Is it okay to work out when you are incredibly sore and mise

I am about to start Jillian's 30 Day Shred dvd, and was wondering, if I get really sore after the first few days, would it be better to take a break and let myself heal, or keep going? :bigsmile:

If the muscles don't recover, they won't get stronger and better.

Do some light aerobic if you still had time planned, gets the lactic acid and muscle breakdown elements out of your system.

I have been athletic all of my life, it is always important to take at least one day a week off from exercise to let your body rest, but always stretch on that day off. If you get really sore make sure you are stretching enough and that you get enough water this will help lactic acid build up. If you are feeling pain and it is making it hard to do the workout, this is when you need to listen to your body. Stretch and rub the area that is bothering you and if that doesn't help, ice it and rest for a day or two while continueing the icing and stretching. If after a couple of days the pain is persistant make sure you see a doctor, always listen to your body. Good luck!

Experience, PT course, Nutirtion course......

When ur sore from working out it is lactic acid build up in your muscles.. you can eliminate that with 15min of light cardio post workout and if you are sore the next day for your workout you can do light cardio and stretching. So this means you can continue your training... only time i cut someone slack is if its their first week-month of training and your body is jsut getting used to the new strain even so i would make them do cardio but skip the weights for that day...

the PERFECT amount of sorness you want is lets say Monday-train chest.. Tuesday - little tight and sore, Wensday - fearly sore and very tight, Thrusday - little tight and sore, Friday - Fully recovered

was soooo sore today after training yesterday (have a half ironman in a few months, just building my cycling) and could barely sit down, went on an easy 4.5 mile jog today limping around but figured it would break up the lactic acid, sure did, I took my time and looked ridic I'm sure, but I can walk fine now. If I were not already in decent shape and just starting out, I'd have just done light stretching after some light cardio to loosen up. it really works! then, take a day off

A rule of thumb that has personally worked for me is if im sore, then its fine to work out. If I am sore AND in pain, workout is replaced by a recovery such as yoga, stretching, or just sleep.

Here's the study I was looking for about lactic acid.
Didn't realize it had been way back in 2006 a better understanding of it came out. NYT article got into too.

http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/04/19_lactate.shtml

If you "feel the burn," you need to bulk up your mitochondria

By Robert Sanders, Media Relations | 19 April 2006

BERKELEY – In the lore of marathoners and extreme athletes, lactic acid is poison, a waste product that builds up in the muscles and leads to muscle fatigue, reduced performance and pain.

Some 30 years of research at the University of California, Berkeley, however, tells a different story: Lactic acid can be your friend.

Coaches and athletes don't realize it, says exercise physiologist George Brooks, UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology, but endurance training teaches the body to efficiently use lactic acid as a source of fuel on par with the carbohydrates stored in muscle tissue and the sugar in blood. Efficient use of lactic acid, or lactate, not only prevents lactate build-up, but ekes out more energy from the body's fuel.

In a paper in press for the American Journal of Physiology - Endocrinology and Metabolism, published online in January, Brooks and colleagues Takeshi Hashimoto and Rajaa Hussien in UC Berkeley's Exercise Physiology Laboratory add one of the last puzzle pieces to the lactate story and also link for the first time two metabolic cycles - oxygen-based aerobic metabolism and oxygen-free anaerobic metabolism - previously thought distinct.

I loved both those articles Thanks! XD