Muscles are f*cking killing me

TimeToShine

So, I'm off College for a month now so I decided to start going to the gym to do weights and hopefully build up some muscle. The original plan was to go every second day, but after going on Friday my arms and pecs are still killing me. I was wondering if anyone could tell me how much longer I should wait before going again, or if I should just man up and go anyway. Also, I'm not sure whether going when your muscles are sore is more or less beneficial than going when you're feeling fine. If anyone could suggest to me how often I should go to maximise muscle building that would be great. Thanks very much

Trhiggy83

What you are experiencing is commonly known as DOMS - delayed onset of muscle soreness. It is more or less a gaurentee to happen to you if you have not been doing weights all along. My advice would be to keep going every second day as you said, after 3 or 4 sessions this soreness should diseappear as the muscles will start adapting to regular workouts. Try to stretch as much as possible before and after workouts as well, this minimises the soreness i find. The reason you will feel worse after two days is because the muscles tend to stiffen up more so the quicker you get into the gym the better to loosen them out again. If you are sore just go to the gym and lift weights but not as heavy until your body adapts again.

Also try to eat plenty of protein and have a high carbohydrate meal after each session to replenish glycogen stores.

itsallaboutheL

You have other muscles besides your chest and arms.

TimeToShine

Thanks Higgy, and to the other guy, yes I'm aware of that, but since I play rugby and hurling they're the muscles i'd like to concentrate on the most.

Hanley

TimeToShine wrote: »

Thanks Higgy, and to the other guy, yes I'm aware of that, but since I play rugby and hurling they're the muscles i'd like to concentrate on the most.

What do they do for hurling?

Doug Cartel

Dull aches that you get after training when you're cold are just something you'll have to put up with for a while. Any sharp pains, or pain you get when while warmed up and active are something you need to be careful of though.

Also, I would hazard the guess that you need to do more squats and dead-lifts.

Jimmy Bottlehead

Hanley wrote: »

What do they do for hurling?

Impress physio girl.

Remmy

TimeToShine wrote: »

Thanks Higgy, and to the other guy, yes I'm aware of that, but since I play rugby and hurling they're the muscles i'd like to concentrate on the most.

Thats pretty fcukin stupid.

TimeToShine

thanks for the encouragement everyone, sorry i don't have a masters degree in physiology and nutrition. my bad for thinking people might answer a question properly.

Frogdog

TimeToShine wrote: »

thanks for the encouragement everyone, sorry i don't have a masters degree in physiology and nutrition. my bad for thinking people might answer a question properly.

OP, what you're experiencing is DOMS, as has been explained above.

As for your reasons for concentrating on your arms and chest, well there's no nice way to put this, but.......you're wrong. You, as a beginner to weightlifting, need to concentrate on full-body workouts, using compound lifts. The most important exercises for you should be the squat, deadlift, bench press, shoulder press, pull-up, chin-up, dip and press-up.

If you could master those lifts/exercises, you'd be doing great. A program like Starting Strength or Stronglifts would be the most beneficial to you. Check them out.

If he wants to just do chest and arms then leave him to it... no use slating the guy for asking a question. His question was answered in the first reply.....

themandan6611

Deleted User wrote: »

If he wants to just do chest and arms then leave him to it... no use slating the guy for asking a question. His question was answered in the first reply.....

people on this forum have a huge knowledge base and are helpful. Even I can see that OP working arms/chest is limited and not correct - why shouldnt they try and help him out more than just answering his question ?

themandan6611

themandan6611 wrote: »

people on this forum have a huge knowledge base and are helpful. Even I can see that OP working arms/chest is limited and not correct - why shouldnt they try and help him out more than just answering his question ?

of course it's limited and not correct but he asked about why his muscles are sore not for a full training split. I find a lot of people i know who weight train are only interested in training chest and arms and get very ratty when given sound advice so i've learned to just leave them be and learn the hard way.

Hanley

Deleted User wrote: »

If he wants to just do chest and arms then leave him to it... no use slating the guy for asking a question. His question was answered in the first reply.....

If his question was answered in the first reply, then why bother getting so antsy?

Hanley

Hanley wrote: »

If his question was answered in the first reply, then why bother getting so antsy?

i'm not getting antsy at all, just stating my oppinion

Hanley

Deleted User wrote: »

i'm not getting antsy at all, just stating my oppinion

Not you... the OP!

EDIT: He got the answer he was looking for, and if he'd been a little bit more patient he'd have gotten good advice but he jumped straight onto the defensive.

Supercell

OP you got doms, time to man the fcuk up.
Stetching helps too

Hanley

Hanley wrote: »

Not you... the OP!

EDIT: He got the answer he was looking for, and if he'd been a little bit more patient he'd have gotten good advice but he jumped straight onto the defensive.

oh right lol thought you quoted my post not to worry!

maxxie

REMMY and HANLEY, you lads know your **** im sure!?

Why not come back with a credible answer instead of belittling the guy..

Sad really!

WHIP IT!

maxxie wrote: »

REMMY and HANLEY, you lads know your **** im sure!?

Why not come back with a credible answer instead of belittling the guy..

Sad really!

They're hardly belittling him now, in fairness. This thread may as well be locked now, the OP got the answer to his original question and it's only going one way from here - downhill...

Hanley

maxxie wrote: »

REMMY and HANLEY, you lads know your **** im sure!?

Why not come back with a credible answer instead of belittling the guy..

Sad really!

What? Who are you? Actually... who am I?

Frogdog gave good advice. The OP's question was answered in the first couple of replies and his subsequent replies indicate he's probably not that receptive to further advice.

Why would we write big long detailed posts if they're going to be received negatively? The OP has no idea who I am, he's no idea how much weight my advice should or should not carry. He's no more likely to listen to me than anyone else. Hell, he's probably less likely to listen to me cos I'm an a$$hole.

Cole

Hanley wrote: »

If his question was answered in the first reply, then why bother getting so antsy?

Another poster dismisses the OP's contribution as being "pretty fcukin stupid" and others give this the thumbs up. I can understand why the OP would get p*ssed off.

Typical fitness forum stuff, unfortunately.

Hanley

Cole wrote: »

Another poster dismisses the OP's contribution as being "pretty fcukin stupid" and others give this the thumbs up. I can understand why the OP would get p*ssed off.

Typical fitness forum stuff, unfortunately.

Sniping without contributing.

Typical lurker stuff, unfortunately.

the drifter

just...no...no...

Some of ye should know by now when to just let the thread die