Anyone Here Exercise?

[Cool Cat]

I'm starting to do it but am getting muscle aches. Anyone got any tips for dealing with that morning-after muscle soreness? It's been going on for the day day or two.

 

[still_i_rise]

Muscles soreness is normal whenever you start up a new activity. I usually take a epson salt bath to help with the soreness. Usually over time if you maintain that level of activity, your body will get used to it and it'll not be as sore.
I often get the most sore 48 hours after a big workout.
Take it easy :)

 

[WhisperingUnicorn]

Drink water - sore muscles are in part due to build up of lactic acid, and water will help your system flush. Also, healthful stretching after you exercise will help expel the lactic acid. You might also eat a banana to help with potassium levels. :) Way to go, @Cool Cat !

 

[garden]

Stretching the muscles will reduce the soreness. The soreness is caused by the build up of lactic acid in the muscles that happens when the muscles are working/metabolizing, and stretching these muscles actually releases that lactic acid build up. The epsom salt bath that @still_i_rise mentioned also works wonders, doing both the bath and the stretches will feel really good. Not all forms of exercise cause lactic acid to build up, you must be doing something pretty vigorous, or weight bearing. Nice.

Go you!

 

[Cool Cat]

Thanks @ptsdspouse2b @Lewa! @still_i_rise :) I'm new to it so that is why it took a toll.
Should I be waiting until I'm completely not-sore before exercising again?
I just had a salt bath and it was amazing.

 

[WhisperingUnicorn]

You don't necessarily have to wait till the soreness leaves - Typically you just need to make sure you work a DIFFERENT set of muscles. If you did all at once, you will want to wait or you could cause greater muscle tearing (normal process for building strength, but too much too fast can injure). If you did, say, just your glutes (butt) and biceps (front upper arm), you could do a work-out for legs and triceps (back upper arm). Just an example. You want to aim to alternate your muscle groups in strength training. If you're just sore all over, try the Epsom salt bath and give yourself another day or so, or you could just do an aerobic exercise (like treadmill or swimming). If you're new to exercise, a good "rule of thumb" is 120 beats per minute (bpm) heartrate sustained over 20 minutes (for cardio/heart workouts). That usually works out to about 30 minutes if you add 5 minutes to get up to that rate, and 5 minutes to cool down from that rate. :) :) There are plenty of active folks on this site (WAY better than me!) who could comment. There is at least one thread I know of, too, where you could log your exercise and invite accountability. I'll try to find the link and post next. Good for motivation! ;)

 

[WhisperingUnicorn]

https://www.myptsd.com/threads/log-your-daily-exercise.49519/

 

[Friday]

Water, calcium & potassium (especially potassium right after exercise; eat a banana if you can... For a muscle to flex it needs calcium, to relax, potassium. So soreness and cramping = potassium, fatigue = calcium), ibuprofen for inflammation, and get back out there. :D For real. The more you move sore muscles, the more it flushes the toxins out of them, the less sore they are.

Day 3 is always the worst when it comes to soreness if you take Day 2 off. You don't have to work out on Day 2, but movement & hydration is pretty key to flush all those lactic acids out of the muscle tissue.

Also... Stretching before and after, Warming up (starting off slow) & cooling down (finishing off slow) helps prevent muscle and soft tissue damage.

NOT true for injuries (don't push through injuries, just makes them worse)... But for general out of shape / soreness / fatigue? The mantra "Pain is weakness leaving the body!" has always helped me.

 

[J_trustno1]

You need to start slowly. Don't expect to train hard in one day to win a marathon. Start exercise with light weights if you are doing weights and start cardio at low resistance if you are doing cardiovascular exercises.

Yes you will experience soreness in first couple of days or a week or two but this goes away. Whenever you start any type of exercise , make sure you do warmup (includes light walking on treadmill/biking/crosstrainer/ rowing and some light stretches before weight training ). After completing your exercise, make sure you stretch your muscles before that will release tension on muscles. Once you are done with exercise make sure you have healthy nutrition and enough protein in your diet because protein helps recover muscles faster hence making you less sore.

So note to take from all this is that NEVER start any type of exercise with cold body because you can hurt yourself. Always do warmup and stretches so that your muscles aren't cold and can prepare for your training sessions.

Hope this helps and enjoy exercising. Telling you this because I have been traing for the last 8 years and I think I know a bit about exercise.

P.s. drink plenty of water during and after exercise because you don't want to dehydrate yourself. Last but not least try getting 7-8 hours of sleep because your body needs rest to repair itself. Have fun.

 

[Cool Cat]

You need to start slowly.

Yeah lol I ran 2k on the first day

I will make sure I stretch, I didnt do that yesterday.

 

[J_trustno1]

@Cool Cat : now you know. I've done this at the very beginning when I first started training. You are very enthusiastic about it at the beginning where you overtrain for the first few days and within few days/weeks you lose all your motivation. So start slowly and try setting up some goals to achieve every 2 weeks in your training. That'll keep you motivated and wanting to do more.

 

[JEKBreatheandBelieve]

Make sure you start slowly. Warm up before you do serious aerobic activity (jog slowly before running, walk slowly before going full pace...). Also, make sure to stretch afterwards. If you don't know any good stretches, look them up online and make sure you do them properly.

Ice sore muscles after the exercise, heat before. Or do whatever feels more comfortable. It the muscle aches are really bad, a little ibuprofen will help, too.