Toning/building muscle question

alechua

So I've been doing strength training for a while, and I need some advice especially from those who are successful in this journey. I did strength training last monday for an hour and the yesterday I feel sore (both arms and legs) so I did cardio (kickboxing) instead but should I push through doing strength training? and today I did cardio (kickboxing again) because still, I'm feeling still somewhat sore, should I do strength training or just let my body somewhat completely heal/recover first? does doing cardio hinder muscle growth or is it okay? I love doing cardio but I want to build muscle that's why I incorporated it to my practice. Thanks in advance!

dmz1207

This question could get VERY detailed, but I'll try to be concise. First, if you are new to strength training or have increased intensity or style of weight lifting, your body will become more sore as you are breaking down more/new muscle fibers. Other factors such as amount of sleep, proper hydration, age, hormones, and pushing thru potential injuries will all affect recovery. Remember that when you strength train, you break down muscle fibers and it's during the next hours, days and even weeks sometimes that your body builds itself back up (and more). Be sure you're also getting enough protein, branch chain amino acids and glutamine in your diet or with supplementation.

my general practice is to give my body ample time to recover...training again before you've fully recovered diminishes potential gains and could cause too much muscle fiber damage, leading to extended soreness...besides the tips above, I would also try to stretch more. Are you also tracking the weight, reps and exercises you're doing? having a clear idea of your strength training workout progress can help in a lot of ways.

Finally, cardio is usually not a bad thing, even when trying to build muscle -- but make sure you are eating above maintenance calories especially if you burn a lot during frequent cardio sessions, otherwise you won't be able to pack on extra muscle if your body demands more calories than you're putting in...it's OK to workout cardio if you're moderately sore as long as you loosen up properly and avoid injury -- but if it feels painful (beyond just sore) then your body needs more time to recover.

source: I was a serious weight lifter in college and still can hold my own in the weight room today

MoreBean13

What you have is called DOMS. You should allow ~2 days after whatever workout made you sore, and then push through it and continue on. Doing cardio when you have DOMS feels terrible for the first few minutes, but it will actually help alleviate the pain, so you should do low to medium intensity cardio in between.

The thing about it is, it happens when you're first starting a program, but it gets a lot better and will stop happening until you change the intensity or the exercise, once you're in the swing of things. If you allow yourself to *completely* feel better each time, you'll keep getting the DOMS, so the long term way to stop it from happening is to rest that muscle 2 days and then carry on.

delicious_cocktail

(Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness = DOMS = being sore.)

whitebalance

^^ Accurate posts are accurate.
Would just add that based on my own experience, I'd be more concerned about doing an aggressive strength training workout too soon after an aggressive cardio workout like kickboxing. Make sure you're well warmed up and loose before starting.

Boogage

Doing a mixture of cardio and strength is great. Make sure you warm up, stretch and warm down and stretch afterwards. If you get really sore take it easy or rest the next day. Then if you've rested but still feel sore its probably ok to work through a bit of soreness. Just listen to your body and watch your form to avoid injury

alechua

Thanks for the suggestions! Additional question, is it possible to gain/build muscle while still losing weight (I refer to the scale), like because of losing fats?

delicious_cocktail

Thanks for the suggestions! Additional question, is it possible to gain/build muscle while still losing weight (I refer to the scale), like because of losing fats?

Perhaps just a little, and only for a short while before your body adapts to the new stimulus.

There will be some temporary weight gain (or slowed loss) in the very early weeks after beginning bouts of any exercise, but especially resistance training. Your muscles retain some additional fluid to help the healing process. This also normalizes after a few weeks.

alechua

Thanks for the explanation. I know I should be focusing and giving more importance to gaining/building muscles right now but it makes me happy to see the scale moves and knowing I am still losing weight. Thank You!

Boogage

I definitely managed to build a bit of muscle and still lose but I think its more about retaining muscle to give your body a nice shape at the end of your weight loss at the moment. There are some studies on the net about people losing weight and gaining muscle at the same time by eating at a surplus on training days and a deficit on days off but I don't know if that would really work