Sore After Excersie

[HowlWhiteWind]

Alright so, in the past week I have started a new routine on how to better my life and loose weight (Support is needed I am having a very hard time with this, this is my first time trying to make a change in my life)

Ever since I started walking (which isn't much, 30 minute walks, once a day) My muscles in my legs are getting sore. (the ones right above the knees)

I do want to continue walking since I feel motivated about this but I am not sure if I should continue to excersie abit, even with the pain.

Is there any tips I should know about minizing pain and stuff in general? I am new to the whole weight loss thing ^^;;

if anyone is wondering, I am aiming to loose 20 pounds by may.

[Nostalgiacola]

Definitely do some stretching before you workout, it really really helps with that. I sometimes do it after as like a cool down.

If you lost 2lbs a week you could get it done by may but it's difficult.
Focus more so on exercising and eating right and the weight loss will follow along.
Just don't push yourself trying to loose it all at once.

[slapthefatcat2]

Essentially what The Pale Emperor stated. If you walk a lot at your job or whatever, you may have changed your gait during your walking, with longer steps, which would stretch those muscles a little more. As you start to exercise regularly, your body should learn to cope with the new strain and get used to it. That's the idea behind training for 5k's, to work your body so it eventually gets used to being able to do that much work at once.

[Shpadoinkler]

One IMPORTANT thing I learned is do not stretch before you exercise, or on cold muscles. That actually ends up straining the muscles.

There are different types of stretching.
Static - Just the regular stretch that you would hold for 10-15 seconds.
Dynamic - Stretches done in a range of motion, repeated up to 10 times.

Your stretch can also be either passive or active. You could be doing a static or dynamic stretch actively, performing the stretch on your own. This is the safest and healthiest way. Passive would be using a wall or an object to push your stretch further, which isn't recommended.

So now that you know the kinds of stretches, another thing you need to know is that you don't stretch before, you stretch after, and not AS a cool down but WITH a cool down.

What you do before you exercise is a muscle warm-up with dynamic stretches. Dynamic stretches have been proven to be more affective in the long wrong than static stretches. So as for your quads(those muscles in the front of your legs) a good thing you can do is buy or make a roller and roll them out beforehand, thus relaxing your quads while warming them up.

And don't do the same workout every time for so long, you want to mix it up to avoid wearing your muscles out if you don't plan on having lot of rest days.

I recommend searching "dynamic warm up" on YouTube and doing the one by x-hit. It's very effective yet simple. I also recommend doing full body stretches some days. Stretching is such a great stress reliever as is working out. Hope I helped!

P.S. If you're wondering how I got this information, my journey started a couple of months back. These are things I found to be true. I workout every day now and I'm not sore. Take it from me!

[XenoReiji]

Hmm.. well first off you want to make sure your body is nice and warm before you start the main exercising... which is difficult when you are just walking. Being sore is just part of the process really once your body adapts to the new level of exercise you will not be as sore.

I would recommend taking up self-myofascial release. In the past whenever I was really sore this helped out a lot. It does not make you not sore, just less sore if done right and it just feels so very amazing to do after a good workout.

[thesweetiepie60]

Soreness after exercise is totally normal and is a part of starting a new regimen. It is ok, even beneficial, to walk off the pain. This is because the pain is from microscopic tears in your muscles. When your muscles heal, which can take anywhere from two days to a week at most, they will be stronger. Anything that brings bloodflow to the area will make it heal faster. I would suggest constant massaging (even if it hurts. use your hand or a rolling pin and massage in the direction of your heart) and staying active (even if you're not using the sore muscle). Just don't do anything too strenuous with that muscle until it's not sore anymore. If you want to prevent soreness... It's pretty much impossible to prevent it if this is your first time outside the realm of sedentary. But you can speed the healing process with rolling it about an hour post-workout and as often as possible.

[Tsumi Nanase]

Also, remember to stay hydrated. It seems like such a simple thing, but making sure you drink enough water after you work out can help.

[My Dog Mr. Kitty]

How much do you weigh? If you're very heavy, even just walking for too long or in bad shoes can cause joint pain or excessive soreness

[Notorious Sailor Uranus]

Stretching helps and try to control your breathing when you are walking. Just try not to overdo the walking if your heart is beating too fast but if you keep at it, walking does get better.

[catnapgood]

Muscle soreness is completely normal, especially if this is your first time committing to weight-loss/working out.

If the soreness is interfering with daily comfort you are free to take an ibuprofen to ease the pain with no bad side effects.

Make sure you are drinking plenty of water and getting calcium in your diet. Calcium is actually vital for muscle development.

If you need to take a break from walking try a different exercise so that you do not get out of habit. Try a couple push ups or curl ups, these may be difficult but that is ok. If you do them correctly even if it is only a few, then you are working the muscles and benefiting from them. Just make sure to attempt them several times throughout the day.

Right after working out, you can put ice on the muscles that you used. This reduced some of the inflammation which is a normal part of muscle development. This can help prevent later muscle pain.
But, if you have pain after two days from using them muscles or hurting a muscle in general switch to heat.

[BIG KITTENS]

You have DOMS, it happens, up your protein intake and carry on

[ZYNAY]

Don't worry pain and sweat is weakness leaving the body!

[the sriracha bottle]

Load up on some protein, stretch before and after you work out and what I absolutely LOVE to do is foam roll.

Foam roll the s**t out of your tight muscles.
Best. Feeling. Ever.