Muscle Pain and Soreness After Exercise

The Bar Method workout I had Friday evening left my thighs on fire during the next day BUT, by the evening , every muscle in my body ached, especially my core, legs,glutes, arm...ok everything!  and it was hard to go up and down the stairs,stand or worst turn in the night to sleep. I took an epson salt bath last night to help relieve the pain. This morning I have another class scheduled at 12pm (Not looking forward to it, but I want that dancers body! ) Not to mention a Zumba class to teach in the evening! I am wondering if I should go or not. I am scheduled for Mondays and Fridays. I will probably stick with it. No Pain No Gain as they say ....SIGH!!

Tips for dealing with delayed muscle soreness after exercise

By Elizabeth Quinn

Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) describes a phenomenon of muscle pain, muscle soreness or muscle stiffness that occurs in the day or two after exercise. This muscle soreness is most frequently felt when you begin a new exercise program, change your exercise routine, or dramatically increase the duration or intensity of your exercise routine.
Although it can be alarming for new exercisers, delayed onset muscle soreness is a normal response to unusual exertion and is part of an adaptation process that leads to greater stamina and strength as the muscles recover and build hypertrophy).
This sort of muscle pain is not the same as the muscle pain or fatigue you experience during exercise. Delayed soreness is also unlike the acute, sudden and sharp pain of an injury such as a muscle strains or sprain that occurs during activity and often causes swelling or bruising. The delayed muscle soreness of DOMS is generally at its worst within the first 2 days following a new, intense activity and slowly subsides over the next few days.

What Causes Muscle Soreness After Exercise?

Delayed onset muscle soreness is thought to be a result of microscopic tearing of the muscle fibers. The amount of tearing (and soreness) depends on how hard and how long you exercise and what type of exercise you do. Any movement you aren't used to can lead to DOMS, but eccentric muscle contractions (movements that cause muscle to forcefully contract while it lengthens) seem to cause the most soreness.
Examples of eccentric muscle contractions include going down stairs, running downhill, lowering weights and the downward motion of squats and push-ups. In addition to small muscle tears there can be associated swelling in a muscle which may contribute to soreness.

What Is the Best Treatment for Muscle Soreness After Exercise?

There is no one simple way to treat delayed onset muscle soreness. In fact, there has been an ongoing debate about both the cause and treatment of DOMS. In the past, gentle stretching was one of the recommended ways to reduce exercise related muscle soreness, but a study by Australian researchers published in 2007 found that stretching is not effective in avoiding muscle soreness.
So does anything work to reduce delayed-onset muscle soreness? Nothing is proven 100 percent effective, and although some people have found the following advice helpful, it's best to try a few things to see what works for you. Ultimately, best advice for treating DOMS is to prevent it in the first place.

Using aFoam Roller After Exercise May Help Reduce Soreness

One technique I've used with some success to reduce my own muscle soreness is to use a foam roller regularly as a part of my cool down. This has been particularly helpful for me after a long, high intensity bike ride or after I start a new type of exercise or a new weight training routine.

• Learn how to use a foam roller  (...I saw one student doing this after class, Now I know why!)

Tips for Dealing with Muscle Soreness After Exercise

If you do find yourself sore after a tough workout or competition, try these methods to deal with your discomfort. Although not all are backed up with research, many athletes report success with some of the following methods.

• Use Active Recovery. This strategy does have support in the research. Performing easy low-impact aerobic exercise increasing blood flow and is linked with diminished muscle soreness. After an intense workout or competition, use this technique as a part of your cool down.
• Rest and Recover. If you simply wait it out, soreness will go away in 3 to 7 days with no special treatment.
• Try a Sports Massage. Some research has found that sports massage may help reduce reported muscle soreness and reduce swelling, although it had no effects on muscle function.
• Try an Ice Bath or Contrast Water Bath. Although no clear evidence proves they are effective, many pro athletes use them and claim they work to reduce soreness.
• Use R.I.C.E., the standard method of treating acute injuries, if your soreness is particularly painful.
• Perform Gentle Stretching. Although research doesn't find stretching alone reduces muscle pain of soreness, many people find it simply feels good.
• Try a Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory. Aspirin, ibuprofen or naproxen sodium may help to temporarily reduce the muscle soreness, although they won't actually speed healing. Be careful, however, if you plan to take them before exercise. Studies reported that taking ibuprofen before endurance exercise is not recommended.
• Try Yoga. There is growing support that performing Yoga may reduce DOMS.
• Listen to Your Body. Avoid any vigorous activity or exercise that increases pain.
• Allow the soreness to subside thoroughly before performing any vigorous exercise.
• Warm Up completely before your next exercise session. There is some research that supports that a warm-up performed immediately prior to unaccustomed eccentric exercise produces small reductions in delayed-onset muscle soreness (but cool-down performed after exercise does not).
• ** If your pain persists longer than about 7 days or increases despite these measures, consult your physician.
• Learn something from the experience! Use prevention first.

Tips to Help Prevent Muscle Soreness After Exercise

While you may not be able to prevent muscle soreness entirely, you may reduce the intensity and duration of muscles soreness if you follow a few exercise recommendations.

• Progress Slowly. The most important prevention method is to gradually increase your exercise time and intensity. See the 10 percent rule if you need some exercise progression guidelines.
• Warm Up thoroughly before activity and cool down completely afterward.
• Cool Down with gentle stretching after exercise.
• Follow the Ten Percent Rule. When beginning a new activity start gradually and build up your time and intensity no more than ten percent per week.
• Know the 10 Tips for Safe Workouts.
• Follow the Spring Training Fitness Tips.
• Hire a Personal Trainer if you aren't sure how to start a workout program that is safe and effective.
• Start a new weight lifting routine with light weights and high reps (10-12) and gradually increase the amount you lift over several weeks.
• Avoid making sudden major changes in the type of exercise you do.
• Avoid making sudden major changes in the amount of time that you exercise.

Certain muscle pain or soreness can be a sign of a serious injury. If your muscle soreness does not get better within a week consult your physician.



_{Sources
[mrw.interscience.wiley.com/cochrane/clsysrev/articles/CD004577/frame.html]Stretching to prevent or reduce muscle soreness after exercise, RD Herbert, M de Noronha, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2007, Issue 4, 2007, The Cochrane Collaboration.
Herbert, R., Gabriel, M. [http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/abridged/325/7362/468?eaf]BMJ 2002;325:468-470. Effects of stretching before and after exercising on muscle soreness and risk of injury: systematic review
Szymanski, D. (2003). Recommendations for the avoidance of delayed-onset muscle soreness. Strength and Conditioning Journal 23(4): 7–13.}

 

Let's make it CRY!

Let's start this week off right with a great stress relieving, endorphine raising workout. Join me tonight at One For All Dance Academy(9691-L Gerwig Lane Columbia Md 21046) at 7:30pm. Bring your towel, cause I am going to make you sweat ( you know I am ). See your smiling faces soon. Have a great day!

12 weeks to weight loss- Week 2

Welcome to Week 2! This week, you'll be continuing with your program and doing at least 3 cardio workouts along with your strength training routine with an added challenge--one more set for each exercise. You'll have a new stretching workout to try and some recipe ideas for breakfast lunch and dinner. You'll also have some motivational tips to help keep you going. Remember--the workouts are just suggestions. Please modify them to fit your fitness level, schedule and goals.

12 Weeks to Weight Loss - Week 2

Week 2 Visit the link above to learn more about your assignments this week and to fill out your first checklist. This weekly check-in will help you keep track of what you did and what you didn't do. Take some time to go over anything you missed so you can work on that this week.

Day 8

Focus: Interval Training Today, you'll choose a different interval workout than last week with an added challenge: try to add 3-5 minutes to your workout to make it longer. You'll also learn more about water and why you should be drinking it all day long (hope this isn't news to you!). Drink up and have fun!

Day 9

Focus: Strength Today, you're back to strength training with the same total body workout you did last week. Your challenge is to add a set to each exercise. You should be doing at least 2 sets, although you should modify that according to your fitness level. You'll also be learning about healthy snack ideas.

Day 10

Focus: Endurance Today is your endurance workout--you'll do the workout I've assigned or choose whatever you like. The idea is to do a steady workout at a medium pace to boost endurance. I've also spotlighted breakfast as the meal of the day--if you're not eating it, now is the time to work on that and make some strides towards a healthier day.

Day 11

Focus: Strength Today your back to your strength training with the same workout you did on Day 9. Remember, you're building strong, lean muscle and that means you're getting stronger and slimmer. Muscle takes up less space than fat, so the more you have, the slimmer you are. You'll also work on your lunch today--as in, making it more healthy.

Day 12

Focus: Rest You don't have any workouts today, but that doesn't mean you get to slack off. You still need to move around and I've made some suggestions for what you can do (yoga anyone?). I've also given you some ideas for what to make for dinner.

Day 13

Focus: Variety Today is all about variety. I've given you a choice between a cardio workout and a strength/cardio circuit. You should also feel free to do what you enjoy. Just make it something fun. You also get a treat of your choice today. Choose something you love, have a reasonable portion and savor every bite.

Weekly Calendar Here's your weekly calendar with your workouts listed so you can organize your week.

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<><><><><><> Written by: Paige Waehner Exercise Guide

12 Weeks to Weight Loss - Day 6

Focus on Core Strength

Cardio Focus: Active Rest

Your focus today is on being active and having fun. Don't worry about heart rate, intensity or any of that other stuff.

• Take your dog for a long walk
• Take the kids or your spouse out for a leisurely bike ride
• If it's cold outside, stay indoors and put on your favorite CD or radio station. Do a little dance...no one's looking.
• Wash the car...twice.

Strength and Flexibility Focus: Core Strength
First, get warmed up by taking a short walk or doing a few minutes of light cardio or marching in place. Then, choose one of the workouts below to strengthen your abs and back in challenging ways:
Option 1: Dynamic Abs
Option 2:Challenging Abs and Core
Option 3:Beginner Abs

Nutrition Focus: Clean Out Your Pantry
Using the list you made on Day 4, choose one unhealthy food in your pantry, refrigerator, cabinets, etc. and substitute it with something healthy and lower in calories or throw it away. For example, if you drink a Coke every morning, replacing that with water will save you 150 calories. Add that to the exercise you're doing this week, and you're on the road to weight loss.

Motivation
If you've managed to fit in all the workouts (or at least most of them), keep yourself going with a reward. It's important to acknowledge all your hard work, so why not get yourself a new pair of workout shoes or that song or album you've been wanting? Do something nice for yourself and get ready for next week.
Paige Waehner

12 Weeks to Weight Loss - Day 5

Focus on Variety

Cardio Focus: Variety

 

Choose One:

• Option 1: Boredom Busters - Choose 1 of 3 different cardio workouts. These workouts involve varying the intensity in different ways and the inclines/speeds suggested are only guidelines. If you're a beginner, please modify the workout or choose one of these beginner workouts.
• Option 2: 3-Machine Medley Workout
• Option 3: Try one of our Walking Guide's walking workouts.

Strength and Flexibility Focus: Rest

Don't forget to stretch.

Nutrition Focus: How Much You're Eating

Look at your food diary from the past few days and calculate the average number of calories you eat each day. Compare that number to the Total Calories you calculated on Day 3. How many more calories are you eating than your body needs? Or are you not eating enough calories? If you fall below your BMR, that can actually stall weight loss so eating too little is just as harmful as eating too much. Tomorrow, we'll get started on reducing your food calories, so get ready.

Motivation

One great tool you can use to motivate yourself is a pedometer. Clip it on in the morning and see how many steps you can take all day. Your ultimate goal should be 10,000 steps, but just do what you can and try to do more each day.

By Paige Waehner

12 Weeks to Weight Loss - Day 4

More Strength Training

Cardio Focus: Active Rest

While today is a rest day from cardio, it doesn't mean you get to lay around and do nothing. Make an effort to inject extra movement all day long. Try some of these ideas:

• Set an alarm to go off every hour. Walk or stretch for 5 minutes
• When it's break time, take a 10 minute walk up and down the stairs or around the building.
• Use 15 minutes of your lunch hour for a quick walk
• When you get home from work, try a few yoga poses using an exercise ball
• If you're watching TV, do crunches or pushups during commercials

Strength and Flexibility Focus: Total Body Strength

Today you'll be doing the same workout you did on Day 2. If you're sore from that workout (or any of the other workouts), you might take an extra rest day or lighten up on the reps and/or the weight. It's normal to feel sore for a couple of days after a new workout, but if you can't get out of bed, you know you've done too much.

Beginners: Option 1 - Total Body Beginner Workout, Beginner Abs
Option 2 - Total Body Beginner Strength, Level 2
Intermediate/Advanced:Total Body Home Workout and Dynamic Abs or visit my Workout Center for more ideas.

Nutrition Focus: Make A List

Go through your food diary and make a list of the unhealthy foods you eat on a regular basis and their calorie content. Add to the list over the coming days so that you get a sense of the foods most tempting to you. Do you tend to crave sugary snacks? Or are you tempted more by salty, fatty snacks? Try to be objective as you go through your list--you aren't doing this to kick yourself, but to learn more about the choices you make each day.

Motivation

A big part of motivation is discipline. If you schedule your workouts and plan for them, that helps get rid of some of the obstacles that stand in your way as your workout approaches. Take some time to figure out why you tend to skip your workouts and come up with a plan beforehand to deal with your excuses.

Paige Waehner

12 Weeks to Weight Loss Day 3

Cardio Focus: Endurance

Endurance workouts are different from the Interval Workout you did on Day 1. While the interval workout is designed to cycle between low and high intensity, endurance workouts are focused on keeping a steady pace for a longer period of time.

Option 1: Try this 35-Minute Endurance Workout - This can be done on any cardio machine or outside.
Option 2: Choose an activity and maintain a steady pace for 20-45 minutes. Be sure to warm up, cool down and stretch at the end of your wor
kout.

Strength and Flexibility Focus: Flexibility

After you cool down, try these stretches to work on lower body flexibility or try these Flexibility drills.

Nutrition Focus: Activity Calculator

Yesterday you calculated your BMR and today you'll find out how many calories you're burning each day with your new exercise program. You can use this Calorie Calculator to search for the activities you're doing each day and make a note of the calories burned for each one. For example, if you lifted weights for 45 minutes, you would burn about 150 calories if you weigh 145 pounds. Keep in mind that these are only estimates, so these numbers won't be exact. You can add the calories you burn with exercise to your BMR to get a general idea of how many calories you burn each day with daily functioning and exercise.

Motivation

It's tough to stay motivated all the time, but it's something you have to work at every day. Motivation isn't something that just happens, it's something you create for yourself. If you need a nudge in the right direction, write this quote on a post-it and stick it on your computer to remind you:
"People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily." Zig Ziglar

Paige Waehner