Now this is a ridiculous questions...weight lifting and ache

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I have been upping my weights for gluts/thighs/hamstring; Friday and again today (giving myself a 48 hour rest on them). Everything is sore...I mean not being able to set on the toilet sore.

Is this a good thing? :huh:

I'm surprised that I'm still aching, but I got over it today and worked out like that again today.
How long do you think that this aching thing will last?
And when it does stop aching, should I up my weights?

Thanks in advanced.
Marie

Replies

  • mncardiojunkie
    mncardiojunkie Posts: 307 Member
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    I have been upping my weights for gluts/thighs/hamstring; Friday and again today (giving myself a 48 hour rest on them). Everything is sore...I mean not being able to set on the toilet sore.

    Is this a good thing? :huh:

    I'm surprised that I'm still aching, but I got over it today and worked out like that again today.
    How long do you think that this aching thing will last?
    And when it does stop aching, should I up my weights?

    Thanks in advanced.
    Marie
  • MyaPapaya75
    MyaPapaya75 Posts: 3,143 Member
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    rofl! sorry to laugh but I am in same predicament i started jogging yesterday and well ..i have to use the toilet like im at a public restroom haha..i think its just a process I remember when i first started excercising i was soooooo sore all over and it passed..im sure this will too!
  • kbop
    kbop Posts: 21 Member
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    Don't forget to do lots of stretching!
  • 12by311
    12by311 Posts: 1,716 Member
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    When upping weight like that, it is pretty common. If you are pushing yourself lifting, you are actually ripping tiny muscle fibers. When the body repairs itself, it is becoming stronger so that it can handle similar stresses the next time. I read a great article on this last night and now I can't find it! It was very clear and concise.

    Maybe try getting warmed up before lifting hard. Get the blood flowing and stretch. However, if you think it may be a more severe pull or strain, you may need to cut back on the weight and/or give that part of your body more rest to repair.
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
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    do you have a video with the last 20 or so mintues with stretching?

    Do it!

    It changed my life!!

    :flowerforyou: J
  • pixiestick
    pixiestick Posts: 839 Member
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    And don't forget to drink extra water! I'm in the same boat right now (back at weights after a 1 1/2 weeks off) and it's crucial to drink water so that we can properly flush out the acids disposed during the muscle repair process.
  • sonjavon
    sonjavon Posts: 1,019 Member
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    Oh you poor thing! Yes, I've been there! I swear by bananas... 1/2 a banana after working out seems to help keep some of the soreness at bay. Hot baths are also beneficial - put some epsom salts in there. Drink lots of water and tell yourself how great you're going to feel once you get done feeling like crap! :laugh:

    Good luck!
  • azwildcatfan94
    azwildcatfan94 Posts: 314 Member
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    Oh you poor thing! Yes, I've been there! I swear by bananas... 1/2 a banana after working out seems to help keep some of the soreness at bay. Hot baths are also beneficial - put some epsom salts in there. Drink lots of water and tell yourself how great you're going to feel once you get done feeling like crap! :laugh:

    Good luck!

    I totally agree with the banana thing. I had a lot of soreness when I first started working out and my workout guru (sister) told me about bananas. I now eat one every day! Even after increasing weight or adding new exercises, the soreness is minimal.
  • kerrilucko
    kerrilucko Posts: 3,852 Member
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    My fiance is acting as my personal trainer (he's certified) and yes that is normal. He said the 6th day will be the worst, after that it gets better. And for me it truly did! The 6th day I could barely move, it got progressively worse until then, and now (on about my 10th day) I feel great! So I say just stick with it. Do 2-3 sets of 7+ reps at a low weight, slowly increase. You'll get past the pain. :flowerforyou:
  • mncardiojunkie
    mncardiojunkie Posts: 307 Member
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    Oh you guys are absolutely great! :flowerforyou:

    THANK YOU FOR ALL OF THE RESPONSES! You have no idea how I appreciate it!

    Bananas...well, me-dear...I don't fancy them. In fact it's my least favorite thing to eat. But I eat mounds of spinach (around three cups uncooked daily and 1 cup cooked.) I love spinach and it's suppose to have a lot of potassium in it. But I might take a potassium supplement. Thanks for reminding me of that!

    Water....uh...well...uh...okay. I will start drinking more water.I just keep forgetting to. Thanks for the reminder. It's crucial.

    Streching....uh...well...okay. It really changed your life? Really..how so? I believe you, but I just would love to know the difference that you saw. Convince me to remind myself. No videos..the only video I have it "Bollywood Buns", get video...recommended.

    Epsom salt! Yes! Have that. I think a nice soak would do me some good. Thanks for the reminder of that.

    Six days? Thank you so much for telling me this. It some how helps me mentally to prepare!
    When upping weight like that, it is pretty common. If you are pushing yourself lifting, you are actually ripping tiny muscle fibers. When the body repairs itself, it is becoming stronger so that it can handle similar stresses the next time. I read a great article on this last night and now I can't find it! It was very clear and concise.
    OH MY! You had me at "ripping tiny muscle fibers..." OH MY! Thanks for telling me this. That explains PAIN!

    Thank you! I reallly do appreciate your thoughtful answers! You guys are the BEST!:smooched:
  • 9726172000
    9726172000 Posts: 428
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    Everyone who has even thought about exercising has heard the warnings about lactic acid. It builds up in your muscles. It is what makes your muscles burn. Its buildup is what makes your muscles tire and give out.
    Ben Stansall/European Pressphoto Agency
    Coaches and personal trainers tell athletes and exercisers that they have to learn to work out at just below their "lactic threshold," that point of diminishing returns when lactic acid starts to accumulate. Some athletes even have blood tests to find their personal lactic thresholds.
    But that, it turns out, is all wrong. Lactic acid is actually a fuel, not a caustic waste product. Muscles make it deliberately, producing it from glucose, and they burn it to obtain energy. The reason trained athletes can perform so hard and so long is because their intense training causes their muscles to adapt so they more readily and efficiently absorb lactic acid.
    The notion that lactic acid was bad took hold more than a century ago, said George A. Brooks, a professor in the department of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley. It stuck because it seemed to make so much sense.
    "It's one of the classic mistakes in the history of science," Dr. Brooks said.
    Its origins lie in a study by a Nobel laureate, Otto Meyerhof, who in the early years of the 20th century cut a frog in half and put its bottom half in a jar. The frog's muscles had no circulation — no source of oxygen or energy.
    Dr. Myerhoff gave the frog's leg electric shocks to make the muscles contract, but after a few twitches, the muscles stopped moving. Then, when Dr. Myerhoff examined the muscles, he discovered that they were bathed in lactic acid.
    A theory was born. Lack of oxygen to muscles leads to lactic acid, leads to fatigue.
    Athletes were told that they should spend most of their effort exercising aerobically, using glucose as a fuel. If they tried to spend too much time exercising harder, in the anaerobic zone, they were told, they would pay a price, that lactic acid would accumulate in the muscles, forcing them to stop.
    Few scientists questioned this view, Dr. Brooks said. But, he said, he became interested in it in the 1960's, when he was running track at Queens College and his coach told him that his performance was limited by a buildup of lactic acid.
    When he graduated and began working on a Ph.D. in exercise physiology, he decided to study the lactic acid hypothesis for his dissertation.
    "I gave rats radioactive lactic acid, and I found that they burned it faster than anything else I could give them," Dr. Brooks said.
    It looked as if lactic acid was there for a reason. It was a source of energy.
    Dr. Brooks said he published the finding in the late 70's. Other researchers challenged him at meetings and in print.
    "I had huge fights, I had terrible trouble getting my grants funded, I had my papers rejected," Dr. Brooks recalled. But he soldiered on, conducting more elaborate studies with rats and, years later, moving on to humans. Every time, with every study, his results were consistent with his radical idea.
    Eventually, other researchers confirmed the work. And gradually, the thinking among exercise physiologists began to change.
    "The evidence has continued to mount," said L. Bruce Gladden, a professor of health and human performance at Auburn University. "It became clear that it is not so simple as to say, Lactic acid is a bad thing and it causes fatigue."
    As for the idea that lactic acid causes muscle soreness, Dr. Gladden said, that never made sense.
    "Lactic acid will be gone from your muscles within an hour of exercise," he said. "You get sore one to three days later. The time frame is not consistent, and the mechanisms have not been found."
    The understanding now is that muscle cells convert glucose or glycogen to lactic acid. The lactic acid is taken up and used as a fuel by mitochondria, the energy factories in muscle cells.
    Mitochondria even have a special transporter protein to move the substance into them, Dr. Brooks found. Intense training makes a difference, he said, because it can make double the mitochondrial mass.
    It is clear that the old lactic acid theory cannot explain what is happening to muscles, Dr. Brooks and others said.
    Yet, Dr. Brooks said, even though coaches often believed in the myth of the lactic acid threshold, they ended up training athletes in the best way possible to increase their mitochondria. "Coaches have understood things the scientists didn't," he said.
    Through trial and error, coaches learned that athletic performance improved when athletes worked on endurance, running longer and longer distances, for example.
    That, it turns out, increased the mass of their muscle mitochondria, letting them burn more lactic acid and allowing the muscles to work harder and longer.
    Just before a race, coaches often tell athletes to train very hard in brief spurts.
    That extra stress increases the mitochondria mass even more, Dr. Brooks said, and is the reason for improved performance.
  • annhjk
    annhjk Posts: 794 Member
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    doing more cardio helped me too. once my body got warmed up and used to moving again, the pain went away. Are you lifting full body on alternating days, or different body parts every day?

    I've also heard that 1 c skim milk with hershey's syrup helps with the soreness/energy boost too.
  • erlehmkuhle
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    I agree with that banana theory. I eat one in the morning and the evening. Seems to help. Maybe check out a post workout recovery supplement. They are a great way to keep going and repair those torn muscle fibers quicker. Good luck and stay loose.
  • tig3rang3l
    tig3rang3l Posts: 270 Member
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    Find yourself a buddy with a hot tub or take a very hot shower the night you work out. Part of the problem is that you are tensing those muscles when you work them, and they will release and become relaxed when you sleep. The next morning, you tense up again, and voila.... pain! Relaxing those muscles in hot water the night before will that. And as stated above, stretch and warm up before and after.
  • mncardiojunkie
    mncardiojunkie Posts: 307 Member
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    Everyone who has even thought about exercising has heard the warnings about lactic acid. It builds up in your muscles. It is what makes your muscles burn. Its buildup is what makes your muscles tire and give out. ...................................

    Thanks for all of this information! I appreciate it, but I am afraid that it went over my head. I will re-read it again.

    And yes, I need hot water. I actually have one of those Con-air things that you put in your tub to make a whirlpool. I haven't used it in forever. Good time to get it out...:happy:

    Also, well...I'm sure that the banana thing is helpful...but I seriously don't fancy them or anything like banana bread. I think it's because I lived in Brazil for two years and I have banana burn out. But I do have the potassium supplements and I am never without spinach.

    Now I have been changing things a bit with my work out.

    I used to do a hour of running or an elliptical and then hit the weights for maybe 20 minutes.

    Now I do 40 minutes of cardio and hit the weights for at least 30 minutes (normally 45) and then I get on the tread mill and run up hill for 20--40 minutes.

    There's a reason why I call myself MNCardioJunkie...I am. I'd rather get on a tread mill and run like the devil for an hour even possibility two instead of get to the weight room. I am trying to change my evil ways.