[Seaver]

I see a lot of people recommend lifting 3-4 times a week, but I'm so sore for on the 2nd day after that I can't really get a good workout in, so I usually have to recover for 2 days before the next lifting session.

I typically try to do something active on those 2 days (yoga/stretching, jogging, play a sport, row or bike), but it makes it hard to get 3 weight lifting sessions in per week.

Has anyone else run into this problem? How are you dealing with it?

[Christian McQueen]

Do you take any pre-workout or post-workout supplements?

I take C4 as my pre-workout and am fine the next day, unless I haven't worked out in a while and then I'm a bit sore.

[Vroom]

That's why people do split programs, so the muscles that are sore aren't the ones employed in the next workout.

For example, I usually only do 5 different lifts, one per session, so my typical week would look something like this:

Monday -Deadlift
Tuesday-Bench press
Thursday-Pull ups
Friday-Squats
Sat-Overhead press

I just don't feel right if I don't have some muscle soreness, somewhere on my body at any given time, but it doesn't hinder my next workout to any real extent. If I do happen to be a bit sorer than usual, I can just shuffle the exercises, and give that body part some extra rest.

[Veloce]

(02-05-2014 07:20 PM)Seaver Wrote:  

I see a lot of people recommend lifting 3-4 times a week, but I'm so sore for on the 2nd day after that I can't really get a good workout in, so I usually have to recover for 2 days before the next lifting session.

I typically try to do something active on those 2 days (yoga/stretching, jogging, play a sport, row or bike), but it makes it hard to get 3 weight lifting sessions in per week.

Has anyone else run into this problem? How are you dealing with it?

Give us some more info. That's definitely not normal. Ditch the cardio/yoga on your off days until you figure this out. You should be able to push a major muscle group to complete failure, be sore as shit, and go back for more 2 days later. Agree on developing a weekly routine, right now I'm on something like this:

Mon-Back and arms (deadlifts, rows, pulldowns)
Wed-Leg and arms (squats, leg ext, curls for girls)
Fri-Chest and arms (Incline bench, db press, incline flies)

First, the basics:

Calories- make sure you're eating enough, specifically carbs and proteins. There's more than enough literature out there for you to figure out how much you need and in what percentage

Water- Drink plenty, supplement with Creatine, Beta Alanine, Arginine, BCAAs, any of the above.

Sleep- At least 7 hours of quality sleep. If you have trouble sleeping, take 30mg of L-OptiZinc an hour before bed.

If you follow the above advice that should cover about 90% of it. It also depends on what kind of soreness you're talking about. Stiff? Severe muscle pain? It's normal to go into the gym with some aches and pains, if that's all it is you just gotta flush the sand out of your vagina and push through

[Vroom]

Not normal?

The second day is always the worst.

[Veloce]

(02-05-2014 07:52 PM)Vroom Wrote:  

Not normal?

The second day is always the worst.

What I mean is if he's lifting on Monday, and still too sore on Wednesday to lift, that's not normal.

Edit: The only other thing I can think of is if the OP just started a lifting routine and he started too heavy.

Check out stronglifts, start with an empty bar, and add weight gradually.

If it turns out to be a fucked up muscle, get a foam roller. MikeCF has unloaded a wealth of information on foam rolling.

If it's intense joint pain, then it's a matter of bad form. I had some awful knee pain about 6 months ago which Prophylaxis diagnosed as quad tendinopathy. He was 100% correct, I adjusted my squat based on some Mark Rippetoe videos, and I was pain free within a month.

[Vroom]

(02-05-2014 07:53 PM)thedude3737 Wrote:  

Edit: The only other thing I can think of is if the OP just started a lifting routine and he started too heavy.

Yeah, that was what I was thinking.

Seaver, can you give us an idea of your level of experience with weights, and what sort of program you're using?

[roid]

Do a blood test and find out your testosterone levels. will bet that you have total testosterone lower than 600ng/dL.

[Remington]

thedude is on point with the routine. However, when I lift, the muscle group I trained that day will be sore for about 3-5 days after lifting. But, it doesn't matter because with my routine, I'll be focusing on different muscle groups the rest of the week. I'll be constantly sore throughout the week, just in different places. I love that sore feeling, gives me that sense of accomplishment that I got shit done.

[DJ-Matt]

What are your Zinc levels? I believe the thread on that says it helps with recovery since building muscle eats it up.

[Bushido]

Unless you are a total newbie, it sounds like your recovery is fucked up. Eat more and go to bed earlier.

[scorpion]

This is called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness aka DOMS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_ons...e_soreness

As everyone has said, this is why you should do some kind of split routine. The alternative is switching to a lower volume, higher intensity program.

[WanderingSoul]

How long have you been lifting? I usually only get noticeably sore when I do new exercises or a new routine. I get mostly muscle fatigue, especially walking up the skytrain steps.

My chest was pretty sore the other day though, and wasn't sure why. Then I remembered I did db bench instead of barbell and that's why.

[Avon Barksdale]

Your body is not used to the pressure. First times are always the toughest because your body needs to adjust to the amount of weights your using.

[T and A Man]

Are you a newb?

When I last dislocated my shoulder, I had to take 3 months off.

The first session back I had DOMS stretching for 2 days.

Just ensure you lift as soon as thepain resides, it will eventually compress into pain only being one day.

[StrikeBack]

Your body will adapt and recover faster eventually. Don't skip sessions, do something lighter if you're too sore. Lift an empty barbell if you have to. You'll find that as you warm up, the soreness reduces and the pain signal fades. One, it's because blood flows to the sore areas to deliver nutrients that aid recovery, two, it's because the nerves responsible for movements are the same ones for pain, so the pain signal is weakened.

I lift 6-7 days a week - high intensity, high volume, full body - and I recover overnight (natural, drug free), but I've built up my work and recovery capacities over years. When I used to lift 3-4 times a week, same everything else, I recovered only just in time for the next session (~2 days). The body will recover only as fast as it has to.

[Ensam]

I think the soreness 2 days after is pretty common, especially if you're lifting heavy. If you're new to lifting start with 2 days a week for 6 weeks then go to 3 days a week for 6 weeks then up to 4. Do cardio on your 'rest' days - personally I like boxing but yoga or whatever works.

My schedule is:
Sunday: Overhead Press
Monday: Box
Tuesday: Squat Heavy/DL Heavy
Wednesday: Box
Thursday: Bench Heavy
Friday: Squat light/Glute Ham Raise
Saturday: Rest

[Scuba_Instructor]

(02-05-2014 11:07 PM)scorpion Wrote:  

This is called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness aka DOMS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_ons...e_soreness

As everyone has said, this is why you should do some kind of split routine. The alternative is switching to a lower volume, higher intensity program.

This. Simple tip to prevent soreness - drink skimmed milk after a workout.

Whilst you obviously need protein post-workout the casein found in milk products is particularly effective at relieving soreness.

[Hades]

Sore or not, just lift.

I've made plenty of PRs while very sore, and lifting weights seems to reduce soreness anyhow.

Also, drink more water, eat more food, sleep more, jerk off, and take cold showers.

[WanderingSoul]

(02-06-2014 05:24 AM)Hades Wrote:  

Sore or not, just lift.

I've made plenty of PRs while very sore, and lifting weights seems to reduce soreness anyhow.

Also, drink more water, eat more food, sleep more, jerk off, and take cold showers.

Sometimes after a really rough lifting session I'll eat a big dinner, pass out, and wake up the next day at like 11 not knowing what the fuck is going on. Happened last night. Body needs that extra sleep.

[Seaver]

(02-06-2014 12:08 AM)RioNomad Wrote:  

How long have you been lifting? I usually only get noticeably sore when I do new exercises or a new routine. I get mostly muscle fatigue, especially walking up the skytrain steps.

My chest was pretty sore the other day though, and wasn't sure why. Then I remembered I did db bench instead of barbell and that's why.

IDK, like 5 years or so. I expect that with new exercises (or after taking time off around the holidays and restarting), but it seems to be an issue even after doing a routine for a while.

I tend to vary the type of weight training/workout combos I do each year. right now I'm mostly trying to stick to full body circuit training (presses, pullups, squats, deadlifts) rather than isolation workouts where I only focus on one muscle group.

I'm probably just getting older and recovery is slowing down because I tend to eat pretty well, sleep 7-8 hours a night and all the other stuff mentioned.

the stretching/yoga does helps a lot, but its a very time consuming thing to do on my "off" days since it takes up about 2 hours.

Thanks to everyone for the input, I'll use it and see what tweaks can help.

[Seaver]

(02-05-2014 11:07 PM)scorpion Wrote:  

This is called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness aka DOMS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_ons...e_soreness

As everyone has said, this is why you should do some kind of split routine. The alternative is switching to a lower volume, higher intensity program.

Thanks, I will have to read up some more on that.

I'm typically not really sore at all the day after, but 2 days after I'm toast. Day 3 I'm fine again.

[anonymous123]

Seaver,

I've had to deal with this. I will give you some background that may be helpful for you, and then pass along the advice that I got from a friend that I thankfully decided to implement.

By way of background, I've been lifting weights pretty much my whole life. I was a competition powerlifter for many years, and although I have tried body building I could never get shredded enough (to get in panties and go on stage). The split routine was pretty much the holy grail until I reached 30. At 30, the split routine started failing me on two fronts. First, I started getting DOMS (others covered this). But, at 30 I could still seem to find my way around DOMS some, but it was noticeably different than even 27. Second, my travel schedule would blow things up. I'd find myself hitting Day #1, Day #2...then travel long enough to need to restart at Day #1 (meaning, there was always some group of muscles that was getting short changed). My key point is that as we get older we tend to have more responsibilities, and although we still workout, it may not be in the same facility all the time which can disrupt a split schedule. [And yes, I'm a "workout anywhere" person...but I didn't understand erratic travel until career started rolling].

I basically flailed for a few years in early 30s, going from disrupted split routines, to circuit training, and back. No gains. Then, I discovered crossfit and did this for 2.5yrs. I'm going to try to avoid provoking the xfit cult that is convinced this is the way, but, basically no gains here. Yes, the first 6mos was great and I thought I found the new thing. But, crossfit actually really sucks over the long haul and lack of progression means no real gains. (and if these guys workout in a regular gym they are so SpazTastick that you can spot them a mile away, but I digress). At some point I took a step back and thought to myself "Hell, not one of these crossfit coaches has a fraction of my background...why am I listening to them". So, I bailed and put all of that time back into a block and tackle split routine with some running/cardio. AND, the DOMS came back.

Finally, I talked to an older lifter (45). He said that it is just a fact of life that when you get older you have a harder time recovering, but, meatheads like us keep pushing it anyway. He told me what works for him, and although I was skeptical at first, it made intuitive sense. I decided to give it a shot, and now this is how I lift. Here goes:

I still use all the same lifts I would normally use if I were doing a "split" routine, but I spread them out differently. Now a 3-day routine looks like: Day 1 = Heavy, Day 2 = Light, Day 3 = Medium. I pick ONE lift per body part per day. All workouts are FULL body. And, the big compound lifts are the choice for the Heavy day. (I want to stick to the point, but as an aside an advanced lifter will quickly recognize that you may have to drop in one heavy lift on other days as it can be hard to hit heavy squat, bench, and dead all in one day).

I will pick on Chest for just one body part. In a regular split routine, you may end up with 3 exercises on chest - say, Bench, Incline DBs, and Flies. You pound the shit out of this body part (and usually one other body part like Tris). But, at 35+ you tend to get much more sore with this setup than at 25 (of which this turned you into a monster). With this rotation you would do: Heavy (Bench), Light (Flies), Medium (Incline DBs).

For me this solved my two big problems where the split routine was failing me:
1) Travel was interrupting the split routine. In every workout this is FULL body, so you really don't lose that much if you are set back a day or two (or three) from your schedule. You can easily do something else while on the road and not lose progression or feel like one group of muscles ends up getting rotated more often than another.
2) My body tends to recover much better with ONE really solid exercise for each body part than blasting it with everything and waiting a week to get back to that muscle group.

[anonymous123]

One point of clarification, I don't recommend the "Heavy, Light, Medium" approach for powerlifting (I hung that up many years ago). This is for good quality gains for those that travel and especially those at age 35+.

[MunichSux]

(02-05-2014 07:20 PM)Seaver Wrote:  

I see a lot of people recommend lifting 3-4 times a week, but I'm so sore for on the 2nd day after that I can't really get a good workout in, so I usually have to recover for 2 days before the next lifting session.

I typically try to do something active on those 2 days (yoga/stretching, jogging, play a sport, row or bike), but it makes it hard to get 3 weight lifting sessions in per week.

Has anyone else run into this problem? How are you dealing with it?

Once you've "attacked" a certain muscle group with resistance training, and have set it into growth mode by actually destroying muscle fibres, it's time for recovery, and when have you reached the peak point of the supercompensation is a very individual affair. I'd say though 96 hours minimum ...