a new surface.
All this to say, from a lip-wiggling oral procedure on down to working out the calves, a muscle I hone in on because of its nerve-clumping-density, I’ve come to find that when we think certain tissues are too sensitive to touch, or beat up to use, it is the packed or dormant nerve endings that mislead us into thinking so. Addressing and overcoming these sensitivities comes in traditional forms such as increasing exercise consistency, especially if the muscle is stubborn (dense), to foam rolling and static stretches. Of course, there’s also the tried-and-true “drink more water” fact that heals muscle and flushes out its’ inflammation.
A lesser-known method to calm the nerves is known as a “feeder exercise.” If 48-72 hours passes and discomfort persist, find a light, basic movement for the raw muscle, and pump your way through it for 100-200 repetitions. Again, the weight is very light as you work through a full stretch, and maximized contraction. Stretching allows nerves to feel roomy, contractions and water squeeze out fibrous inflammation.
So you see, your body is brilliantly designed to protect you in a myriad of ways; even so, when choosing to expand a muscle via the aforementioned recommendations, discomfort—pain, will be inevitable. The key to leveling-up and maintaining your growth, is to strike while the iron is sensitively hot. In doing so, allow yourself wiggle room to knead, stretch and flush out the old, in order to make way for a stronger, healthier you.
“WEBSITES”
“Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds.”