Just curious about muscle soreness… i’ve recently started a new bicep tricep workout, the first day my arms killed, second, killed then the 3rd day i did the workout again, it wasn’t as bad, but still really tiering… Then today( 2 days later) i did it again but my arms feel fine,
just wondering if its still doing as much if my arms arnt getting sore, since I’m doing the same weight…and I couldn’t have gone up since its like the 3rd time i’ve done this workout and i go till failure
noooooooooooooooooooooooo. you need to up your workouts to more sets. go from a 20 rep max and then do it till you cant lift anymore then lower it 5lbs then do it again and keeep doing this till you have no weight and then just curl no weight. when you cant move your arms drive home
mega-dosing fish oil and a proper PWO shake of BCAA, whey and carbs killed most of my soreness unless i go insanely intense on a workout where each set is heavy/PR
When you change routines for any particular body part, soreness is a good sign. It lets you know that your body recognizes something is different. This is the key to preventing your progress from stagnating.
LCCHSathlete, I used to do stuff like that, too. Never could figure out why I wasn’t getting any bigger. I know now that I was overtraining, forcing my body to repair rather than improve. Not to say that burnouts aren’t effective, but doing them all the time may be counterproductive.
Sounds to me like your training your arms too much.
Once a week for a bi/tri specific day should be enough.
Give them a break and let them recover (i.e. grow)
When muscles are in recovery; they are given chances to grow. Instead of working them a ton of time a week and continuning to stop their growth process; work your other parts!
As far as soreness goes, stretch before, after, get tons of sleep, eat enough. For starters (afterall this is the beginners section; there are other ways)
I hope you don’t mind me hitchhiking on your thread, I had a question about soreness as well. I’ve just began a Starting Strength routine, and after the first session I was intensely sore for days afterwards, which I expected. But after the second session I wasn’t really sore, I just felt like my muscles had atrophied. I wasn’t sore, but just weak. I don’t really know what that indicates, if it sounds familiar to anyone, I would appreciate any info. Thanks!
MrRez, are you eating enough? Sleeping enough? Consuming enough protein (rule of thumb, 1g per lb body weight)? Did you consume food immediately post work out (PWO)? Do you feel tired all the time. Give us some more info and we can help out.
I don’t feel tired all the time at all. It’s specifically my quads that just felt completely fatigued, like I had no muscles there at all.
Sleep averages about 7 hours a night, more when I can get it. As for food, I’ve recently cleaned up my diet, but I can’t really afford to eat massively. I eat small meals frequently consisting pretty much exclusively of chicken breast, brown rice, beans, and vegetables.
The workout that affected me so consisted of Squats, OHP, and Power Cleans. The next day there was some stiffness in my legs, but not anywhere near the amount of soreness I was expecting. My legs just feel really weak for some reason. I can still it a little bit today, when I get up out of my chair or I’m going up stairs. It’s a very different feeling from the DOMS that I’m used to.
Thanks for any input!
While we’re on the issue of soreness…
I’m on the other end of the spectrum.
I feel sore for 4 hours max after a gut busting workout. Is it good or bad?
[quote]LCCHSathlete wrote:
noooooooooooooooooooooooo. you need to up your workouts to more sets. go from a 20 rep max and then do it till you cant lift anymore then lower it 5lbs then do it again and keeep doing this till you have no weight and then just curl no weight. when you cant move your arms drive home[/quote]
first off dont listen to this clown…it sounds like your truly new to lifting…bc your stuck on working the arms so many times for appearence im assuming…stop doing this once a week is plenty…by benching and doing all the compound lifts alone will show you an increase in arm size…so do heavy compound lifts…and stick to your arm workout once a week…
anyways i say dont listen to him bc burnout sets will not make your muscles grow. your arms will grow by adding heavier weight each set not decreasing it…that will only lead to fatigue…dont do to many sets!!! youll overtrain and see no growth…
i murder my arms during my arm workouts and there only about 35-40 min…and im not doing bullshit reps like that guy said doing 20x…im doing low reps of heavy ass weights…like straight barbell curl…ez bar curls…and some type of hammer curl or incline dumbell curl…and for triceps weighted dips…heavy close grip bench or skull crushers…and a heavy pull down
low reps! dont overtrain! eat and rest and youll see growth
There are 2 silver bullets to intense soreness. Fish Oils help a ton…I tend to just take 2 caps 3 times a day and it was an immediate relief to soreness from the following days workout.
On top of that, more food. More food in the form of “complete” foods. Something like a whey shake in milk, peanut butter, a handful of almonds, just a big glass of milk, etc. These foods all have some degree of carbs, a modest to high amount of protein, and a balanced fat content. Not to mention…they’re inexpensive.
Warm down thoroughly after your workout-do 6-10 mins on the rower or other cardio machine that uses the arms.
Do this at a very gentle pace.
Then stretch thoroughly,holding the stretch for up to 2 mins on a body part that gets very sore.
I agree with Toohungry, I started out not more than a month ago with a seriousness…I was killing my arms, and over working the Biceps, and Ticeps. I was doing a marginal weight at about 12-15 Reps each, they did,nt gain for SH@t! The last 2 weeks(which I only woked Arms a total of 3 times), I increased by 5 each set at 6-8 reps. Now they are thick through and retain their mass, as appose to doing as much and as frequent as possible…Learning the hard way always hurts more…
How right you are. I quit training because I made no progress no matter how hard I tried. Now that I’ve learned what overtraining is and how it hampers your strength, I’m making huge gains. in the past month and a half, I’ve added thirty pounds to almost all of my lifts…without trying to kill myself.
I’d be a huge S.O.B. by now, if only I didn’t have to learn the hard way.
[quote]MrRezister wrote:
I hope you don’t mind me hitchhiking on your thread, I had a question about soreness as well. [/quote]
Oooo, the word we were looking for was hijacking…hijacking
Thanks for playing.
Sorry for my sarcasm. I assumed it was a troll as soon as I saw “I started a new bicep/triceps workout”. I guess I was wrong.
[quote]eeu743 wrote:
MrRezister wrote:
I hope you don’t mind me hitchhiking on your thread, I had a question about soreness as well.
Oooo, the word we were looking for was hijacking…hijacking
Thanks for playing.[/quote]
Wait, what did I win again?
Beginners: Just say NO to arm day!
Seriously, stick with the big, compound, multi-joint exercises until you can bench BW, squat 1.5x BW, deadlift 2x BW and do at least 10 strict pull-ups and dips. Then, your body will be ready to make use of a more focused, body-part specific routine.
Words of wisdom from a 46 year old who wasted A LOT of time when he was your age…
BTW, muscle soreness is affected by so many variables that it is essentially worthless as a measure of workout effectiveness.