How to Reduce Muscle Soreness (DOMS): What Works and What Doesn't

The best-supported ways to reduce muscle soreness (DOMS) are massage, cold-water immersion, compression and easy active recovery. Enough protein and sleep support the repair underneath. Tart cherry and other polyphenol-rich foods have smaller but consistent effects. Stretching does almost nothing for soreness. Most of the effects are modest, so the biggest lever is still how you load your training.

What is delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS)?

DOMS is the stiff, tender ache that appears a day or two after hard or unfamiliar exercise. It is most common at the start of a season and after new types of work (Cheung et al., 2003). Eccentric work, such as downhill running, is the classic trigger. Lowering a weight or braking on a descent loads the muscle while it lengthens. That causes more micro-injury than other muscle actions.

The same review lists several mechanisms, including muscle damage, connective tissue damage and inflammation. The authors concluded that two or more of these likely combine. DOMS also matters beyond comfort. It can reduce range of motion, peak torque and shock absorption, which changes how you move.

For timing, the repeated bout effect and blood markers, see our article on olive polyphenols and strength training recovery. This page focuses on one question: which recovery methods actually reduce soreness?

What reduces muscle soreness? The evidence, ranked

The table ranks common methods by the quality and size of the human evidence. "Strong" means large pooled analyses agree. "Moderate" means pooled trials show a benefit, but the trials are small or of low quality. "Low" means few or weak trials.

Which recovery techniques work best for DOMS?

The most useful single study here is a 2018 meta-analysis of 99 studies (Dupuy et al., 2018). It compared recovery techniques for soreness, fatigue, muscle damage and inflammatory markers.

• Massage was the most effective method for reducing DOMS and perceived fatigue.
• Active recovery, compression garments, water immersion, contrast water therapy and cryotherapy also reduced soreness, with small to large effects.
• Other methods, including stretching and electrostimulation, showed no change.
• Massage and cold exposure had the largest effects on inflammatory markers.

A 2025 umbrella review pooled 29 systematic reviews covering 863 trials (Wiecha et al., 2025). It found support for cooling, contrast therapy, massage, phototherapy and kinesiotaping at various time points. Evidence for stretching, exercise and electrical stimulation was weak. The authors also warned that 17 of the 29 reviews were of critically low quality. So treat the rankings as a guide, not a guarantee.

Foam rolling is the home version of massage. In a meta-analysis of 21 studies, rolling after exercise reduced pain and slightly limited lost sprint and strength performance (Wiewelhove et al., 2019). The authors judged the effects minor overall. They concluded the evidence better supports rolling as a warm-up than as a recovery tool.

Does an ice bath help, and is there a catch?

Yes, cold-water immersion reduces soreness, but regular use may blunt strength gains. A Cochrane review of 17 small trials found less soreness with cold water than with rest, from 24 to 96 hours (Bleakley et al., 2012). Study quality was low, and the protocols varied widely.

The catch is adaptation. In a 12-week trial, 21 men did 10 minutes of cold water or active recovery after each strength session (Roberts et al., 2015). Strength and muscle mass increased more in the active recovery group. The authors suggested reconsidering cold-water immersion as a routine habit.

A sensible rule for endurance athletes: use cold water when the next session or race matters more than long-term gains. Examples include stage races, tournaments and back-to-back race days. Skip it after strength sessions in a building block.

Does stretching reduce muscle soreness?

No, not by a meaningful amount. A Cochrane review of 12 studies tested stretching before, after, or before and after exercise (Herbert et al., 2011). Stretching after exercise reduced soreness the next day by about one point on a 100-point scale. One large field trial found a four-point reduction in peak soreness over a week. The authors called that effect very small and not clinically important.

Stretching can still feel good and may have other uses. It just should not be your plan for DOMS.

Do protein, sleep and food help sore muscles?

Protein helps repair, but it does not seem to make you less sore. A 2023 meta-analysis of protein around resistance exercise found better preservation of maximal strength and lower creatine kinase (Pearson et al., 2023). Protein had no effect on muscle soreness. The ISSN suggests 1.4–2.0 g of protein per kg of body weight per day for most exercising people (Jäger et al., 2017).

Sleep has less direct DOMS data than you might expect. A review of sleep and athletic performance found that sleep loss can impair sport-specific performance (Fullagar et al., 2015). It also noted increases in pro-inflammatory cytokines after sleep loss. The authors called the evidence equivocal in places. Even so, no recovery tool makes up for chronic short sleep.

Tart cherry is the best-studied food. A meta-analysis of 14 studies found a small drop in soreness and a moderate benefit for strength recovery (Hill et al., 2021). It also found small reductions in C-reactive protein and IL-6, but no effect on creatine kinase.

Polyphenol-rich foods and juices as a group show a similar pattern. A meta-analysis of 25 studies found faster strength recovery and less soreness at 24 to 72 hours (Rickards et al., 2021). Certainty ranged from moderate to very low. When high-risk-of-bias studies were removed, the effects shrank. A separate review suggested over 1,000 mg of polyphenols a day, for three or more days around hard exercise (Bowtell and Kelly, 2019). It concluded that this can aid recovery from muscle damage.

Curcumin reduced soreness and creatine kinase in a 2022 meta-analysis of 10 trials (Beba et al., 2022). The authors asked for larger, higher-quality studies.

Do olive polyphenols help with DOMS?

The honest answer is that we do not know yet. No published trial has measured DOMS after giving olive polyphenols. The closest study tested a hydroxytyrosol-rich olive fruit water extract for 16 days in 29 active adults (Roberts et al., 2022). It found modest changes in antioxidant markers after a hard session. It did not measure soreness or strength.

Dose is also a real gap. The fruit polyphenol trials above used grams of polyphenols a day. A 13.5 g tablespoon of olive oil measured at 635 mg/kg supplies about 9 mg. Olive compounds such as hydroxytyrosol are also different molecules from cherry anthocyanins, so cherry results do not transfer. We cover the mechanisms and early data in olive polyphenols for strength training rather than repeat them here.

What olive oil does have is an authorized EU claim on a different outcome. Olive oil polyphenols contribute to the protection of blood lipids from oxidative stress. The effect is obtained with a daily intake of 20 g of olive oil containing at least 5 mg of hydroxytyrosol and its derivatives (European Commission, 2012). That is not a recovery claim.

A practical DOMS plan for endurance athletes

• Build up gradually. Introduce downhill running, eccentric work and new sessions gradually over one to two weeks (Cheung et al., 2003).
• When sore, keep moving gently. The same review advises cutting intensity and duration for one to two days, or training less-affected muscles.
• Use massage, foam rolling or compression when soreness is limiting your next session.
• Save cold water for race weeks and stacked hard days, not strength blocks.
• Eat enough protein, spread across the day, and protect your sleep.
• Consider tart cherry for multi-day events, starting a few days before.
• Drop the post-run stretch as a soreness fix. Keep it only if you like it.

For the full training picture, see our guide to olive oil for athletic performance and recovery. Runners can also read olive oil for runners.

If you cook with olive oil anyway, Pomoni High-Phenolic Olive Oil is a Greek, early-harvest oil. It measured 635 mg/kg total polyphenols by HPLC.

Sources

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