Do Plant-Based Diet’s Reduce Muscle Soreness?

Exercising those muscles and putting them to intense work is usually an exciting activity. After exercising, you would often feel good about yourself and probably feel like you could lift a mountain with a mere finger. 

Then you wake the next day or two days after the workout and find out that your limbs feel as heavy as lead and equally painful. You feel like your muscles are on fire. 

You who once felt like you could lift a mountain with a finger would now feel too weak to lift an ant if you wanted to. That is muscle soreness in action. 

The good thing is that there are foods that can help with muscle soreness. And yes, plant-based meals help as much as animal-based meals do. So, to answer the question up there? Yes, plant-based diets can reduce muscle soreness. 

This article is filled with everything that you need to know. You would find out how a vegan diet can help reduce muscle soreness. Plants that are great at cutting down muscle soreness after an intensive workout would be discussed too, so, let’s roll!

What Causes Muscle Soreness Exactly?

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, also called DOMS, occurs as a result of microscopic damages done to the muscles after the body gets involved in unfamiliar intense exercise. 

Without giving it much thought at first, it is easy to conclude that this damage is a bad thing, but it isn’t. In fact, it is the first step in bodybuilding. Because only after the muscles break down does the body start repairs on them. 

This is when the ingested nutrients in the body get to work, helping to build stronger and firmer muscles. DOMS usually sets in within a day or two after the workouts and relents from the third day. 

When Should I Take Muscle Soreness Reducing Meals?

As painful as muscle soreness could be sometimes, it is sometimes best to leave it to heal on its own. If you are not working out every day, then you may not need to take anything for the muscle soreness.

This allows your body enough time to rebuild the muscles naturally. In fact, this is an important part of being fit. Eat lots of protein to help your body heal the muscles quickly. Plant-based protein meals include legumes, seeds and nuts.

However, if you have tight workout schedules, you may need to consider taking muscle soreness reducing substances. They speed up the recovery time of your body to prepare for the next workout session. 

And since muscle soreness can hinder the effectiveness of your next workout, taking nutrients to speed up the muscle healing process is not a bad idea.

How Plant-Based Meals Help Reduce Muscle Soreness

Two major things common with DOMS are oxidant stress and inflammation. So, if you can eat plants that have countering effects on these two factors, you would be conquering muscle soreness. 

A nutrient that is found only in plants that spearheads the attack against inflammation is called phytonutrient. What phytonutrients do is that they stabilize the inflammations in the body and stop the body from producing more molecules that enhance inflammation. 

To add to this, they also wield control over the enzymes that are in charge of arachidonic acid metabolism. These arachidonic acid metabolisms are the ones that deal with the body’s response to inflammation.

Another thing that some plant-based meals do is that they increase the glycogen levels in the muscle. Muscle glycogen is necessary for the body as it serves as the source of energy for skeletal muscles during intense workouts.

 In fact, it is hard to keep up with regular exercise without these muscle glycogens. Bread, fruits, vegetables, and other vegan meals are found to increase the body’s muscle glycogen reserves.

Plants That Help to Reduce Muscle Soreness

Cinnamon and Ginger

Cinnamon is helpful with a lot of body conditions, including blood sugar level reduction, mitigation of arthritic symptoms, and enhancement of insulin sensitivity. 

Now we can add muscle soreness reduction to the list. The result of a study carried out on female Iranian athletes, brought about a conclusion that cinnamon helps to reduce exercise-induced inflammation in the body, successfully reducing muscle soreness.

Ginger contains some components known as gingerols. Gingerols are very effective in anti-inflammatory actions, and they also help to increase mobility. 

Research showed that consuming ginger daily helps to reduce exercise-induced pain.

Beetroot

Beetroot is most popular for its ability to increase workout effectiveness through the flow of oxygen to the muscles, thanks to its richness in nitric oxide. 

However, it also contains a substance that diminishes muscle soreness. This substance is called betalain. 

Athletes often take beetroot juice to hasten recovery after they have exercised. The properties of beetroot make it perfect to take before and after an exercise.

Tart Cherries and New Zealand Blackcurrants

Tart cherries have anthocyanins in them which is effective in reducing muscle soreness because of its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. 

They cut down clinical markers of muscle damage, decrease pain from muscle soreness, and reduce the weakness felt in the muscles after exercises.

 Tart cherries, however, may take over many days or weeks before you notice their effectiveness. New Zealand blackcurrants also contain anthocyanins, making them just as helpful for muscle soreness as tart cherries.

Pineapple

The substance in pineapple responsible for quick muscle recovery and reduction of intensive exercise-induced soreness in the muscle is bromelain. However, it has to be combined with protein breaking enzymes.

Pomegranate

The anti-inflammatory and antioxidant substances in pomegranate are called ellagitannins, and the fruit has it in abundance. 

Others

There are many more plant-based foods that are great for muscle soreness. Some of them are green tea, turmeric, and watermelon.

Conclusion

You don’t have to suffer muscle soreness anymore as there are diets that help to avoid and get rid of it. It gets even better with vegan diets because you are not only saving yourself from pain; you are conserving nature too. 

Thanks to this article, muscle soreness is not an excuse to be absent at the gym or not workout at home anymore. Get to work!