My Wife and Constant Soreness

Google "active recovery" and "DOMS" ... she's just going to have to accept the fact that she will be slightly uncomfortable as she gets the kinks worked out in her body. Sometimes people who haven't worked out in a while confuse soreness with pain.

There is another possibility: Fibromyalgia. Google that and see if it fits. Even if it does, continued movement is necessary, but gradually increase intensity. Whether fibromyalgia is a problem or not, it never does any real good to try to jump, literally, into an intense exercise regime. That will always lead to soreness, and could lead to injury.

She may be starting out too hard for her current fitness level. It might be worth backing off some and working her way up to more intensity if it means she will stick with it.

Sometimes an easy workout will help you recover because it warms the muscles up a bit and stretches them out. If I do something I have not done in a while I try to plan on doing an easy exercise the following day working the same muscles and it has helped me in the past. Unfortunatly if you do not just make yourself keep working out then you fall into the endless cycle of being sore and not conditioning yourself enough to stop from becoming sore.

I agree with trying to set up active recovery days and ensuring her nutritional needs are being met. I recover better with additional exercise, hydration, and a balanced diet. DOMS can linger for days if I don't get enough fluids and eat like crap around a hard workout.

I don't know what type of exercise she has started back into, but possibly find a program that starts slow and builds in difficulty over time. Adding in things like yoga and slow walks will help her improve flexibility and keep the muscles active in between harder workouts.

I agree with others here, maybe she needs to slow down a bit. I recently started deadlift and was able to lift the weight fine, but had a little back pain after. I decided to lower the weight just a tad to make sure I'm doing the form 100% correctly. The weight is still heavy but no more back pain. With a little more time I"ll increase the weight and work my way up.

For me, being active and demonstrating excellent form are more important than how much I lift. I only raise the weight if I can lift the sets correctly and not feel pain after.

Working beyond current fitness level can be dangerous! Some of us will merely get sore but recover, others can do the exact same things and end up in the hospital with rhabdomyolysis (muscle destruction that damages the kidneys). I would suggest that your wife start very slow with light weights and very gradually build up both time and weight.

I started off exercising vigorously for 45-60 minutes after a long time of being mostly sedentary, and it made me sick. I didn't end up in the hospital, but I was sick like I had the flu. It happened several times, then I learned to start with a light to moderate 20-minute workout followed by about 10 minutes of stretching. Now I can do the 45-60 workout that I wanted in the beginning, but it took 4-6 weeks.

Above all, it's important that your wife not give up! The results will be worth it.

I would see a doctor if this is more then just being sore from working out, nerve issues cause joint pain and muscle pain.

Man, this is not what I thought it was going to be about. :grumble:

Totally bummed too.

seriously

And this is why I am friends with you guys on MFP, Mikki and Jerry...

My wife was very active when younger, but more often lately it's been very difficult to start any kind of exercise routine for her. When she starts something new now, the soreness is tough to get over now versus a decade ago - it's still around for two or more days and is making it tough to keep it up. Has anyone been through similar troubles, and what have you done besides simply pushing through it? We've tried this, but the pain is outweighing the desire to continue...

Mark

Long story short... besides my obesity I have other unique issues that cause horrible pain when I workout... I found the way to fix this... WATER, workout in the pool! seriously, swim laps, do jumping jacks, knee lifts, buy water weights to use too, heck I even jog for minimum of 30 minutes in the water and have no pain afterwards! I now can workout on dry land a bit, I think soon I will be able to do it all the time. So if you don't have a pool see if you can join the YMCA, if not there must be a lake or river with 'pool' area that you can use, you just need it to cover her knees, no higher than her waist for most of it.

muhfeeds.