So you’ve gone to the gym 5 days in a row and now you can barely get out of bed. Feeling some pain after a workout is normal, even desired. However, if your muscles hurt to the touch or your range of motion is limited after a challenging workout, you have overdone it. Pain after a workout results from microscopic tears in muscle fibers caused by intense activity. The technical term for the torn muscles is Exercise Induced Muscle Damage (EIMD). That’s the post workout pain which then leads to Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) 24-48 hours post workout. It’s why you are more sore 2 days after an intense workout. Watch how sore you are-working out damaged muscles often leads to injury. Further, research is now demonstrating that working out while very sore can make the workout session less effective and much harder to complete. The safest option is to avoid training for few days. What do you think? Have you ever been too sore to walk? Climb stairs? Sit…?
Great blog Lisa! Unfortunately people don’t always use common sense when it comes to training. The basic idea of over working a muscle so it cannot function days later, is not practical. Where is the logic? People will tell me about how amazing their trainer is. I hear statements like “when we do leg workouts, I can’t walk for days, first couple days can barely get off the toilet.” In hearing this I understand this is just someone who “doesn’t get it”, they are not connected to their body. A lot of us have received bad advice over the years, “No Pain, No Gain”. It can be simplified like this: think of an engine. If you maxed out that engine every time you used it, the life of that engine would be short. So, the question becomes…do you need your body for a short period or long period of time? Soreness is a side effect of workouts, not a measuring stick. The body builds from the inside out, with a balance of these 3 things: healthy diet, hard work and proper rest. If you are focused on these 3 things you will get the results you want and your body will work smoothly for a long time.