Over done it in the gym and it hurts!

mark66

mark66

mark66

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Well hopefully someone here can point me in the right direction as I am in a bit of a mess. Excuse my lack of proper terminology but I am new to all this gym/exercise/workout stuff! I'm not 'fit' and am probably quite out of shape, hence the reason I want to get fit!

Anyway, on Friday morning I went to my local gym, which I joined last week and did my first class. It's called 'Body Pump' and is an hour long workout involving light weights. Now I did some basic stretches before I left the house and the first and last part of the class was stretching, with a warm up and down.

The exercises were all based around using a bar with 2x2.5kg weights, not much I know but the instructor wanted me to start on the minimum weight this week and work my way up. We did lots of different exercises, but it was the crouches and lunges with the weights on our shoulders that really got my thighs burning and which I think did the damage.

Today my legs are in agony and walking down the stairs is a nightmare! I would have thought the pain would have subsided a bit now, but it doesn't seem to have at all. I have used some Ibuprofen cream on my legs and had a long soak in the bath, but really I am guessing as to the best solution for a quick recovery and that is what I am hoping someone can advise!

I have felt 'stiff' before after occasional visits to my old gym or the rare jog, but nothing has compared to this. I don't want to put myself of going to the gym and I really want to do the class again next week, but I would like to know what I have done wrong, if anything? As I said, we must have done at least 5 minutes of leg stretches after the class and I thought this would have been ok?
 
Its DOMS - Delayed Onset Muscular Soreness.

Its a condition that occurs after exercise as a result of micro tears within muscles during the body-rebuilding phase.

Perfectly normal.

When i first started going to the gym, my muscles would hurt for up to 5/6 days later. After a while of going to the gym it will stop. Just let it repair in the next few days, you should be fine by next friday :)
 
:) Everyone gets it. On a couple of occasions if i've been climbing all of the previous day, i can only go downstairs backwards as it hurts too much :D
 
First time you start squatting (crouching) properly, even just bodyweight, for lots of reps, you will be in a lot of pain for several days. It's simply bacause it's a movement you don't do a lot of in everyday life, especially if, as you say, you are "quite out of shape".

Don't worry, the pain will go away, but it may take some time, i remember when i started squatting it could take a week till the soreness was gone. Now i'm usually just slightly stiff for a couple of days.

Stretching before and after the class will help, but it won't stop it from happening.

Don't give up, keep going to the classes, this time next month you'll find it's much easier, and you are much less sore.

Good luck and keep up the good work.
 
The best way to get rid of the soreness is to do more exercise, repeat the movements you did before without any resistance to get the blood flowing to those areas and the muscles working, it's called 'active recovery'
 
I recently started playing american footbal for a local team, my first training session I woke up the morning after and thought I had been paralysed and I go to the gym 2 to 3 times a week
 
I had similar when I went to my first body pump class only it was my biceps as I overdid it a tad. Could hardly straighted my arms for a couple of days. :D

Live and learn it will calm down. Plus I loved body pump you can get great results from it coupled with other exercise. I did 2 classes a week. (fit female instructor helped though :) )
 
my top tip is swim after doing any work out at the gym (if there is a pool) my local gym does and i always swim after doing weights and stuff, it really helps me the next day, i just do around 20 lenghs and strech out in the pool.
 
If you are still sore 5-6 days after exercising you have over done it. If you are not sore at all you have not stressed the muscle enough to stimulate growth, and if you are sore for more than 3 days or so you have overtrained. You should aim for soreness for 2 to 3 days.

If you constantly exercise a muscle heavily and break down too many fibers and then re-exercise it before it has fully recovered, the muscle can actually get smaller and sometimes weaker (there are exceptions to this with athletes training slow twitch muscle fibers, marathon runners etc.). That is why if you want to go to the gym 3 or more times a week and train with weights, you should have a split routine so that you exercise different muscles each time and therefore allowing the muscles enough time to recover and rebuild the broken down fibres.

With regard to post training recovery and sore muscles, there is some evidence now that the old 'hot bath after exercising' is not actually the best thing to reduce DOMS but a cold bath may actually be more beneficial. It supposedly increases bloodflow to the deeper muscle areas and increases the flushing of lactic acid which apparently speeds recovery and reduces soreness and stiffness. Paula Radcliffe and the England Rugby Union squad are devotees of this. However, it is not something that I ever feel like doing!
 
Zarniwoop said:
If you are not sore at all you have not stressed the muscle enough to stimulate growth
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lol? so are you saying if you dont get DOMS it means you're not working the muscles hard enough?
 
A2Z said:
lol? so are you saying if you dont get DOMS it means you're not working the muscles hard enough?
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It depends, If you are looking to increase muscle size and strength (i.e. predomenantly fast twitch muscle fibers), then effectively yes. The process by which muscles get bigger when you exercise works because you have put the muscle fibers under more stress than they can comfortably handle (ideally only slightly). The body then attempts to prepare itself for the next time it has to carry out the same activity by breaking down the fibers which then regrow slightly larger and sometimes form more fibers. If you you not stress the muscle enough to break down the fibers then the muscle will not get markedly bigger. The soreness and stiffness (DOMS) that you feel after exercising is effectivly during the period when the fibers are recovering/reforming (as I understand it anyway1). The soreness should be at its peak around 2 days after exercising.

Obviously there are variations to this, when training for endurance/fitness/definition etc. Training for endurance is mainly training slow twitch fibers and the cardiovascular system. If you are looking to exercise for muscle definition then the process is slightly different as you are not looking to overstress the muscle as much which is why you use a higher amount of repetitions but with a lower weight. You are attempting to change the shape of the muscle and increase bloodflow in the area using this method.

Having said this, recent research has shown that as much as 30-50% of 'apparent' muscular strength increases can be attributed to the forming of new neuron pathways in the brain. This seems to enable the brain to more efficiently control the muscle. This has been known for some time as this is effectively what happens when you 'practice' an activity. However, it now appears that these pathways can be formed to some extent by merely 'thinking' of the excercise. A recent study showed that subjects could gain strength increases by spending the same amount of time as they would have spent working out, thinking through a 'virtual' weight training programme. Over a period of time, they achieved 30-50% of the strength increases that the control group of subjects that were following the 'actual' training programme. It sounds strange initially, but bear in mind that Steve Backley, the ex-world record holding javelin thrower, used to train less than a lot of his competitors and claim that he used to get a lot of benefit from thinking through training sessions.
 
Love that feeling, lets me know that ive done a proper session.

as others have said tho it does stop happening as you get used to excercise, you gotter work harder and harder to get that burn back!
 
DOMS isn't a true indication of growth. Hypertrophy can still take place without feeling sore.

I've never had anything other than mild aching an hour or so after a workout. I've never ached the following day, and I've still grown muscle mass.
 
Thanks for all your input guys and sorry for the not replying sooner, just got back from Germany.

Well I am happy to report that the soreness has now pretty much completly gone, but only as of today, so 5 days after the class! Day 2 was easily the worst, trying to walk down the stairs was so embarrasing - I was so glad I wasn't in the office!!

I am booked in for Thursday night for round 2 and hopefully thie pain malarky will get less each week, but I am certainly going to keep at it. Its the first time I have done a class or anything like that and I am much more confident that it is the most efficient and thorough way for me to exercise as I doubt I would push myself that far in the gym.

There is a pool at the gym so I think I might start swimming after the classes as I can imagine this is a good way to try and loosen up afterwards.

Anyway, thanks again for your tips and it was good to know I wasn't being a complete wuss! I just hope next week is better :)
 
iCraig said:
DOMS isn't a true indication of growth. Hypertrophy can still take place without feeling sore.

I've never had anything other than mild aching an hour or so after a workout. I've never ached the following day, and I've still grown muscle mass.
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You are quite correct in that DOMS isn't a true indication of growth. What I should have said is that you cannot achieve muscular growth without breaking down muscle fibers and DOMS is commonly experienced during the 're-growth' period. Obviously everyone is different and I am sure that people like yourself iCraig, are lucky in that you do not seem to get much soreness or stiffness.

The reason why the level of soreness and stiffness reduces to more 'acceptable' levels after you have been training for a while, is that not only have the muscle groups being used become partly accustomed to the exercises, but you are not breaking down as many muscle fibers as you were in your first session or two after you started.
 
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