What do you recommend to athletes who get very deep muscle soreness after workouts?

Kelsey HigginsonSports Nutrition Coach and Founder at Clutch Day Coaching

Why are you always sore as an athlete??

2 Sept 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:15

In this short YouTube interview, a soon‑to‑be Division I athlete asks why she experiences deep muscle soreness despite staying hydrated, stretching, and eating solid meals. The coach (Speaker B) attributes the soreness primarily to chronic under‑fueling and insufficient recovery, especially among female athletes. She recommends increasing meal frequency to 6‑7 eating occasions per day, structuring each main meal with a plate that is one‑quarter protein, one‑half healthy carbohydrates (rice, potatoes, pasta), plus fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats (avocado, cheese, nuts) to support hormone health and muscle repair. The advice is presented as an immediate, actionable change starting with dinner to improve recovery and reduce soreness.

Questions this video answers

Most female athletes are under‑fueling or under‑recovering. Increase meal frequency to 6‑7 times a day and structure each main meal so the plate is one‑quarter protein, half healthy carbohydrates, with fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats (avocado, cheese, nuts) to support hormone health and muscle recovery.

Chapters

I am a soon-to-be D1 athlete, and I, I was just wondering what you recommend to athletes who get very deep muscle soreness after workouts. I mean, I, I stay pretty hydrated, I stretch quite a bit, uh, I feel like I'm pretty good about my protein and eating solid meals, but I, I never hear my teammates, uh, talking about how sore their muscles are after workouts. And I was just curious what you would usually recommend to those athletes, or if that's just like a genetics thing.
Most female athletes are drastically underfueling, so my mind goes to she's a— she's either under-recovered or underfueled, which also plays into recovery. Are you actually eating enough food? Because yes, your meals are solid, but the athletes I coach, they're eating 6 to 7 times a day, 3 big meals a day with other snacks throughout the day. So what that could look like starting today for you is every single meal you want to have a big plate. One-fourth of that plate you want to be protein, half of that plate you want to be healthy carbohydrates, so rice, potatoes, pasta, any of those things. You want fruits and veggies on that plate, which gives you vitamins and minerals, and it's so good. And then healthy fats as well, so avocado or cheese or nuts or something like that to add to it to help your hormone health and everything like that. So that is one thing that you can start tonight at dinner time to hopefully help kickstart that muscle recovery.