Painful Muscle Fatigue
 

Hi all:

I started a new fitness program last week, and on last Friday I started weight training with a personal trainer.

We did mostly chest and ab exercises. The progression went like this:

Flat bench press w/ free weights, 15lbs 20rep
Flat fly press w/free weights. 15lbs, 20rep

Push ups till failure.

Flat bench press w/ free weights, 15lbs 20rep
Flat fly press w/free weights. 15lbs, 20rep

Push ups till failure.

incline military press w/ free weights, 10lbs, 20rep
incline fly press w/ free weights, 10lbs, 20rep

Push ups till failure.

And so on for another set or so.

Here is my question for the TFP: Its now Monday, and I still have painful soreness in both arms, and have been chewing ibuprofen for the last two days. To the point of 'cant bend my arms' type of pain.

I think i way over trained on Friday to feel this bad on Monday. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should to to help alleviate the soreness? (Stretches, massage, basic motions?) Anyone ever been in this position and can give me an estimate on when I'll regain basic motor skills? Thoughts on what to do in the future?

Your help and comments are appreciated!

That's a crazy routine. It would be easy to overtrain on that. If your trainer knows what they're doing, you should be able to ask them about what to do. Your muscles can take up to 7 days (or longer) to fully recover. Everyone's different.

Be sure you're eating enough carbs and protein for recovery.

Also try soaking in cold water. Another method is to have a shower and switch between hot and cold.

You might also want to try a cal-mag supplement at night on an empty stomach. Calcium and magnesium are used in muscle contraction and expansion.

Don't overdo any of these, but feel free to experiment.

Some light cardio might also speed up recovery.

If you're new to this level of intensity, your body will soon get used to it and your recovery should speed up.

That's certainly too much volume per muscle group for someone new to training. Over time, such a routine will be easy, but not right off the bat.

The single best thing for muscular soreness is the cold - ice packs, ice baths are ideal. I'd stay away from heat even if it feels good.

As for stretching - only very light stretching at this juncture. Don't strain yourself with hard stretches, it will only delay recovery.

Thank you both for your insight! I'm going back for another session today, and with a little luck I won't feel terrible all week.

I tried the ice bath, and it helped... outside of being freezing cold.

Thanks!

In college I had went years without any serious physical activity and one time a suitemate took me and my bro to the gym to workout. We did a pretty good workout, lots of arm and chest exercises of all types. Well the next day I wake up and I can't move my arms in any direction, not even to the keyboard on the PC. Washing my hair was almost impossible, and I had to get help putting on my clothes. It was like that for a solid week. I feel your pain! Oddly enough, working out again is what made it go away for me. We went back and after that it was gone completely. I think your muscles are just like WTF are you doing, you don't usually do this.

...Your body will get used to it. Drive on.

Oh, and stop taking the Advil unless you really need it. It slows muscle recovery times (even though it makes you feel better)


You will notice that after a hard (or unusual) workout you will be very sore. The soreness usually peaks about 3 days after the workout (even though your muscles have mostly recovered) and can last for about a week if you really, really push.


I don't think your workout routine is too hard at all....The routine is self limiting/scaling

The maximum weight you lifted was 15 LBS, and your body won't let you do too many pushups...



FWIW, after a good, hard (re)introduction to physical activity (and all the soreness that goes along with it) you will find you don't typically get sore like you did the first time unless you are deliberately lifting/pushing to the edge of your endurance. Even then you stop getting that "I'm so sore I can't walk down these steps" feeling.

It only happens that bad on the first time.

The body adapts.

By the third session or so - you'll have few problems. Probably a little late onset soreness, but only if you choose it.

Time is all you can do. I just started to do squats for the first time a few weeks ago. I used to just do leg curls, hamstring curls, leg press etc. for years. So, I did my squats, and the next day was very sore and 48 hours after, could barely walk to work. 72, started to get better and maybe by 96 hours after my first set could I walk without feeling too much. Now, no problem. You can't go hard, fast or heavy when you start working out. Take care.

Basically echoing the rest: have patience, listen to your body, and stick with it, and you'll get results that will become less painful. :)

if thats you're first session, the i'd say get a personal trainer with some common sense.

granted that the body adapts, but what happened to easing into training? training to fatigue between sets isnt something you get someone who is new to do.

have an easy light work out after a few days and you should feel better. the ice pack work well. but your best friend is time and a good meal with lots of protein.

Dlish, how is lifting 15 pounds and doing a few pushups in any way NOT easing into a routine?

BTW, that muscle soreness gone yet?

Have you been back? You need to keep training even though you are sore...the soreness will go away regardless, but if you put off training you will get sore all over again next time.

slims - if he's that sore from 'a few push ups' as you say it, then he's definately not ready to be pushed to the limit of fatigue. 15Lbs is not a lot, so he's obviously a beginner, but by the sounds of it, so is the trainer.

you and i have absolutely no idea on alpha's training background, weight, height, BMI, type and duration of physical activities etc, not even when the training started or how many pushups he did before he reached fatigue... so i think its only right that he be told to play it safe.

but yes he needs to keep training, just not to fatigue. if training becomes unpleasant, its hardly an incentive for a beginner to keep training.

The OP did about 12 sets for chest, with several to failure. For a beginner, even with low weights, that is far too much.

There are few reputable personal trainers who would push a single muscle group that far in the first workout.

My best bench is 330lbs - double my bodyweight - and I never did more than 15 sets for my chest, ever.

It looks like a muscular endurance routine, especially with the 20 reps. But I agree on the failure part. Training to failure is a more advanced technique and is not required for adequate training, especially for beginners.

Beginners can reasonably benefit from 1 set per exercise, 1 exercise per muscle group, on full-body routines, so long as you can be somewhat challenged on up to 12 reps.

The routine in the OP is not a typical beginner routine. Like I said, it seems more for endurance...or maybe toning.

Try to get your hands on some muscle relaxants (like codeine). That'd be the best.

Be careful with the muscle workouts or you could end up like this: http://www.moscowtopnews.com/image/a...6/1/4/614.jpeg