DOMS and leg days

Are you stretching after you lift? If not, that could help.

Okay so whenever i have a leg day, i get stiffness/pain/DOMS so bad i can barely walk for the next couple days. I'm not new to lifitng by any means, and it seems i only get DOMS this severe in my legs, and it happens after every leg day. Any thoughts on why my legs seem soooo susceptible to DOMS and what i might be able to do to prevent it. I've tried reducing weight, fewer sets, still always happens. FRUSTRATING!

Do you stretch before and after your workouts? For working out, are your leg routines a different volume then your other muscle groups?

How long have you been on your current routine?

If it has been for quite awhile, it may have to do with your diet, and hydration levels. How big is your deficit, do you hit your protein macro and your micros?

If the soreness in your tendons or the muscles. If you are going too heavy it might put too much pressure on the tendons and ligaments, they are weaker and slower to strength than your muscles, which is way many beginner programs have you start with the empty bar and add weight every workout

Up your water intake, and make sure you're doing a proper warm-up and cool-down, with stretching afterward. Try a light jog for 10-15min before you lift, and 10min of walking after. We tend to overlook the importance of this!

+1 on the foam rollers. Finish with rolling out the quads and IT bands - helps a lot!

I add glutamine before and after leg day. This helps me get enough protein in for quick recovery.

Stretching my legs out after a leg workout always helped me. Also, I like to soak in a tube of hot water to help loosen them back up.

I do legs every Wednesday morning and I get pain two days later only from lunges under the smith machine (glutes yea!) and inner thigh workouts. I think these muscles remain sore because they are not stretched during my spin classes and fitness walk outings. I've heard that potassium may help. Add a banana to your protein shake?

It's the muscles, the joints are okay (with the exception of my surgery knee, but i'm used to that hurting). uggghhhh i HATE stretching and rolling, was hoping for different answers! HATE HATE HATE my roller, it's so painful! Def don't wanna cut back the weights anymore though, was doing 1000 on the leg press at the beginning of the year and now i'm sticking to 500, but no lower.

There's nothing wrong with DOMS, it's a build up of lactic acid. Lactic acid is easiest removed by any of the following or combination of but not limited to stretching and it's various forms, certain supplements, proper hydration, steam/sauna, brief low intensity cardio following the workout. The real question is if you like your workout, which do you hate more, stretching or DOMS?

It's the muscles, the joints are okay (with the exception of my surgery knee, but i'm used to that hurting). uggghhhh i HATE stretching and rolling, was hoping for different answers! HATE HATE HATE my roller, it's so painful! Def don't wanna cut back the weights anymore though, was doing 1000 on the leg press at the beginning of the year and now i'm sticking to 500, but no lower.

There's nothing wrong with DOMS, it's a build up of lactic acid. Lactic acid is easiest removed by any of the following or combination of but not limited to stretching and it's various forms, certain supplements, proper hydration, steam/sauna, brief low intensity cardio following the workout. The real question is if you like your workout, which do you hate more, stretching or DOMS?

This is no longer thought to be correct.

Nice, been a few years since I looked into the specifics and you're right, lactic acid isn't the supposed culprit although the remedy remains the same. Last time I looked into it acid was all the rage

http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/features/sore-muscles-dont-stop-exercising?page=2

Replace "leg day" with a full body workout done every 2-3 days. Problem solved.

Correct, from what I've reading in my physiology class is that lactic acid is not the culprit of DOMS. Here's an intro to the discussion from our text.

If lactate is not the cause of
delayed-onset muscle soreness, what
is the cause? Growing evidence indi-
cates that this type of muscle soreness
originates from microscopic injury to
muscle fibers. This kind of injury
results in a slow cascade of biochemi-
cal events leading to inflammation
and edema within the injured mus-
cles. Because these events are slow to
develop, the resulting pain generally
doesn’t appear until 24 to 48 hours
after exercise. Details of the events
leading to delayed-onset muscle sore-
ness are discussed in chapter 21.

Since we're talking about injury or damage it's important to focus on recovery. What are some things that help recovery?

- Nutrition: Appropriate caloric consumption for your goals and activity, adequate protein included. Approximately 1.6kg's to 2kg's per kg of bodyweight.

- Sleep: Get 7 to 8 hours of good sleep. I've personally found the supplement ZMA to really help my sleep and I can tell a difference between when I do and don't take it. I'm not big on supplements either, but this is one I like.

- Flexibility: Getting some good stretching and self-myofacial-release in makes a big difference in managing your pain. Personally, I can tell when I get lazy in stretching because my lower back gets sore as hell.

- Training frequency: What is it? Perhaps it needs to be less? Recovery from exercise is essential if you want to exercise long-term. I think on MFP the most common goal is weight-loss and most users seem to think they need to exercise everyday to lose weight and that's just not the case.

Do you do any cardio after leg day?

The only thing that keeps me from getting insane doms is making sure I finish a bottle of water while walking on the treadmill after my leg day.

I hate stretching, but it helps.