Thought the exercise would do me good!

fr33sia12

On Wednesday I decided to take the stairs instead of using the lift, thought the exercised would be great, so walked down 18 floors. How wrong was I!
The next 2 days my calves hurt so bad I can hardly walk and walking is my main exercise.
Don't think I'll be doing that again.
Anyone else had any exercise mishaps?

rileyes

Lol

wakamaka

Haha what you're feeling is delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). You put your body through a new stress that it hasn't done recently. This has happened a lot to me whenever I stop working out for several weeks and try to hop back in.
Also 18 floors is a lot if that was your first time/attempt. You may want to focus on increasing it slowly (taking the lift to the 9th and then walk 9 floors down) etc etc. If you keep it up, you will no longer feel the DOMS. Just listen to your body/rest until you can continue.

hill8570

Would seem to be the wrong lesson. My takeaway would be that you need to be doing more walking in non-flat conditions.

If fear of DOMS kept everyone from working out, we're all have our a$$es glued to the couch watching tube 24/7.

janjunie

Don't stop because you're a little sore. It takes time to build strength and endurance. Next time walk up 5 floors, then 6 floors, then 7....you get the idea.

tulips_and_tea

Ouch! I know that feeling well. I've been working out regularly for years but recently had completely neglected working my calves. During a session with my trainer a couple months ago he had me do the standing calf-raise machine. Oh boy. I couldn't walk normally for 2 days. I tip-toed around the house holding onto the walls or counter tops. I wear high heels to work so I could disguise my hobbling a bit better. Lesson learned! Calf-raise machine is now in my weekly weight sessions.

Madwife2009

I think that my worst mishap was when I decided to get back into cycling. I went to a group session, got on a bike and promptly fell off. Not a small fall but a total collapse, bike and all and had to be untangled from the bike. I hadn't even moved AND I had one foot on the floor still. Talk about mortifying. Still find it embarrassing.

rankinsect

hill8570 wrote: »

Would seem to be the wrong lesson. My takeaway would be that you need to be doing more walking in non-flat conditions.

If fear of DOMS kept everyone from working out, we're all have our a$$es glued to the couch watching tube 24/7.

Yup, excellent advice.

First time I switched locations from fairly level terrain to hiking down a very steep slope... I was sore as hell afterwards.

The second time I went hiking down that very steep slope... I was pretty darn sore afterwards.

The third time I went hiking down that very steep slope... I had some mild soreness that went away with some stretching.

WakkoW

The fear of DOMs is what keeps me going back. I only get really sore if I take time off or attempt something new.

lorrpb

Walk down 2 floors, not 18. Next week, make it 4 floors, the next week 6, and so on. Better yet, walk UP the stairs, not down.