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Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) is the pain or discomfort felt 24 to 72 hours after exercising. In general the symptoms disappear within 2 to 3 days.

DOMS usually begins six to twelve hours post-exercise and typically individuals wake the next morning with severe pain.

DOMS presents as tender or aching muscles, felt during palpation or during movement, particularly eccentric exercise such as walking down the stairs.

It was originally thought that a build up of lactic acid was the cause of DOMS but it is now thought to be due to tiny tears in the muscle caused by eccentric exercise.

Research has shown that eccentric exercise results in DOMS, as fewer motor units are recruited during eccentric contractions compared with concentric contractions. This means that the motor units during eccentric exercise are more prone to damage, as the force applied to the muscle is spread across a smaller area.

DOMS can be prevented by:

• Performing a thorough warm up and cool down
• Stretching after exercise
• When starting a new weight lifting routine start with lightweights and high reps (10-12) and gradually increase the amount you lift over several weeks
• Avoid making sudden major changes in the type and amount of exercise you do
• A recent study found that caffeine (equal to 2 cups of brewed coffee) could produce a large reduction in pain resulting from DOMS

References

Maridakis, V., et al (2007) Caffeine Attenuates Delayed-Onset Muscle Pain and Force Loss Following Eccentric Exercise, The Journal of Pain. Vol: 8 (3); 237-243

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_onset_muscle_soreness