Hi everyone, I’m new to working out. I’ve mostly been walking and rowing. On Monday I incorporated body weight strength training, which included squats and lunges. Today is now Wednesday and I’m feeling the pain in my legs. How do I recover from this? Should I stick to my routine or take it easy today? I do warm up/warm down, stretch and eat protein heavy foods btw. I also really want to keep going as it helps my mental health. TIA.
The best tip I can give you is stay active. Especially after a leg session, take a walk and don’t do it on a Friday arvo where you then sit around all Saturday doing nothing. I train legs on the Monday then I have to be on my legs all week for work, the moment helps push out the lactic acid and stretch the muscles.
Monday, the universal leg day.
Wisdom my brother imparted to me a good 14 years ago. I don’t know why I keep it to that day but I’m glad I’m not the only one.
Peer reviewed science answer:
Foam Rolling for Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness and Recovery of Dynamic Performance Measures
Conclusions: Foam rolling effectively reduced DOMS and associated decrements in most dynamic performance measures.
Being sore is ok good even if you ask me. It seems like you are going easy into it and as long as you can still move your limbs and they are not that sore that they hurt to say stretch out your arms (trust me that sucks) I say keep going. I still often feel soreness in my back and legs. It makes it feel like I actually did something.
Everywhere else is just sleight pain that’s kind of enjoyable haha. My legs though are another story. Sitting down on the toilet is next level. I do want to keep going I love the routine and the mental wellness it brings me. I did start easy with walking and rowing, increasing the time as I went. With the body weight exercises I made it to half the sets and plan to build up as I go.
Haha I know exactly what you mean. My junior year of college I was getting into lifting weights with my roommate and our shared toilet had a handicap handrail and we utilized that thing to help us sit down lmao. But ultimately it’s up to you. I kept going and didn’t die.
Andy Galpin has some interesting suggestions to reduce DOMS.
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5-10 minutes of deep breathing after your workout. He says it’s very important to bring your body back to baseline after a tough workout. Spending a few minutes doing 5 second inhale, 5 second exhales will help.
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Compression clothing. Wearing tight fitting clothing on the affected muscles is shown to reduce soreness or limit the duration of DOMS. Not a panacea but can help a little.
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Believe it or not, static stretching a sore muscle can actually exacerbate DOMS. It’s better to do very light exercise to get that muscle moving and circulating blood flow instead. Stretching is important, but maybe do it immediately after a workout or on another day instead.
I still get DOMS when I try a new workout, but I have seen these things improve my recovery around the margins.
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What I always found best was doing something active but gentle straight after the workout session. If available, a swim is great for this, as it involves the whole body. A proper warm-down with stretches and general movement does the job too, but you need to do it in a complete way.
I know that exact pain. What my trainer told me is that if you rest after DOMS, the pain will be worse. Instead, try doing the same squat/lunges motion (the one which caused the DOMS) but WITHOUT weights. This will actually reduce the pain after a few reps. Don’t worry, this is temporary. I get DOMS whenever I try a new exercise.
Pain in muscle => good Pain in bone/tendons/joint => bad
Learn to identify the difference
