soreness from lifting--when to resume

Walk that line, keep pushing it but make sure to take one to two days off between lift days. You will be amazed by how the upper body adapts, much like your legs/lungs to running.

If you've never lifted before you will be sore. Let comfort be your guide.

Keep at it, and you'll rarely get sore and not as much...only when changing exercises or the rep range.

Take it easy for a day or two. Light running will even speed up recovery. Make sure to eat well (get in your protein) and sleep well.

Alan

This is normal. Keep at your routine - if you become so sore that you cannot complete it, then take a day or two off. It'll get better.

all helpful, thanks but you would all say not to advance the workouts in any way ie no more weight or reps, until I am not sore any more? basically just plateau for a while or keep rolling??

yep def new to lifting, working w/ free weights only

Don't lift with sore muscles. So, don't lift until you are not longer sore. At first this may be once a week.

How long are you in the gym lifting and how many days a week?

Alan

oh man dont be such a sissy! you should love stiffness, that means you worked right, if you dont feel pain theres no gain brah,

this guy benches 365, and im sure he never complaint of one-day-not-overdo's sore muscles,

http://images.tmuscle.com/forum_images/1/0/1007362.1144408483562.crawford.jpg

Runningart2004 wrote:

Don't lift with sore muscles. So, don't lift until you are not longer sore. At first this may be once a week.

How long are you in the gym lifting and how many days a week?

Alan

I beg to differ buddy, the best way to avoid stifness is to pump blood to the muscle (not extremely heavy workout the next day of course) to remove the wastes your body built up after the last training session as everybody knows

Agreed. Lift while you are still sore and you will get over the soreness faster.

I've done both ways. Wait until the soreness is gone to lift and you will get sore every time for months.

Lift after 2 days, and continue a 3 or 2 day a week schedule and soreness will be gone in 8-9 days easy.

A little hair of the dog that bit you. Lift, but not heavy. Also, anybody remember Crawford in college. Much, much smaller!

Some tips:

+make sure you get a lot of protein, hard boiled eggs is my way of doing it

+wait till you are not sore/work out different muscle groups on different days

+when you think you plateau (you don't seem to be getting stronger and such), change your lifting regiment. Like one day do 3x12 at lighter weight, and another day 3x5 heavy weight.

But don't treat it like running, and don't push the same muscle groups every day

UB to break 1500 wrote:

Runningart2004 wrote:

Don't lift with sore muscles. So, don't lift until you are not longer sore. At first this may be once a week.

How long are you in the gym lifting and how many days a week?

Alan

I beg to differ buddy, the best way to avoid stifness is to pump blood to the muscle (not extremely heavy workout the next day of course) to remove the wastes your body built up after the last training session as everybody knows

Yes and I do it too...but lifters who lift and runners who lift are not the same. The reason why light lifting reduces soreness is the same reason why light running reduces soreness.

So as I said, just run lightly and don't lift while sore. Remember, this kid is a runner not a lifter. His priorities are different.

Alan

Before giving advice based on assumptions maybe we should determine if he's talking upper body, lower body or both. Or am I missing something

It all depends on what is sore, and how sore. A bit sore....a day or two of not lifting is fine, or if you have a sore uppper body, do lower body the next day. What you should do is get the body moving...so go for a swim, or take a yoga class...anything that gets everything moving and the blood flowing to and through those muscles. Soreness is common and really no big deal.

But you do not have to be sore after each workout, that would actually be counterproductive if you are a runner. Lift smart to get stronger...you aren't a bodybuilder or football player, so you don't need to lift heavy.

muscle man wrote:

Just started lifting, didnt really overdo but now am sore, just in the muscles not the joints. should I wait till its completely resolved to lift again or just continue?

Soreness ALWAYS happens when you begin lifting or haven't done it in a while. You should NOT wait until the soreness is gone to resume lifting. Lifting (using the same muscles) should be done every other day, preferably with one day off in there, so three days a week (M, W, F for example). You can alternate upper body workouts with lower body workouts on alternating days if you want to lift MORE than three days a week, but three days a week will get most people to where they want to be. Do that for two weeks (sometimes less), using relatively light weights, and then you'll be past the soreness and can just concentrate on adding more weight and doing more reps.

Wrong.

Lifting every day? split routines? not lifting heavy?

You lift for a reason, that's to get strong, the best way to get strong is to lift heavy. Sure, have light workouts to reduce the stress, practice techniques and get the blood flowing... but you get stronger by lifting heavy.

Lift 2 to 3 times a week if you're running almost daily.

if its the kind of soreness I get when I start lifting after some time off I would recommend some massage and drinking a lot of water.. the massage will be painful but it will work out the pain

Good job on starting a lifting program, I've been trying to convince people that lifting only helps their running (even women) for a long time now.

The thing is, what you REALLY will benefit from, is doing explosive/olympic lifts like cleans and snatches. Now, I know you're just a beginner so you won't be doing these yet, but its something to consider a few months down the road once you become more comfortable. The powerful, explosive lifts will train your body to move quickly and powerfully through a motion, which I can tell you (from studies and personal experience) will significantly increase your ability to run fast and help you maintain your form late in a race when you are getting tired and maybe falling apart. I ran steeplechase in college, and I can tell you that without the lifting, hurdling those barriers would have been even more of a challenge.

But yes, I agree that if you are lifting 3 days a week, you should be doing whole body routines, but not really a lot of volume. Myself, I prefer a split routine where each muscle group gets 2 days rest, and that seems to work for me. You just have to find what you're comfortable doing and what is making you feel/run better (eventually, not at first) and stick with it.

As for the "never lift while sore"/"never wait until you aren't sore" question, my answer is this: stick to the routine and within 2-3 weeks you will not be sore. You don't want to lift when you're really sore because that will just cause further muscle damage and that's NOT beneficial. Your body being sore is your body telling you that it has not healed yet, but it is okay to be a little sore before you start your workout. Just make sure you get in a good warm up and do some light sets of the muscles you are going to work before you get into your workout weight.

Don't eat too much protein, because either you will get really smelly farts (embarassing and frequent!) or you will get fat. Protein isn't readily used as a fuel source when exercising so it either gets excreted or stored as fat. Use a metabolic equation online for figuring out many calories you should be getting of each macronutrient (cards, protein, fat) and stick to that. Most Americans get more than enough protein, so that reallly shouldn't be an issue. Your protein needs aren't going to go up a whole lot just because you started lifting. Total calories are more important than just protein, so just make sure you're eating enough to let your body get the nutrients it needs.

Remember: the goal of the lifting is to make you a better runner! NOT to see how much you can lift or to get huge. Unless you want to be a body builder...then I would suggest not posting a thread about this on a running website. Good luck!

Good post ExPhys...of course I disagree about the protein...but we ALL know that..;) I consume around 200-300g of protein a day and my farts smell less than when I was consuming loads of grainy carbs.

Here's a rough draft of an article I'm working on that should be of help to the OP:

http://www.runnerspace.com/forum/index.php?autocom=downloads&req=download&code=confirm_download&id=225

Start with basic lifts twice a week on your highest intensity running days. Progress to more explosive and more functional lifts. Start moderate weight just so your body can learn how to lift, then more onto your "real" program of heavier weight.

Alan

Runningart2004 wrote:

I consume around 200-300g of protein a day and my farts smell less than when I was consuming loads of grainy carbs.

That is the very epitome of "Too Much Information".