Muscle Soreness and Exercise

When you are first starting out at the gym a tough workout can lead to three days of intense soreness. This can be the breaking point in a new workout routine. It’s intimidating if you’ve never experienced it. The effect is caused by lactic acid build up in an over used muscle group and occurs when the fibers of your muscle tear during exercise. Soreness, stiffness, and limited flexibility are some of the symptoms you will encounter. Not to mention a desire to go right back to the couch and never get up again. It is however perfectly normal and a good indication you’re on the right track.

That being said, many people quit before they see results. If you want to get in shape this is one of the first obstacles you will need to overcome. Hopefully my experience will be a guide to pushing past your limits. I can assure you, if you stick it out the feeling will pass and eventually you will look for high levels of soreness to gage the intensity of your future workouts.

Lets back up a bit because I’m going to pretend you have never been to the gym and are doing a little research.

Diligently preparing to make a drastic change for the better in your health and appearance; or…it could be that you’ve been to the gym, experienced what I described earlier, and are trying to find out what the hell went wrong. In either case I’m here to help.

Don’t cancel that gym membership. Those people are ruthless and you most likely won’t get your money back anyway. Besides, it may be the best investment you ever make for yourself. A change of tactics is all that’s required. Take a deep breath; this is going to sting a bit. There is no way to avoid the first week of soreness.

There is a way to lessen the duration and intensity of pain however. Following in the foot steps of hangover cures the world over we will reach for that proverbial warm beer on the night stand and drink it down. The cure for muscle soreness like hangovers of course is more of the same. You need to hit the gym. The goal is to pump blood right back into the same muscle groups you abused the first time around. I realize you won’t want to do this any more than you want to take a drink the next morning when the room is spinning but it will help a lot.

This initial bout of soreness is the reason I recommend a good two weeks of calisthenics before initiating a weight lifting routine. Circuit training (training every muscle group in 1 workout) with calisthenics will hit the same muscle groups repeatedly. It is an effective way to spread out and dissipate lactic acid. Try not to take any days off in the initial 2 weeks. Setting a goal like this will help with the soreness, commit you to 2 full weeks of training, get your muscles used to their new responsibilities, and hopefully yield some results which should help motivate you to the next stage. Building a new and improved you.