Dealing with sore muscles

[seldon]

Cross country season has begun... and my lazy ass is getting whipped back into shape. Painfully. Ever so fucking painfully. 4 miles yesterday, 6 miles today, 6 more tomorrow, all at around 7:30 pace is enough for puking and massive soreness in the thighs.

Sooooo.....

Suggestions for dealing with it?

I've tried:

-Icyhot for the first time this season. So far it seems to have minimal effects beyond the cool burning sensation.

-Advil, the old standby. The only problem is the recurring stomach upset especially when combined with more running.

-Arnica Montana. Seemed to work pretty well, but it doesn't have that noticeably of an effect.

-Ice/heat routines. They work. Sort of. They take a helluva lot of time though.

Ideas?
Thanks.

[Ski Beaver]

Search function! Jong.

Sore Muscles

[ak_powder_monkey]

Do what I do, deal with it you pussy oh and eat lots of protien and about 40 grams of carbs right after excersise and drink a ton of water eat within 30 minutes of finishing because that will help build muscles. don't numb the pain its not good

[ulty_guy]

after doing it religiously this year, i truly believe in the hot/cold water routine after working out. basically, suck it up, run the shower as cold as it'll go for 3 minutes making sure to get all your hotspots. after that, switch the water back up to warm for 3 minutes, wash up, make sure you get a good tingling feeling in your muscle (esp legs). finally, finish the shower with 3 minutes of cold again (i normally just do this on my legs though).

it sounds a bit drastic, but fukk if it don't work. it really flushes the lactic acid out of the muscles.

[Crinkle]

Look into "recovery foods and fuels"

Most of that other stuff is crap, like icyhot and advil, won't do your muscles any good. I highly suggest getting a big container of Endurox at your local cycle shop, maybe GNC has it too. I drink about 1 liter of it mixed after really long and difficult rides and have yet to be sore the next day. The ingredients are ment to help your muscles and body recover quickly to get more better.

[Theodore]

Ahahaha, AkPM called you a pussy. I'd agree with him though. Stay hydrated and gove the muscles something to work with. Make sure something is in you stomach when you take the advil, that'll make it less upsetting. Good luck.

[Vinman]

Time. What you are experiencing is Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). It occurs 24-48hs after the first work out, peaks in intensity at 36-72 hrs and is gone after about 3-4 days.

Unfortunately for you there is not alot you can do to speed this process up. DOMS occurs from microtears in the muscle from eccentric loading ( muscles under tension while they are lengthening). Your body needs a few days to reapir this damage. Taking in protein following workouts may reduce recovery time a little but it won't stop it from happening. If you are really that sore go see your athletic trainer. Have him/her put you in the pool for a low impact workout(pool running/aqua jogger etc.) to simulate running for a day with a good stretch after. I gaurentee (sp?) that you will feel better and stronger, without sacrificing training, the following day and will be able to get back to running. With minimal soreness.

FYI IMHO Icy Hot and the like will do absolutely nothing to help you, they do not heat the muscle, they only get as deep as the first few layers of skin. The heat you feel and redness you see is due to the superficial dialation of blood vessels nothing else. It does not penetrate to the muscle. If you want to heat you are beeter off using a moist heat pack or warm whirlpool. Those treatment will reach deeper and heat/ bring blood to the tissues that are actually sore to assist in healing of those little microtears you created.

And if you would have done some training before you got back to school you wouldn't bee so sore you effing slacker!!!!!!

[homerjay]

Originally posted by Vinman
And if you would have done some training before you got back to school you wouldn't bee so sore you effing slacker!!!!!!

vinny speaks the troof.

4:1 carb: protein ratio after exercise (same as endurox). Hot tubs and muscle massage, preferably with happy ending.

[freshie247]

I agree with most others on the nutrition,but I'm down with what Ulti-guy has to say about cold then hot water.I read this in a mag last year & I swear by it, only it's not very pleasant.After your workout, put affected muscles in cold water for as long as you can stand up to 10 minutes.I use the shower,They recommended immersion in a bath tub,but that's over the top in my book!This consticts everything so when you get into warm water or warm up the blood rushes in & flushes out all the lactic acid.It sounded crazy to me,but after 7 days bell to bell in Utah last season,My legs were fried.I still had another week of skiing & it was so good I didn't want to take a day off.In desperation I tried this & felt better everyday.At 1st I could only take 2 minutes or so,but you adapt .

[Viva]

I never did X-country. Seldon, how do you guys train? Do you start off at a 7:00-7:30 clip? It may help the legs by jogging a mile or two before your normal x-country run. How many rest days do you have? Don't take more than one a week.

If your legs continue to stay sore, get a leg massage the day or night before your rest day. The comments re. hydration are absolutely correct.

Vinman's right, nutrient intake following excercise does little to promote recovery from muscle damage. Immediate carbohydrate or protein/carbohydrate intake following a run is more for restoring muscle glycogen. But, you may not be running hard enough for that to be an issue.

Don't ever take drugs to deal with muscle soreness.

[BakerBoy]

"seldon -
I can't believe no one has done this yet.

Use the search function, JONG."


You're fired...

[phUnk]

Studies have shown that advil/ibu do nothing to prevent DOMS. They'll help with pain relief once you finally are sore, but they won't prevent it from happening.

Also, another vote for Endurox after workouts/skiing. It's made a huge difference.

[Ski Beaver]

Originally posted by BakerBoy
"seldon -
I can't believe no one has done this yet.

Use the search function, JONG."


You're fired...

See second post.

Dare I say it?

JONG

[BakerBoy]

Originally posted by Ski Beaver
See second post.

Dare I say it?

JONG

And did you see the quotation marks around my post? The quotation marks that indicated that seldon was criticizing others for not searching in a JONGish fashion? Nevermind, who the fuck cares.

[Ski Beaver]

I'm fired too.