Question about weights and rest days.

amykins1984
amykins1984 Posts: 18 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Ok, so after 2 months of doing only cardio exercises, I hopped onto the weight machines at my gym on Sunday. I felt quite jello-y afterwards, which is a good thing I guess, but then yesterday I woke up and was very sore (was expecting that though). I went for a run anyways because I want to ideally keep my workouts at 6 days a week and figured I should alternate cardio and weight days. So here's my dilemma, I woke up today and I'm still super sore all over... I figure it's just my body adjusting to the new regime, but it's supposed to be another weight day for me and I'm not sure if that's a good idea with my body being so sore because I don't want to hurt myself. I can't run either because my pecs are super sore still and I'm a busty girl, so the repetetive motion would be painful. My hamstrings are quite tense too.

How do you Ladies and Gents approach this kind of situation? Should I just suck it up and do the weights anyway, or should I take a rest day and get back to it tomorrow?. As I mentoned above, I want to keep my workouts to 6 days a week and this would be my second rest day in the last 7 days which I'm not 100% comfortable with, but I also don't want to get obsessive about it (I have a tendancy to get tunnel vision when I have a goal in mind), or injure myself.... Any advice or guidance would be much appreciated :)

Replies

  • farsteve
    farsteve Posts: 157 Member
    If you were just a little more experienced (lifting wise) I would say go ahead and lift but since you are sort of a newby I would say either do your cardio today or rest and then hit the weights tomorrow. Just starting out (or even if you're a hardened pro), moving a lifting day back by one day is no big deal.

    It is also good to do 2 different lifting schemes that hit the muscle groups in different directions. For example, routine one could have lat pull downs, squats, bench press and military/shoulder press and routine two could have seated rows, step ups, incline bench press and upright rows.
  • amykins1984
    amykins1984 Posts: 18 Member
    When I was on the machines, I would alternate between one that worked a lower body muscle group and one that worked an upper body muscle group. I pretty much ended up working all the major groups, but it's my upper body that's really feeling it because I've built up some good lower body strength from all the running I've been doing. I think today I'm going to go for a really long walk with the dogs instead of running. That should still burn off a good amount of calories and give me a cardio day without having to run. Thanks for answering :)
  • jzammetti
    jzammetti Posts: 1,956 Member
    If you were just a little more experienced (lifting wise) I would say go ahead and lift but since you are sort of a newby I would say either do your cardio today or rest and then hit the weights tomorrow. Just starting out (or even if you're a hardened pro), moving a lifting day back by one day is no big deal.

    It is also good to do 2 different lifting schemes that hit the muscle groups in different directions. For example, routine one could have lat pull downs, squats, bench press and military/shoulder press and routine two could have seated rows, step ups, incline bench press and upright rows.

    I am no expert but this is what i do. I am also a newbie lifter
  • 10kaday
    10kaday Posts: 177
    Listen to your body..... rest!!!!! Your doing to much. Ease back a bit. Don't lift as much weight. etc. Always listen to your body. Adjust weight each week accordingly. Better to go light in the beginning and ease your way up.
  • mallen404
    mallen404 Posts: 266 Member
    do you stretch at all?

    The more you exercise the less sore you will be. if you aren't stretching after every work out or cardio your muscles will be tighter and more sore.

    push through it, do a warm up 5-10 minutes of cardio and have a good stretch.
  • cook6609
    cook6609 Posts: 182 Member
    While I'm not an expert at lifting weights, I would personally suggest lifting weights but not doing as many. For example, if you are lifting 10lbs 30xs, do 5lbs 30xs or 10lbs 15xs. I saw someone suggest stretching, that is definitely key. I stretch even before my cardio. I haven't quite done weights yet, so I'm not 100% sure in this area. Just stating what I would do.
  • mallen404
    mallen404 Posts: 266 Member
    While I'm not an expert at lifting weights, I would personally suggest lifting weights but not doing as many. For example, if you are lifting 10lbs 30xs, do 5lbs 30xs or 10lbs 15xs. I saw someone suggest stretching, that is definitely key. I stretch even before my cardio. I haven't quite done weights yet, so I'm not 100% sure in this area. Just stating what I would do.

    you should always do a 5-10 minute warm up before stretching so you don't pull a muscle
  • Loftearmen
    Loftearmen Posts: 380
    Soreness is not a good indicator of how much fatigue you have accumulated or how well you are recovering. You can be completely recovered and ready for another training session but still feel sore. Personally, I just train through it. After you get a few sets into your training session you'll hardly notice it anyway. It takes a lot more training volume than most people can even imagine doing over a very, very long period of time to reach a state of overtraining so just keep it up and don't skimp on the weights or the cardio.
  • ArroganceInStep
    ArroganceInStep Posts: 6,239 Member
    Even though it's apparently going to kill me and make my spine explode, if I'm really achy from the previous day's workout, I'll often go in and lift for high volume at super low weight. I find it helps a lot, I don't know the science behind it but something about flushing the area with blood or whatever. Anyhow what I mean is if I'm sore from squats, I'll do something like light leg extensions. Deadlifts get bw hyperextensions and leg curls. Bench press is db flyes. All these sorts of things for sets of 25+. You get the idea.

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