Quad soreness - exercise through it or rest?

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DrJenO
DrJenO Posts: 404 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I've been gradually increasing my exercise over the past two months. From none, to 1-2 days per week, to 3-4 times per week, to 5-6 times per week for the last 2 weeks. This week I decided to incorporate some strength training, because I think I'm at the point where I need to start doing that if I'm going to continue to get results (I'm down almost 15% of my original body weight and have another 20% to go).

I really don't feel like I overdid anything - did the "Firm 30" portion of Leslie Sansone's 30 day challenge DVD, which is 30 minutes of toning exercises (lunges, squats, hand weights, crunches). My joints are fine, but my quads are super sore today. I still did 30 min of low-impact cardio this morning before work - thinking I needed to walk through it - and the soreness has worsened.

I drink plenty of water. I get plenty of protein (usually in the low to mid 100s per day). Should I rest a day tomorrow? My next big exercise day would have been tomorrow; by "big exercise", I mean walking 5 miles @ 3.5mph.

Anything to prevent and/or alleviate soreness?

Replies

  • navyrigger46
    navyrigger46 Posts: 1,301 Member
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    I train when sore all the time, won't hurt anything. As for ways to alleviate the pain, foam rolling and stretching. I also find that a walk helps loosen everything back up.

    Rigger
  • TAsunder
    TAsunder Posts: 423 Member
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    I've trained through sore quads often. There are some muscles I will not continue to work out if sore, but quads are not one of them.
  • VoodooChummy
    VoodooChummy Posts: 53 Member
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    The decision to rest or train through pain is one of the toughest and sometimes most complicated decisions around. My suggestion is to listen to your body. Stretching, foam rolling, icing the muscle are all great ideas as is an anti-inflammatory like Ibuprofen. Let the level of pain be your guide and don't be overly afraid of an extra days rest if you honestly believe it could be saving you from injury. Outside of that train as hard as you can.
  • Mom_of_X
    Mom_of_X Posts: 85 Member
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    The decision to rest or train through pain is one of the toughest and sometimes most complicated decisions around. My suggestion is to listen to your body. Stretching, foam rolling, icing the muscle are all great ideas as is an anti-inflammatory like Ibuprofen. Let the level of pain be your guide and don't be overly afraid of an extra days rest if you honestly believe it could be saving you from injury.

    THIS!

    Listen to your body - an injury you can't recover from is NOT worth that extra push.... BELIEVE ME.
  • DrJenO
    DrJenO Posts: 404 Member
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    You guys were supposed to tell me to rest!

    J/k, thanks for the input. My plan will be to do short cardio tomorrow if still super sore, long cardio if minimally or not sore.

    I think for next week I'll go:
    Sunday - long cardio (day off work)
    Monday - tone
    Tuesday - long cardio (day off work)
    Wed - tone
    Thurs - short cardio
    Friday - tone
    Saturday - off (have a 1/2 day of work, so could do long cardio if needed, if my schedule gets thrown).

    If I keep having trouble with the circuit-type training, I may go by groups - arms one day, shoulders/back one day, legs another day, etc. Thoughts?
  • DrJenO
    DrJenO Posts: 404 Member
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    The decision to rest or train through pain is one of the toughest and sometimes most complicated decisions around. My suggestion is to listen to your body. Stretching, foam rolling, icing the muscle are all great ideas as is an anti-inflammatory like Ibuprofen. Let the level of pain be your guide and don't be overly afraid of an extra days rest if you honestly believe it could be saving you from injury.

    THIS!

    Listen to your body - an injury you can't recover from is NOT worth that extra push.... BELIEVE ME.

    Thanks; this came through while I was typing my other reply.

    I don't feel like this is an injury, per se, just a lot of lactic acid (or whatever makes your muscles sore). My concern would be that my gait gets thrown off and I _do_ injure something. Again, no pain in my knees, hips, or back at all. In fact, my R knee bothered me all the time before I lost 30 lbs :)
  • MrsTartPattinson
    MrsTartPattinson Posts: 6
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    I'm not a dr so this is strictly my opinion, I say you can work through it BUT I would give your body 1-2 days to recover, especially if you are doing a high intensity workout.
    As far as pain, I've been doing hot showers before bed or right after the cool down of my work out & that's helped in addition to water. My fitness coach (I'm currently doing the Beach Body T25 routines) suggested something called Bio Freeze. You can get it at a chiropracters office or CVS. I haven't tried it yet but it's on my grocery list!!! Good Luck!
  • maybeazure
    maybeazure Posts: 301 Member
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    It's hard to tell sometimes if you should push through the pain or not. I've pushed through pain that I shouldn't have, and made things worse, so I'm probably overly cautious now. If it is delayed onset muscle soreness you should be able to exercise gently through it. If it is an injury, then you should wait until pain is gone.

    What I have read is that if the pain gets better while exercising, then it is fine to keep going. However, if it gets worse then you should stop, give it a couple of days until the pain is gone, and then start up again.

    It is almost always OK to do water exercises though...even if it is an injury, so that might be an option.
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,166 Member
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    Muscle soreness will often benefit from exercise. I usually find they hurt less once I get going, and it seems to speed overall recovery.
  • wilsoje74
    wilsoje74 Posts: 1,720 Member
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    A walk is fine.
  • Mrsallypants
    Mrsallypants Posts: 887 Member
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    Depends on how bad the soreness is - you damage your muscles during weight training and that is part of the soreness . I injured my shoulder once working it when it was severely sore. My biceps tendon was so sore once I couldn't stretch my arm out fully unless I soaked it in hot water for half an hour.

    So if the soreness is extreme, I won't work the muscle (as in weight lifting) until the soreness is very minor or gone. If you're getting that sore, you might be doing too much, such as high volume workouts with 10 to 20 sets and many exercises for one body part. Reduce volume.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    Assuming only muscle soreness and not an injury, pain usually peaks in 2 days. So the fact that you might have felt worse after a light cardio workout is likely more coincidental than causal.

    If you can tolerate it, lighter exercise should be fine--it won't help, but it shouldn't hurt. The exception is if the pain prevents you from doing exercise with normal movement, normal gait, etc. Then it might be better to do some stretching or rest.
  • klkateri
    klkateri Posts: 432 Member
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    I rest a sore muscle but I'll workout some other way, or if it's an overall soreness, I'll do some yoga or stretching. I agree that you should be the judge but I find that since I've been injured I prefer to give it a rest... which was also the recommendation of my physical therapist. Hope this helps!!

    An idea... if your quads hurt, maybe you should work your arms or upper body instead!! <-- that's what I do!!
  • vanguardfitness
    vanguardfitness Posts: 720 Member
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    Walk, foam roll, stretch. Don't work the legs 2 days in a row

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