If it’s a normal “been away from the gym for a while and kinda overdid it” soreness, then I usually get sore (or get the worst soreness) a couple of days after that workout. I’ve always found that lifting again while sore helps get rid of the soreness… although some people think that you’re not supposed to work the sore muscles, I don’t agree.
If it’s a “I can’t believe I did a zillion reps of this new exercise” kinda soreness, I have gotten horribly sore as soon as an hour after the workout.
But “soreness” is a rant topic for me, so I’m going to rant a bit.
I generally train in such a way that I don’t get sore. I believe that if you’re sore, you’re probably not making the progress you should. I think that far too many people use soreness as an indication that they’re hitting certain muscles and/or that their routine is good and I don’t believe that it is. For the first few years of my training, I used soreness as a guide like that and didn’t make any progress. It wasn’t until I stopped building my routines to emphasize soreness that I started progressing.
When I come back from a layoff, I take the weights very light and then work the weights back up. I don’t try to continue from where I left off. When I design my routines, I don’t generally use a lot of volume, spread my volume across multiple workout sessions during the week, and mostly stick to primary exercises that emphasize larger muscle groups. I don’t take long breaks from doing a particular movement; I usually squat 2-3x per week, for example.
Pencil Neck, I fully agree with the way you’re doing it. I find doing a light workout in between heavy ones maintains conditioning while allowing recovery. DOMS comes from lack of conditioning.
[quote]Ruszx wrote:
I’d reccomend never taking more than two days off… simple![/quote]
I agree - I hate to go against the grain a little with what Bushy said about overtraining but when I lift EOD I get even more sore. I think the solution lies within the combination of the two by throwing in some light work with the higher volume but not necessarily omitting days. (somehow Bushy is going to come in here and prove me wrong so realize my opinion may change in a minute)
Btw, did this thread get combined with the other muscle soreness thread or simply re-emerge bc someone searched it and thought it was the same as the muscle pain in forearm thread?? Confusing.
[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
I’m going to add my own opinions here, though they are just that -opinions.
After a 3 day layoff, you’ve had ample time to recover/synthesise your stores of all the vital chemicals like neurotransmitters, peptide hormones, glycogen, etc.
It’s possible that something like the arachidonic acid inflamatory cascade that leads to the production of (amongst other things) prostaglandins can work much more effectively following on from a period of rest.
Also, since your CNS has had a chance to recover more fully (depending on the type of training you do) after a 3 day layoff, you are contracting the muscles more forcefully, inducing greater trauma, and hence inflammation.
I wouldn’t recommend this in the longterm, but you might try taking a little aspirin post workout, and before bed. If this help your soreness, then it may be a clue to the mechanism of your pain, since aspirin inhibits the conversion of arachidonic acid to other inflammatory molecules.
