Recovery Time

Shane732 · 24-07-2013 7:42pm #1

How long does it take you guys to recover from a session?

I'm currently doing a full body workout and fine that I'm in bits the day after, which is fine. However, there are times when I'm still in a bad way 2 days after and it's then causing problems trying to get back into the gym for another session.

My protein intake is generally very good.

ling-zing · 24-07-2013 8:10pm

cut back on volume and build up,

stretch/foam roll more

double GG · 24-07-2013 8:14pm

How long have you been training like this for?

runawaybishop · 25-07-2013 10:17am

My legs are only recovered now from a heavy session on Monday. Drinking a lot of water helps, but you should be doing that anyway. Are you doing any stretching afterwards?

Shane732 · 25-07-2013 12:56pm

I'm new enough to this so that's probably a lot of my problem.

I'm drinking at least 2 litres of water a day.

I had a session on Tuesday @ 11 and went to the gym this morning. The session this morning was basically pointless as my muscles were still in bits today and a I was very limited in what I could do.

I was planning on going to the gym again on Saturday but depending on how I feel I might leave it till Sunday morning.

runawaybishop · 25-07-2013 1:01pm

I find the second day to be the worst, but a decent warmup and cooldown should go a long way.

syklops · 25-07-2013 2:39pm

I'm drinking at least 2 litres of water a day.

Are you drinking anything else in the course of the day?

2 litres a day seems a little on the low side to me.

I get dehydrated very easily and that leads to pains and cramps, I've drunk about 2 litres of water already today.

Shane732 · 25-07-2013 4:03pm

syklops wrote: »

Are you drinking anything else in the course of the day?

2 litres a day seems a little on the low side to me.

I get dehydrated very easily and that leads to pains and cramps, I've drunk about 2 litres of water already today.

I'm drinking probably 2/3 cups of tea, a glass of milk and a protein shake.

amazingemmet · 25-07-2013 4:31pm

Just because you're sore doesn't mean you can't exercise through it. The key is differentiating between bad pain and just normal training pain.

kevpants · 25-07-2013 4:54pm

If you're talking about DOMS (that stiff feeling you get the next day that worsens on day 2) then warming up/down, stretching, water, protein, creatine, b12, green tea, yoga all make no difference. It's a simple process of pain that peaks after 48 hours after you've done a particular exercise that you aren't conditioned to. I.e. something new or a movement or bodypart you train rarely. A regular squatter will rarely get DOMS but monthly squatters will look at stairs and cry 48 hrs after a session.

This pain is not a measure of how much gainz you're gonna be reprazentin brah, in other words it's not something to go chasing after and to worry about once it's gone.

The only thing that my own experimentation has lead me to believe can help is ice or cold water. This may be because DOMS is a type of inflammation but nobody has ever done any real research on it, because there's no money to be made from treating something that harmlessly disappears after 2 days.

Waiting for this to go away isn't recovery. DOMS does not equal overtraining or even tiredness. Recovery is based on what type of training you did. It's based on the volume vs intensity and sometimes around the % relationship between the weight you used and your 1RM (1 rep max).

How much recovery time you need between full body sessions would really depend on what you got up to in those sessions and it varies based on the movement or body part. You can do pull-ups every day, you probably can't deadlift every day. An "intense" upper body session is infinitely less intense than a lower body one etc.

In my experience extra super bonus protein party drinks don't speed up recovery, they speed up the share price for Glanbia. If you eat enough protein you will recover if you don't you won't. It's not a relative thing so don't chug shakes all day if you think it will let you train more often, it won't. That's what PEDs are for and it's why they're banned but protein isn't.

Shane732 · 25-07-2013 8:52pm

Is DOMS in anyway related to the build up of lactic acid?

amazingemmet · 25-07-2013 8:58pm

Shane732 wrote: »

Is DOMS in anyway related to the build up of lactic acid?

Not really. Its more to do with the fibres in your muscles getting damage and their inflammation response to training.

btkm8unsl0w5r4 · 25-07-2013 9:11pm

Try a split routien that way you can train one bidy part while the others are recovering. Full body doms is a killer.

Shane732 · 25-07-2013 9:20pm

Jadiel Pitiful Motorcyclist wrote: »

Try a split routien that way you can train one bidy part while the others are recovering. Full body doms is a killer.

I'm going down the route of a full body routine for the moment anyway - until the end of August. I might change it after that.

Ah I'm sure it'll pass as I get used to working out more.

Tom_Cruise · 25-07-2013 11:37pm

From my experience, you got to just train through the DOMS, unless it is particularity painful or uncomfortable, you'll know the difference, hopefully.

runawaybishop · 26-07-2013 11:49am

kevpants wrote: »

A regular squatter will rarely get DOMS but monthly squatters will look at stairs and cry 48 hrs after a session.

I still get DOMS and squat regularly

rubadub · 26-07-2013 11:56am

I get DOMS with minimal effort and volume, just doing negative only reps. I was doing negative only ring pullups on a single ring before, this combined with very rarely doing that exercise had my back in bits for days, where I never have had DOMS before. Some do negative only reps with lots of added weight, beyond their 1RM, my pullups had no added weight.

DOMS from negative/eccentric training is well known. If you are doing squats or chinups or whatever and going really slowly on the downward negative phase then I expect you will get more DOMS.

Domain · 29-07-2013 11:21am

runawaybishop wrote: »

I still get DOMS and squat regularly

If there was even the slightest variation of form/stance from one session to the next it can cause DOMS even if there was no real increase in volume/intensity i.e. if you were to squat with a different stance possibly slightly wider than you did the previous week you might notice that inner thigh/hamstrings are burning 24 - 48 hours later, then if you were to take a closer stance the following week you would may notice it more in quads etc. If you want to maintain muscle mass without DOMS you need to squat at least every 6-7 days without any changes to anything or just progress very slowly.

Recovery Time

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