Second Day Soreness

Training Bodybuilding
1

I’ve been doing an upper/lower split:
Mon: Upper
Tue: Lower
Thus: Upper

All of my workouts include cardio for 30 minutes at the end of a 45 minute to 1 hour resistance session.

This has worked out well becuase I usually feel the most sore the second day after I workout. I’m losing fat, gaining some muscle and increasing my strength on a pretty regular basis.

For the next couple of weeks I have an opportunity to add more workouts during the week, but after Mon and Tue I feel like poo.

I’m taking Surge and eating after each workout, and getting about 6 to 7 hours of sleep.

Any suggestions on how to quell some of the soreness or something I could be doing on the extra days that are available to me now?

Thanks

2

Try cycling between hot and cold water in the shower.

3

I guess my main question is:

Is it okay to workout again even sore like that? I took my “rest day”. I’m sure I can work through the pain, but would I be doing myself more harm than good working out while still really sore?

4

First, how long have you been training? Do you go to failure? In every set? How many sets do you do? If you read up around this site there are a lot of articles about how many total sets per week you should be doing per week.

6-7 hours of sleep may not be enough. Depending on your age, training load, experience level, individual genetics, etc. you may need 8 or even 9 hours a nite for optimal recovery.

Personally, I am almost always still sore when I work a muscle group again, but I do all muscles 2-3 times a week and I am over 50 too. As long as you are getting progressively stronger you probably are not overtraining.

5

Supplements to help with muscle recovery:

Proper Nutrition
Drinking lots of water and Green Tea
Creatine (After Work out)
BCAA (Taken before, during and after WO)
Fish Oil
Beta 7
Drinking lots of water and Green Tea

Also read:

7 Secrets to Rapid Recovery
http://www.T-Nation.com/findArticle.do?article=05-015-training

6

I’ve been training since January. I typically do not go to failure except in the last set. I typically do 3 sets of 8 to 10 per exercise. If I fail real early in the 3rd set I’ll sometimes add another small 4th set. I’m 31 so I’m not sure where that puts me on the sleep need scale.

I drink a lot of water. I’m taking creatine with my Surge after my workout. I eat well (still working out what is enough but not too much), but I eat pretty clean. I do my best to keep a good balance slightly heavy on the protien side which I supplement with Metabolic Drive when necessary. I take salmon oil every day. I haven’t been taking the BCAAs, but I’m probably going to add those soon.

7

[quote]ghargoyle wrote:
I guess my main question is:

Is it okay to workout again even sore like that? I took my “rest day”. I’m sure I can work through the pain, but would I be doing myself more harm than good working out while still really sore?[/quote]

I’m going to assume that what you’re describing is DOMS, and nothing more than that. In which case, yes - its fine to work out while sore (I’m assuming your doing full body workouts, and not bodypart splits, in which case the question wouldnt even arise).

All you need to do is condition yourself to work through the soreness the first few times, and then you’ll find that you won’t have a problem. In fact, it will help you recover from DOMS more quickly.

In fact, IMHO, working through mild DOMS soreness is one of the things you need to condition yourself to do, if you’re going to try to do full body workouts (with any decent intensity) more than twice a week.

If you’re REALLY REALLY sore, then perhaps you may want to try a short, low-intensity, high-rep workout, just to flush the muscles with some lactic acid and work out the soreness.

8

[quote]ghargoyle wrote:
I’ve been doing an upper/lower split:
Mon: Upper
Tue: Lower
Thus: Upper

All of my workouts include cardio for 30 minutes at the end of a 45 minute to 1 hour resistance session.

This has worked out well becuase I usually feel the most sore the second day after I workout. I’m losing fat, gaining some muscle and increasing my strength on a pretty regular basis.

For the next couple of weeks I have an opportunity to add more workouts during the week, but after Mon and Tue I feel like poo.

I’m taking Surge and eating after each workout, and getting about 6 to 7 hours of sleep.

Any suggestions on how to quell some of the soreness or something I could be doing on the extra days that are available to me now?

Thanks[/quote]

First let me tell you, I do not recommend working out sore. I have always felt this is bad. I feel I need to feel fresh when I hit the iron.

That said, it looks like you are doing:
2 on
1 off
1 on
3 off

Second, why not split this routine up more? It seems you are working 2 days in a row, and taking 3 days in a row off. Why not:

Mon: upper
Tue: off
Wed: lower
Thur: off
Fri: upp
Sat: rest
Sun: rest

Or something similar that gives you more rest between your sore times.

There is nothing wrong with changing your routine by “feeling” what works and what just doesn’t feel right. If it doesn’t feel right, it probably is not right, unless it makes gains.

Change it appropriate to how it feels, see how it feels once changed, and see if you make gains from it and if the change feels right.

My normal feeling is if it hurts but makes good gains, f*ck the pain. We are all in it for the gains and I think we can all stomach some discomfort. But if the gains aren’t there and I am training on a sore body, then bump that and change.

I believe most people agree any discomfort/pain/fatigue is nothing if it makes good gains. But if there is discomfort and the gains suck, then it also sucks.

Dont read too much into this. It is not degree’ing a camshaft. You are a hunter in the wild seeking game (LOL)

Peace bro.