You finally get the urge to start exercising. You go to the cheapest gym in town, sign up, and hit the weights like you used to when you were young.
You finish the workout, maybe a little nauseous, legs feel like Jell-O, and you can’t raise your arms overhead. Somehow after that, you feel like you have “accomplished” something. You feel like you are back on track!
You wake up the next morning and BAM! You feel like you have been hit by a garbage truck. You try to sit on the toilet, but your legs hurt too bad to sit down. You fall to the toilet and scream because your butt muscles hurt to touch.
You try to grab the coffee off the top shelf and you can’t even raise your arms up.
You are thinking, “what the hell happened to me! I’m so sore and my whole body hurts! I’m not going back to workout. I hurt too bad!”
This is common. Not saying it is a good thing, but it is common.
The soreness is called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness or DOMS. I won’t bore you with the definition, but more importantly how do we avoid this and what do we do if we experience it?
How do we avoid it?
Whether you are new to exercise or you coming back from taking time off, you have to ease into things. This soreness is mainly due to your body not being ready for it.
We have a rule/guidline at StrongArm; you need to take at least 20-25 workouts to slowly build the weight and intensity. Doing so, will allow you to focus on technique and will allow you to safely challenge your muscles.
What do we do if we are really sore?
A little soreness is ok. Even as you get far into your fitness journey, you can experience some DOMS. But it shouldn’t be anything severe.
At the beginning of your fitness journey, it might be tough to know what your limits are and you might wake up one morning feeling like you can’t move.
If this happens…. GET MOVING AGAIN!
“Movement is medicine” or “motion is lotion” (I usually don’t use this one.. it just sounds creepy. ha).
You want to create blood flow so that your body can flush out all that soreness.
If you are a StrongArm member, you can just come in to the next class and we can help you there. Most of the time, the warm up is plenty for this.
If you are not a StrongArm member:
- 5-15 minutes of cardio (walk, jog, bike, jumping jacks, etc)
- Then do some leg swings arm circles, torso rotations.
- If it’s your legs, do some 1/4 squats, then 1/2 squats, then full squats with no weight.
- If it’s your upper body, do the same thing but with push ups, ring rows, or bent over rows.
- If it’s your abs, some planks and side planks will do.
Just move your body for about 10-30 minutes and you should start feeling better.
What not to do?
- Don’t just sit on the couch.
- Don’t try to lift heavy again right away. Let the body recover.
Hopefully this helps. Let me know if you have any questions.
-Drew