[Luxray]

Hi guys, I went to the gym on Tuesday and basically tried out most of the machines. The next day my body was pretty much aching all over which apparently is normal for beginners. Today is thursday and my muscles are still aching, there hasn't been any improvement in the aching either. Should I go to the gym today or should I rest again? My legs don't feel too bad however so I guess I could work them?


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[Classical Liberal]

Very standard Doms, it is just inflammation. Really it is same thing that gives you nasty red spots, bruises from where you have been hit etc. Doms can last for 3 days. Usually it is at worst 40 hours or so after you work out.

What I recommend you do next time is to work a particular body part for each workout. So on monday you do your back, so that gets sore. Then do your shoulders on Tues. Rather than doing everything in one day.

My advice would be just wait for the pain to subside and do some other kind of exercise instead.

[rm22]

Heydude

Well you're right, the aching body parts are normal after a gym session, especially if you've been doing weights. I've found that when my body is aching, as soon as I go back to the gym the ache stops... I think it's because your mucles get used to the activities. I usually take a days rest between sessions though. You'll see soon enough that you won't ache anymore after a few sessions, unless you take really long breaks.

Hope that helps!

[Luxray]

(Original post by rm22)
Heydude

Well you're right, the aching body parts are normal after a gym session, especially if you've been doing weights. I've found that when my body is aching, as soon as I go back to the gym the ache stops... I think it's because your mucles get used to the activities. I usually take a days rest between sessions though. You'll see soon enough that you won't ache anymore after a few sessions, unless you take really long breaks.

Hope that helps!

Thanks to both posters. So just to clarify are you saying I should go to the gym today?


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[Mickk]

Hey man,

Yeah it's completely normal with a beginner and in time after a few workouts you wont as stiff as this.

To answer your question, no I wouldn't go to the gym as your body is still recovering...just concentrate on staying hydrated and eating plenty food. If your interested in speeding up recovery, you could do something to get the blood flowing then some stretching, e.g swimming, brisk walk ect.

What's your main goals in the gym and how often do you plan on going?

Mick

[Luxray]

(Original post by Mickk)
Hey man,

Yeah it's completely normal with a beginner and in time after a few workouts you wont as stiff as this.

To answer your question, no I wouldn't go to the gym as your body is still recovering...just concentrate on staying hydrated and eating plenty food. If your interested in speeding up recovery, you could do something to get the blood flowing then some stretching, e.g swimming, brisk walk ect.

What's your main goals in the gym and how often do you plan on going?

Mick

Well essentially to have a nice beach body. I plan on going 6 times a week because Ramadhan starts soon so I won't be Gym at all for a month. Then uni starts so I'll join a gym there.


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[Mickk]

Awesome, well I'd suggest a 3 day split with cardio in between.

For instance:
Monday: Chest, Shoulders and Triceps
Tuesday: Cardio/Rest
Wednesday: Legs
Thursday: Cardio/Rest
Friday: Back and Biceps
Saturday: Cardio/Rest
Sunday: Rest

Obviously you can change the days and order to suit but the idea is that because you can't hammer the whole body every day its best to split it up across the week.
As well as this, diet will be half the battle; if your looking to put on muscle then eat like your life depends on it and limit the cardio, looking to lose weight then try and restrict your calories and do plenty cardio.

Mick

[Luxray]

(Original post by Mickk)
Awesome, well I'd suggest a 3 day split with cardio in between.

For instance:
Monday: Chest, Shoulders and Triceps
Tuesday: Cardio/Rest
Wednesday: Legs
Thursday: Cardio/Rest
Friday: Back and Biceps
Saturday: Cardio/Rest
Sunday: Rest

Obviously you can change the days and order to suit but the idea is that because you can't hammer the whole body every day its best to split it up across the week.
As well as this, diet will be half the battle; if your looking to put on muscle then eat like your life depends on it and limit the cardio, looking to lose weight then try and restrict your calories and do plenty cardio.

Mick

THANK YOU! I will try following that as of next week. ATM I have what you may call a skinny fat body. When people see me they would think I'm skinny but I have fat on my chest and belly. In not overweight, just unhealthy and I really want to change this. I'm not sure whether I should first focus on gaining muscle or losing weight. I was thinking losing weight would be better first? Ive read that doing weights can help speed up the process of losing fat when I do cardio?


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[Mickk]

No worries mate!

For the first week or two you might need to use the cardio days to rest so don't worry if that's the case, even going out for a 20 mins walk in the morning is better than nothing. Not sure how experienced you are with regards to creating actual workouts but you should be doing roughly 15 sets in total, so that would be 2-3 different exercises for each muscle and try and do 2-3 intense sets for each.

Yeah that's pretty common, to start with I wouldn't worry about weight too much because there's a chance you'l be gaining muscle and loosing fat simultaneously.

But your right, weights will be key in getting your physique - speed up metabolism, positively effect testosterone and insulin blah blah.

Diet wise, you want to try and get as much protein as possible, preferably 150g or above. No point in trying to be too exact when starting out so to begin try and cut out all the processed crap and junk food and eat as much lean meats and veg ect. as possible.

As I said lift hard, try get some cardio in and stay dedicated with your diet. Long as your patient and consistent you should start seeing some changes in your body!

Mick

[silent ninja]

(Original post by Luxray)
Well essentially to have a nice beach body. I plan on going 6 times a week because Ramadhan starts soon so I won't be Gym at all for a month. Then uni starts so I'll join a gym there.


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Ha I'm trying to squeeze a lot in before Ramadhan too. I'm doing full upper and lower body splits with cardio in days between. It works awesome as you end up training whole body three times every two weeks. 3 weeks isn't a long time though, don't expect major results. This is my sixth week now and it's going very well, recovery is much faster and I've gone up in weights on all exercises, with stamina and speed as good as ever with all those HIIT sessions. I've lost about 0.5 stones in fat.

[HFerguson]

Go to the gym; the best cure for DOMS is more lifting. Seriously, getting the muscle warm and getting the blood flowing through it will alleviate the pain and promote healing.

[Luxray]

(Original post by silent ninja)
Ha I'm trying to squeeze a lot in before Ramadhan too. I'm doing full upper and lower body splits with cardio in days between. It works awesome as you end up training whole body three times every two weeks. 3 weeks isn't a long time though, don't expect major results. This is my sixth week now and it's going very well, recovery is much faster and I've gone up in weights on all exercises, with stamina and speed as good as ever with all those HIIT sessions. I've lost about 0.5 stones in fat.

I'm not expecting much at all, the main purpose of this summer is just to be familiar with the the machines at the gym (I'll start free weights when I join the uni gym) and get my body used to things I do hope I can make a bit of progress by Christmas however.

Man how are we going to survive Ramadhan this year! I really don't know how I'm going to manage not eating/drinking for 16+ hours each day..And I suppose the lack of food is going eat away at our muscles -.- I'm tempted to sneak in maybe a light workout (not cardio) once a week during Ramadhan but I'd probably die lol

[Luxray]

(Original post by HFerguson)
Go to the gym; the best cure for DOMS is more lifting. Seriously, getting the muscle warm and getting the blood flowing through it will alleviate the pain and promote healing.

I'm definitely going tomorrow! Pretty excited, I'm really enjoying the gym. I feel a little pathetic with the tiny weights I do but I got to start somewhere I suppose!

[Oasis95]

Just DOMS.

Try doing a heart raiser and stretching before and a cool down and stretch again afterwards.

[HFerguson]

(Original post by Luxray)
I'm definitely going tomorrow! Pretty excited, I'm really enjoying the gym. I feel a little pathetic with the tiny weights I do but I got to start somewhere I suppose!

Mirin dat enthusiasm and optimism, keep it up man

[AMG44]

Inb4 you are diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis.