For numerous people, an exercise regimen can be a grueling task that leads them to have, muscle soreness and major discomfort. It might even get to a point where they opt out of following their routine to alleviate the pain they feel or quit entirely (Craig et al., 2019, p. 161). The muscle soreness that they may experience could be delayed the onset of muscle soreness or acute muscle soreness that is immediate. Muscle soreness could result in tears of muscle fiber, which is not a serious condition that resolves after a few days.
The process behind muscle contraction is resultant from molecular events in the myosin and actin filaments-the proteins involved in contraction. When nerve signals are sent to the muscle, calcium ions get released into the sarcoplasm, which is the cytoplasm of muscle cells (Ivarsson et al., 2019 p. 567). The proteins mentioned above bind using ATP energy to result in muscle contraction. After production of energy, the phosphate molecule in hydrolysis is released in the myosin to cause a conformational change that pulls against the actin thus ADP, and ATP molecules are released thus prompting the start of a new cycle.
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Calcium channels release calcium in the sarcoplasmic reticulum, thus causing an increase, which results in the relaxed sarcomere. The calcium ions then bind to calmodulin (calcium modulating protein) that activate the myosin light chain kinase (Ivarsson et al., 2019 p. 568). Thus phosphorylating the light chain leading to heightened ATPase activity in the myosin that triggers the sliding of the actin and myosin to create tension (Ivarsson et al., 2019 p. 569). Muscle fatigue will then result when the muscle can no longer produce contractile force, and there is a buildup of lactic acid (Craig et al., 2019, p 164). The anaerobic respiration that occurs leads to oxygen debt, which then causes muscle soreness and pain. Muscle soreness should not be a reason to quit exercising. The effects could be minimized by taking anti-inflammatory medicine, rest or increasing the level of physical stress gradually to better suit the muscles to cope with the intensity of the exercises.
References
Craig, J. C., Vanhatalo, A., Burnley, M., Jones, A. M., & Poole, D. C. (2019). Critical Power: Possibly the Most Important Fatigue Threshold in Exercise Physiology. In Muscle and Exercise Physiology (pp. 159-181). Academic Press.
Ivarsson, N., Mattsson, C. M., Cheng, A. J., Bruton, J. D., Ekblom, B., Lanner, J. T., & Westerblad, H. (2019). SR Ca2+ leak in skeletal muscle fibers acts as an intracellular signal to increase fatigue resistance. The Journal of general physiology , 151 (4), 567-577.
