Should cardio and sore muscles mix?

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Kitteneyes01
Kitteneyes01 Posts: 125
in Fitness and Exercise
So I'm no expert on muscles and all that. But Saturday I did some exercises to increase strength, which included 15 pushups (from a counter), 20 star jumps (jumping up as high as you can from a squatting position), and 20 situps. I can actually do up to 70 situps, but my legs and arms are very weak. I lost weight without doing strengh exercise and just walking.

Now 2 days later I'm still sore as hell, but my arm-pain doesn't bother me as much as the pain in my legs. My main form of exercise is still walking. And after a while of walking I guess my muscles warm up and the pain goes away, as soon as I stop exercising it's back.

My question is, should I be doing cardio while waiting for my muscles to recover? Because since Saturday it's gotten worse instead of better, and I guess I'm not going to be able to do more strength tomorrow like I planned to.

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    did you stretch after you exercised?
  • Kitteneyes01
    Kitteneyes01 Posts: 125
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    No I didn't. Not sure how to hehe. I'm very dumb when it comes to strength. :blushing:
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    No I didn't. Not sure how to hehe. I'm very dumb when it comes to strength. :blushing:

    this is why you're so sore then... i would get on youtube for some stretching... then you can go for a walk and then stretch out the sore muscles today and you should be ok to do the same exercises again tomorrow. (and stretch afterwards of course)
  • Kitteneyes01
    Kitteneyes01 Posts: 125
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    No I didn't. Not sure how to hehe. I'm very dumb when it comes to strength. :blushing:

    I mean, you know it's really obvious. Otherwise I wouldn't be in this mess Haha
  • lisaabenjamin
    lisaabenjamin Posts: 665 Member
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    First of all know that it's perfectly normal for muscle soreness to come on a day or two after the activity that caused it. It's called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) and is just a symptom of your muscles repairing themselves after the exercise you did.

    I would say you are fine to walk even though you have sore muscles - as you say the muscular pain tends to ease off during exercise as your muscles warm up.

    Make sure you do some thorough stretching after your cardio, while your muscles are warm, to help ease the muscles back to normal.

    Also make sure you aren't overdoing it with the strength exercises. It's normal to feel a bit sore, but if you're crippled or actually hurting then maybe ease back a little!
  • Kitteneyes01
    Kitteneyes01 Posts: 125
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    Also make sure you aren't overdoing it with the strength exercises. It's normal to feel a bit sore, but if you're crippled or actually hurting then maybe ease back a little!

    Might do that. Because I'm walking like a stick, and I can't lift my arms above my head hehe. That's what you get for not using your muscles for 4 years.
  • Dewymorning
    Dewymorning Posts: 762 Member
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    Yes, you can do cardio if you have DOMs.

    As said above, stretching can help reduce DOMs in future
  • Kitteneyes01
    Kitteneyes01 Posts: 125
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    UPDATE: Seems like the thing I was missing WAS stretching. :) It also really helps to ease the muscle pain even if I didn't exercise before. I also downed the volume a bit. I'll increase slowly.

    My muscles seem to be doing a lot better now. Thanks for all your expert advice! :bigsmile:

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