sore muscle relief. HELP

all of the above!!!

Alternating ice and heat can really help with inflammation. I find that I really only need to ice a really sore muscle and it helps a lot.

When you do muscle work, it can help to make sure you have a "recovery" meal within the first 20 minutes or so after working out. I usually work out in the evenings so I have a Muscle Milk (or other protein shake) as soon as I'm done working out, since I know it will be a while before I have dinner. I have to say that properly fueling for work outs seems to have really helped my stamina and recovery.

A dr friend once told me not to take tylenol, motrin or aleve for muscle pain, but instead take a nice hot shower after you work out or a soak in a hot tub or bath tub. She told that the muscle pain is not inflammation pain, and all of those meds are anti-inflammitory, therefore you are treating symptoms that are not there and your body will react to these anti inflammitory meds in a negative way after prolonged use.
My personal experiance is that when my muscles are sore after an intense work out that I should work out hard again a day later. Intense work out, next day work it out easy, next day intense work out again. After that 2nd intense work out my muscles actually feel looser than if I had avoided it for another 24 hours.
My doctor friend informed me that when we work our muscles out, we are actually breaking down the weak muscle and it is replaced by new strong muscle. No wonder it hurts, huh?
A good massage will help, too. Google medical massage therapy classes in your area. Often these schools will have the students hold a (supervised) clinic and you can get good massages pretty cheap.
Good luck!

Protein. And a rest day.

Try drinking a high protein shake after you workout. Also, don't forget stretching! Be sure you give yourself time off between workouts- don't train the same muscles two days in a row. I finally broke down and had a massage and it was the best thing I had done for myself, besides working out. After the massage, nothing hurt! I let them stretch me, too. I realized my quad muscles were just too tight, after the massage therapist stretched me , I do a better job of stretching after workouts-- I actually looked leaner after my massage. And also agree with the other posters above- ice overly sore areas, then heat, and motrin if it still hurts. After a while, about three weeks or so, you don't get that crazy soreness. If you find it hard to walk, you did too much!
BUT- when I first started working out, my quads hurt so bad that when my dog put his head on my leg, it hurt!!! ibuprofen time, for sure.

Congrats....sounds like you hit some muscles that hadn't been worked in awhile. That is good. I think you should go do it again....sounds weird, but when I discover new muscles that get sore more of the same excercise helps the soreness go away faster. Just make sure you are sore and not injured : )

Call me crazy, but I love the feeling of doms!