| Are You Sore Too? By Kevin Parker |
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Back to The Edge |
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| What is it about the start of a new year
that has everyone sore? First you have the
resolutionists (I think I just made up a
new word, haha!) who are sore because they’re
trying to live up to their goal of getting
into shape. Second you have those who workout
regularly but took time off over the holidays
and are now getting back into the gym regularly.
Last, there’re the athletes who are amazed
at how quickly they lose their peak after
some time off. It often appears that they
hand out soreness as you walk out the door!
It’s funny to see us all walking around sore
at the same time. Here are some tips to lessen
and get through your soreness quickly &
successfully. 1) Rest. When pushing your body outside its comfort zone, almost to the point of chronic soreness (so sore you can’t get out of bed the next morning), its imperative you get your rest. In fact, not only your rest, get someone else’s as well, haha! Seriously, because your muscles have been broken down & lactic acid has been released, your body needs more downtime to repair than normal. I would suggest adding at least an extra hour to your sack time. 2) Nourish yourself. About as important as rest in the recovery process is nutrition. As I said before, your body has been broken down by the weights and/or exercise and you’re looking to recover to move towards your goals. Maybe you’re getting the rest you need but you also need good nutrition at this crucial time. You’ve broken your body down but now you’ve got to give it the nutrients it needs to rebuild. Giving it the nutrients it needs combined with the added downtime overnight will maximize your recovery efforts. Your diet needs to be tailored to your goals (i.e. bodybuilders need more protein than someone who’s looking only reduce bodyfat aerobically). If you owned a Corvette, a Porsche or Lamborghini, most likely you wouldn’t put low grade gasoline in it; you would put high performance gasoline as well as keeping it finely tuned. Wouldn’t you do the same for your body? 3) Use low intensity training coupled with stretching to work the soreness out. Most avoid any exercise or stretching when sore, sometimes they avoid the gym altogether. Do a low intensity cardio (combined with plenty of stretching the affected bodyparts) such as low intensity walking to work the soreness out if it persists, especially more than a week. Don’t workout a muscle to muscular breakdown while it’s still sore, that’s just asking for chronic soreness. But generally you shouldn’t be sore in a bodypart past a week. If so, use either a low intensity cardio or a light weight that works the affected muscles just to take the muscles through a range of motion to remove the lactic acid that’s built up as well as plenty of stretching. Soreness, like most adversity in life, separates those who are serious about achieving their goals from those who aren’t. Soreness shouldn’t be a permanent obstacle to your quality of life; it just takes the above steps to get through the soreness & back on track to your goals of fat loss and/or muscle building. God bless your efforts! Your brother in Christ, Kevin These newsletters are not intended to supersede medical advice. Please have a physical from a doctor before embarking on a workout program! |
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