I can’t move my legs
Many people have asked and will continue to ask, “Why am I so sore?”
It could be the DOMS or it could be you are new to this way of training. And yes it could be an injury, but most likely if it is an injury that happened at the workout it would be an acute injury and not something that hides and waits. Example, if you sprain your ankle you know immediately not the day after. We are talking about when you wake up the next morning and have a hard time sitting down to go to the bathroom and walk down some stairs.
Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) is when you get extreme soreness from an intense workout. It happens more frequently to leg muscles and also during a slowing eccentric phase of the movement (downward portion). Lunges are a perfect example. Think about it, you don’t want to slam your back knee cap into the ground but we keep telling you to kiss the ground with it. You slow down that part of the movement to prevent knee cap smashing. Because I have to get a good time, I keep moving as fast as I can go. That is were the intensity comes in. Next day walking down stairs is hard but the day after impossible.
New to the training; intensity, range of motion, out of shape, etc. Range of motion, if you sat down without moving for a couple of hours think of how it would feel to stand and add new range of motion. Now put it on a bigger scale you never straighten your knee past 90 degrees for a year then I force you to straighten it after you muscles have tightened for that year to the same spot. You would hear snapping and screaming. Even though it does not seem that drastic in the gym when you are doing the deepest squat of your life. Your body will inflame the area of the body to try to splint it and protect it from potential snapping. Hence the stiffness.
Ok, now what?
Now we have stiffness and soreness it can last up to four days but will most likely start after 24 hours. You can still come in and train a little but your body also may need some rest. Which means good sleep. A good healthy diet is a must as well. It will help with the inflammation. Your body has memory. Not only with movement but it has been shown and experienced in the gym that you recover more quickly after awhile. Your body seems to know how to repair itself from the same thing that already made it sore once. Whether the soreness and stiffness come from lactic acid or muscle damage to rebuild stronger or just plain being out of shape. We all know that feeling of the first time you get so sore you wish you were dead. You just want it to be over. The best news is that since you start to recover more quickly it will happen less but it never stops completely.
“No one ever made an omelette without breaking some eggs.”
So I know that some of you are already thinking of ways to prevent or never get that type of soreness again. ”DON’T BE THAT GUY.” What I mean, is that some people will devote some much energy to prevent stiffness or soreness that they will never again see any gains in their training. I workout to get better at my life. Wether it is lifting huge amounts of weight or not getting winded when walking up stairs.
I love when people tell me, “There is no way anybody else is as sore as me!” Everyone gets sore. Pros in many sports take ice baths after a game or a workout. Do you think that they just like being cold? I heard an oly lifter, training for the olympics, say “I have been tired this whole week but I still gotta train.” People out there go through the pain of training to achieve their goals. Are you willing to do what it takes?
