Feeling sore after being back on the squash court?

So you’ve hit the courts for the first time in a while or you’ve upped the intensity and now feel sore? See what you can do to ease the pain.

Muscles develop memory from training. After you exercise you will get a delayed onset of muscle soreness (DOMS). This is the result of an inflammatory response due to microscopic muscle damage. But don’t worry, this is good for us as it lays down more muscle fibers and improves the blood supply so there is less damage next time.

If you’re just starting out or reigniting your squash journey, the secret is to start slowly and increase the frequency, duration and intensity of play over the weeks. This is why the SquashStart programme works so well. Muscles adapt really fast at any age. Give them time and they will move you around the court with ease.

Go easy with stretching when your muscles are sore. It won’t really make your muscles recover any faster. Rubs, hot baths and saunas won’t help too much either. If you are really struggling, try adding low intensity cardio (such as light jogging or walking) to your training which may help speed up the recovery by flushing oxygenated blood through the recovering muscles.