Sore Muscles after working out.

My muscles are very sore the next day after I workout.  Should I skip a day or work through the pain? Workout every other day.  I just started a new work out  (rejuvenation upper body by Kathy Smith) It is 25 minutes or so, I really like it so far.  What will help with the pain?  I did the hot bath, Muscle Milk Shake 10 minutes after workout, Rubbing Alcohol rub down.  I would like to workout 5/6 days a week  to this DVD but so sore I am having a hard time walking today. I workout after work 9:30pm.  Would it be better to do it before work?  Maybe less pain because I go to bed and muscles get stiff, if I do it before work then I am working the muscles and they should not get stiff right?

Thanks

Are :you just beginning your exercise program after not exercising much in the recent past?
If so, you've just gotten an eye-opening view of why people start off hard and taper off so quickly!!

Now that you're hurting, give yourself a day or so off to let your muscles heal.

The only thing you can do to relieve the present pain is a hot bath and some Excedrin. If you
can't take Excedrin, then take it easy for a day or two. When you restart, do about half of what
you did, and do every other day for a week. Every week, increase the intensity until you are at your
projected exercise target, then progress with your DVD. Do this every other day. I did this when
I was first beginning my own exercise routine, and it does help. When I took a Phys Ed course
in college, my coach stressed that we need to give our muscles a day to recover, so exercising
3 days a week was a good goal.

I also did strength training with this same coach, and we did the every other day routine here, also.
He insisted that we train the core and then do upper body one day, core and lower body one day.

Hurray for you in working out, but keep it to 3 days a week for now. If you want to do some
work on the intervening days, go for a brisk walk. I don't know where you live, but autumn's
a great time for a walk.

Whatever you do, make it fun, change it every so often so you don't get bored, and enjoy
what you are doing.

Congratulations!!

I'm glad you like it.

Overworking the muscles does not allow them to repair and grow.  Muscle growth happens when you are recovering.  So, I think you need to take time off from the muscle groups that hurt as far as strength training goes.  You can still do cardio.  In fact, cardio might make you feel better.  Or, if just your upper body is sore, you can very easily work out your lower body.

You said you are doing a rejuvenation upper body work out?  Anything for lower body in terms of muscle growth?  There are some big muscles down there, and developing them can do a lot for your metabolism.  Don't neglect that area just because no one sees it!

You're just not used to exercising.  You'll be sore a few weeks until you get more conditioned and then your muscles will start repairing more quickly.

Oh, and what is the rubbing alcohol supposed to do?  lol...I tried googling it to see why and couldn't find anything.

The pain is coming from micro tears in all those muscles you are working so hard.  Once I learned that, the day of rest and limiting one's strength training to three days a work makes a lot of sense.  Vary your routine/muscle groups from day to day to maximize the process~
Good for you!

On November 11, 2011 at 12:48 AM Pacific Time, Shana16 wrote: My muscles are very sore the next day after I workout.  Should I skip a day or work through the pain? Workout every other day.  I just started a new work out  (rejuvenation upper body by Kathy Smith) It is 25 minutes or so, I really like it so far.  What will help with the pain?  I did the hot bath, Muscle Milk Shake 10 minutes after workout, Rubbing Alcohol rub down.  I would like to workout 5/6 days a week  to this DVD but so sore I am having a hard time walking today. I workout after work 9:30pm.  Would it be better to do it before work?  Maybe less pain because I go to bed and muscles get stiff, if I do it before work then I am working the muscles and they should not get stiff right?

Thanks

  Hiya :)   You say you do your exercises after 9:30pm. Do you go to bed right after your workout? If so,  lactic acid buildup in your muscles could be the culprit for your stiffness.  I would do it before work for that reason....and I just started a new exercise program by Jorge Cruise. Now I don't know if this is B.S. or not but on p.43 of his "8 Minutes in the Morning" book, he says: 

 "When you first wake up in the morning, your metabolism is sluggish because it has slowed down during sleep. When you exercise, your metabolism increases. Thus, exercising in the morning enhances your metabolism when its naturally the slowest. The bottom line is that physiologically, you burn more fat when you exercise in the morning, making better use of your exercise time."

 What you are experiencing is DOMS ( delayed onset muscle soreness) it is very common after a good workout due to a build up of lactic acid in the muscles. the soreness will usually disappear 24-48 hours after the workut. To minimize the affects, stretching is recommend after the workout. It was already posted that the muscle has micro tears that must repair themselves, with that said you should not preform the same workout 2 days in a row, including abdominal exrcises. The Body needs time to repair its self before more damage occurs. 

A positive note to remember is that muscles at rest burns more calories per hour than a pound of fat so as you change your body composition you will be more physically fit. Muscle is more dense and takes up less space so again, the  more muscle the smaller you will look.  NO, muscle does not weigh more than fat. A pound of muscle is a pound of fat is a pound of beans. A pound is a pound no matter how it is weighed.

Enjoy your workouts. Remember to stretch & rest. 

You said it....it's LACTIC ACID.  

You have contradicted yourself. Of course a pound of anything weighs the same as a pound of anything else. A lb of feathers weighs the same as a lb of bricks, but 1 brick weighs a lot more than an equal volume of feather. Muscle weighs more than fat because an equal volume of muscle, say 1 cubic inch, weighs more than one cubic inch of fat. It is, as you said, more dense.

Alternating muscle groups for weight lifting is a good idea - you can do upper body one day, lower body the next, so that you can get more days in.

If you are sore from cardio, as long as it's not pain, you can keep going. I'm usually sore after a tough spin class, so the next day, I'll go for a run or something else. If I'm crazy, I'll do another spin class but it's not as helpful since I can't push as hard.

Make sure you are stretching. It is the most important part in preventing injuries. A lot of people overlook it, but it's really key.

Good for you for exercising!

Thanks I had no idea.  I just starting working out, again.  I was doing a stair master I would do it for 15 minutes (600 steps) before and after work but it was making me to sore at work and was giving me leg cramps at night. 
I will try doing it every other day and in the morning to start with.

On the back of the rubbing alcohol it said to rub on sore muscles ( in place of ice) or soak sore feet with with water and good amount of rubbing alcohol. It did not work for me. Will try soaking the feet.