The Washington Post - USA (2022-05-17)

TUESDAY, MAY 17 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ EE E5

men spent 20 minutes using a

foam roller immediately after a

workout, and then again 24 and

48 hours later. The practice re-

duced the amount of soreness at

24 and 48 hours; the performance

deficits that accompanied DOMS

were also reduced.

A 2021 study with 20 men and

women found that foam rolling

immediately following a workout

mitigated the performance deficit

24 hours later, but had no effect on

pain.

Of foam rolling, Vincent says,

“It sounds gimmicky, but it does

work for some people.” She specu-

lates that massaging the muscles

may improve blood flow and help

move excess fluid out. “And there

don’t appear to be downsides,

unlike ibuprofen.”

The main thing to know, Vin-

cent says, is that muscle soreness

is not in itself a bad thing. “Every-

one, even elite athletes can experi-

ence DOMS,” she says.

Either treatment may lessen your

discomfort, but they’re not ad-

vised. That’s because of the dual

nature of delayed-onset muscle

soreness — it’s both a process of

repair and of building strength.

“If you block DOMS, the muscle

doesn’t grow as much,” Baar says.

An exception can be made for

athletes who are scheduled to

compete on a day they’re experi-

encing muscle soreness. That’s be-

cause in addition to causing dis-

comfort and pain, DOMS inter-

feres with athletic performance.

The athlete may give preference

to the day’s performance rather

than to her long-term gain in

strength.

Studies have examined wheth-

er manipulating worked muscles

after a training session affects

their resulting soreness. A small

2015 study reported some prom-

ise for foam rolling — using one’s

body weight to massage the mus-

cle with rolling pressure. Eight

age than younger people. So as

you age, Baar says, “You’re more

likely to get sore with exercise and

the resulting DOMS is more ex-

tended.”

Work up slowly

To prevent soreness, people

should work up slowly to the ac-

tivity they want to do. In the gym,

you might start with body weight

only, before you start adding ex-

ternal weights. I might do sets of

squats or lunges before heading

out for my first all-day hike of the

summer. These incremental steps

help your muscles adapt more

slowly and with less resulting

pain.

Once you’ve triggered DOMS,

however, Baar encourages you to

rest while the process plays out.

“Take the time to recover,” he says.

This is not a time for the ‘no pain,

no gain’ mantra.

What about relief, as with ice or

over-the-counter pain relievers?

move the body.

Without training however,

Baar says, “these connections are

weak. So when you do exercise,

they slide and shear.” The rivets

pull at the membranes, making

tiny tears. This causes a number

of chemical events in the muscle,

including dysregulated fiber con-

tractions, an influx of immune

cells, and swelling and pressure

buildup.

This may sound bad, but Vin-

cent reminds me, “This is nor-

mal.” The repair process not only

fixes the tears but also helps the

muscle to strengthen, to be better

prepared for similar movement in

the future.

“The inflammation is neces-

sary to help you regenerate the

injured muscle,” Baar says. “When

you’re starting a new exercise pro-

gram, you may have more painful

days.”

In addition, older people’s mus-

cles tend to undergo more dam-

cent says, “such as lowering a

weight from a biceps curl or low-

ering into a squat.” In my case, it’s

my quads as I climb down a moun-

tain. In contrast, DOMS generally

doesn’t occur with isometric

(when the muscle doesn’t change

length) or concentric (when the

muscle shortens) movement.

When your muscles are not

accustomed to the movement —

or the weight or endurance of the

movement — your muscle fibers

undergo mechanical stress and

small breaks occur in their mem-

branes.

Keith Baar, professor of physi-

ology and membrane biology at

the University of California at Da-

vis, explains that muscles are

made up of muscle fibers connect-

ed to each other by proteins called

dystrophyns, which function like

rivets. When the muscle is accus-

tomed to work, the rivets help the

individual muscle fibers work as a

well-choreographed team to

exercise scientists. “DOMS is a
normal process of muscle adapta-
tion to some unfamiliar move-
ment,” says Heather Vincent, a
sports medicine specialist and the
director of the University of Flori-
da’s Health Sports Performance
Center.
The movement may be unfa-
miliar because you haven’t done
that workout in months or be-
cause you’ve upped your intensity.
Pain and tenderness in the
overworked muscles generally
peak between 24 and 72 hours
after the activity. It’s a drawn-out
series of physiological events in
and around the muscle.

Mechanical stress

DOMS occurs with a particular
type of movement — one that
loads your muscles while they are
long or lengthening. These are
called eccentric movements, Vin-

SORENESS FROM E1

The do’s and don’ts of avoiding — or handling — soreness while exercising

ry that stops loose boards from

being swept to the beach. But

Keane — shirtless, in blue trunks,

ribboned red scars lining his neck

and a shoulder that hasn’t fully

recovered — stayed in control,

even when stepping to the nose of

the board.

This was day 193. Keane had

resolved to spend 301 days in the

ocean in 2021, after realizing that

school and rain-causing pollution

would not let him enter the water

every day.

He was more in love with the

sea than before. But beyond ocean

worship, his resolution aimed to

inspire anyone who is up against

formidable circumstances. Keane

— who speaks to a wide range of

groups — finds that audiences

relate to the struggle of overcom-

ing a challenge, even if that chal-

lenge is as rare as a shark bite.

Keane recently told 500 teens

at a church event that setbacks

are part of any journey. Besides

physical and internal mental

struggles, Keane also endured

bullying by some classmates who

called him names related to the

attack. But the Hayes family em-

phasized that the community at

large — most classmates, life-

guards and doctors, and goodwill

messages from strangers — lifted

them up.

When one of the teens asked if

he is angry at God, Keane recalled

his response: Occasionally, a why-

did-this-happen-to-me feeling

strikes him. But then he sees all

the good that came from the

encounter, including deep bonds.

In September, Keane returned

to Beacon’s Beach for his third

“shark-versary.” As a standout mo-

ment in a year at sea, he shared a

glassy, chest-high wave with one

of the kayakers who helped get

him to safety and his friend who

dove with him that day.

“It was good to be back at the

spot and making good memo-

ries,” Keane said.

He ended 2021 with 351 days in

the ocean.

conditions — but “it felt like going

home,” he said.

A form of exposure therapy

came in 2019 from Keane getting

within inches of a great white off

the coast of Mexico’s Guadalupe

Island. From a dive cage, he felt

curiosity more than fear.

Over time, his ocean jaunts

allowed Hayes to confront her

fears and painful memories. “It’s

immersion therapy,” she said. She

lost her compulsion to observe

him from the beach or remotely

with online video feeds of surf

breaks. “I began to trust the ocean

more and more,” she said.

In some ways, a shark encoun-

ter differs from other types of

traumas. In the aftermath, media

requests abound, and the 24-hour

news cycle can feel intrusive, the

University of Sydney study found.

It can also be difficult to navigate

hard-wired feelings of being a

food source.

“How they perceive their at-

tack can lead to different out-

comes,” said Della Commons, a

clinical psychologist who volun-

teers for Bite Club, a support

group for shark-bite survivors

and their families.

The Hayes family joined the

group to find others who could

relate. Dave Pearson, an Austral-

ian who founded Bite Club after a

bull shark tore into his arm, said

that Keane early on internalized a

key lesson: acceptance.

“Regardless of your injures, re-

gardless of what you are left with,

you have got to just keep moving

forward,” Pearson said. “You have

to accept that your life will be

different, but it’s going to be

better.”

A return to a beloved place

Last summer, a slight breeze

ruffled peeling, four-foot waves at

Swami’s Beach, two miles south of

where the shark had left Keane in

a critical condition. He muscled

his single-fin longboard into

wave after wave — all without a

rubber leash, a standard accesso-

happened, you can figure out a

way to do what you love, no

matter what that is,” Keane said.

For him and his family, that has

meant grappling with physical

and psychological scars.

Different from other traumas

In the days after the shark bite,

Keane was overwhelmed by all

the attention, and his family won-

dered if the shark would haunt

him.

The family’s outlook improved

when visited by Bethany Hamil-

ton, who in 2003 lost her arm to a

tiger shark but later successfully

returned to competitive surfing.

Hamilton was proof that it is

possible to thrive after a shark

attack. She also helped Keane

realize that the bite was probably

because of the shark’s poor eye-

sight, not a predatory act. (A 2021

study, published in the Journal of

the Royal Society Interface, sug-

gests that sharks mistake humans

for seals.) For Keane, the distinc-

tion made the bite feel less per-

sonal.

As they talked about him

plunging into the ocean again,

Keane’s mom interrupted. “I said,

‘No you are not going back,' ”

Hayes recalled.

Shark attacks can traumatize

more than the person who was

bitten. Nearly a third of shark bite

survivors and their families re-

ported experiencing post-trau-

matic stress disorder in the three

months after an attack, according

to a 2018 study by researchers at

the University of Sydney.

The minuscule odds of another

bite — for surfers there is a 1 in 17

million chance of being bitten by

a great white — didn’t offer Hayes

enough assurances that her son

would be safe in the ocean. But

her resistance crumbled when

Keane asked for only one Christ-

mas gift: a return to the water.

Three months after the attack,

in his first time going back to the

ocean, Keane swam in choppy,

short interval waves. Not ideal

A haven turns dark
As a baby, Keane would cry
when pried from swimming
pools. Later, the ocean became his
haven — from atop a longboard, a
watercraft that hearkens to surf-
ing’s origins. But soon he found
himself captivated by what was
below the water. In the days be-
fore the lobster dive, his first time
hunting crustaceans, he had been
frothing over diving videos on
YouTube.
That day — Sept. 29, 2018, the
opening day of lobster diving
season — his mom, Ellie Hayes,
had reluctantly permitted him to
lobster dive, watching atop a cliff.
When screams came from the
water, his dad, Ben Hayes, had
joked over the phone that “‘it was
probably just Keane getting eaten
by a shark,’ ” she recalled. She
rushed to the beach, the dark
quip largely true.
The shark’s bite pierced so
deep that the lifeguard glimpsed
his undulating lungs. Keane was
airlifted to Rady Children’s Hos-
pital in critical condition. He was
in surgery for five hours, received
1,000 stitches and spent about a
week in the hospital.
The shark bite shattered his
humerus in his upper arm and
left him with several back inju-
ries: torn rotator cuff, fractured
scapula and missing parts of his
deltoid and latissimus dorsi mus-
cles. After the hospital stay came
demanding physical therapy ses-
sions and constant doctor ap-
pointments.
Throughout his ordeal, howev-
er, Keane harbored what might
seem to be an unlikely desire —
commune again with the sea. He
later set out to spend 301 days in
2021 in the ocean, whether surf-
ing, fishing or swimming.
The 17-year-old didn’t just
want to reclaim his passion. In
pursuing an ocean-filled year, he
aimed to inspire surfers and non-
surfers. “Even if something bad

HAYES FROM E1

NATHAN MINATTA

Returning to

surfing, ‘making

good memories’

ELLIE HAYES

TOP: Keane Hayes, front, surfs at a beach in 2021.

ABOVE: Keane with Bethany Hamilton, a professional

surfer. In 2003, Hamilton lost her arm to a tiger shark, but

she successfully returned to competitive surfing.