How often is enough to avoid doms?

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NorthCascades
NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
The first time I did squats, and any time I stopped and then came back to them, I'd have almost crippling DOMS in my legs for a couple days. Even after taking a week off.

I'm going to the gym 3x per week and doing heavy squats in each session. My legs never hurt. But when I get on the bike lately, they have too much fatigue in them. It takes longer to warm up, and I can't do enough intensity to maintain my fitness. My average power is down 20 watts over the course of an hour ride. This has only been an issue for a few weeks.

Clearly I need to dial back the squats, maybe RDLs too. The bike is more important to me, and the rains will be back soon so I need to enjoy it while I can.

I'm going to start experimenting to find a better balance, but I want to learn from other peoples' experience while I'm at it.

Replies

  • Cherimoose
    Cherimoose Posts: 5,209 Member
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    Try cutting back to working legs every 4-5 days. Reducing the number of sets might help too if you do many sets. :+1:
  • Walter__
    Walter__ Posts: 518 Member
    edited August 2018
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    Just squat less often.

    It's going to be hard to keep up 1hr+ high intensity cardio when you're doing heavy squats 3x weekly.

    If you're in a calorie deficit, it makes it all that much worse.

    Just realized my post isn't all that helpful. But it's hard to give anything specific if you're not telling us the specifics of your routine (what exercises you're doing, sets/reps on each one), diet, how often you're biking, etc. So like Cherimoose said, train legs every 4-5 days or reduce sets. Another option if you don't care about losing weight is eat more. Makes recovery easier.
  • deputy_randolph
    deputy_randolph Posts: 940 Member
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    Yuck to heavy squats 3 times a week. I generally only do heavy squats once per week and heavy dls once per week.

    Due to shoulder/bicep issue, I've laid off heavy dls, but added 2 more squat sessions (lower weight/higher rep) for the passed 4 weeks. I have had DOMS like crazy.

    I can't wait to switch back to just 2 heavy legs vs. 3 leg days.

  • lulehlu
    lulehlu Posts: 87 Member
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    Serious stretching (like 30 second holds) usually helps me prevent major DOMS.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
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    I think running for me is what biking is for you. When I am training for a race or otherwise doing a lot of running volume, I can maintain my squat volume/strength and avoid crippling DOMS if I squat once a week. More than that and I don’t have the legs to run (I’m slow, fatigued, may or may not even have a slightly altered gait); less than that and the DOMS are catastrophic and I’m even less able to run.

    I’ll also mention that I’m on a weekly run schedule where I have certain types of runs scheduled on the same days each week. My squats are scheduled around hard run workouts and long runs - which occur on the same days of each week. So my squats are scheduled around those.

    Good luck!
  • ExistingFish
    ExistingFish Posts: 1,259 Member
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    Heavy squats 3x a week probably can't co-exist with a heavy cardio load. I'd squat 2x a week. Or lighten the load a little. Biking seems important to you.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
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    Lot of good comments in here, thanks everyone! :smile: It sounds like the basic consensus is I'm squatting too often, and can get away with less.
    Walter__ wrote: »
    Just squat less often.

    It's going to be hard to keep up 1hr+ high intensity cardio when you're doing heavy squats 3x weekly.

    If you're in a calorie deficit, it makes it all that much worse.

    Just realized my post isn't all that helpful. But it's hard to give anything specific if you're not telling us the specifics of your routine (what exercises you're doing, sets/reps on each one), diet, how often you're biking, etc. So like Cherimoose said, train legs every 4-5 days or reduce sets. Another option if you don't care about losing weight is eat more. Makes recovery easier.

    Yeah, good point. Thanks.

    I'm riding about 100 miles per week, which is about 8 hours - slow because Seattle is real hilly. Hike one day a week. I'm not doing much in the gym because I'm coming back from an injury: 3x8 squats, bench presses, overhead presses with light weight, RDLs with light weight, and renegade rows.
  • auzziecawth
    auzziecawth Posts: 244 Member
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    What I found really helped it to stop a rep before you get to your failure rep. I use to get horrible DOMs haven’t had them once with this new routine and I’ve increased my 1RM so it’s obviously still working lol
  • notarunnermfp
    notarunnermfp Posts: 43 Member
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    I agree with cutting down to 2 days a week, or every 4-5 days. You might also consider having one of them be a lighter day.
    I am still pretty new to biking but I can't imagine trying to squat heavy 3x a week!!
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
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    Well, I did them M and F this week, and I'm getting around just fine. Can't say whether it's improved my cycling due to air quality, but I'm sure it has.

    Thanks everyone!

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