Many times we exercise to the point of muscle failure in efforts to stimulate the joint/muscles to tolerate more of the movement or weight next time. Sore muscles are expectedand usually the pain will last for a few days. Athletes have evolved so much to society that we feel working out everyday is a good thing for overall self esteem and wellbeing. Most of the weight training we do is done to the point where our glucose and glycogen stores are used up in a training session. At that point, exercise is painful, coordination is slow and endorphin response isn't as rewarding so we stop and head to the locker room. I have seen some hit the energy "wall", in 30-45 minutes and I have seen some go till 60-90 minutes. (Then there is the Iron Man athlete who goes for several hours). What separates these varying times is conditioning. Many of the soccer players I cared for at UCF in Orlando would play both halves with only a few minutes of a breather. There have been studies performed on world class soccer players measuring the amount of glycogen in muscle before and a intervals during training. ( I still don't understand how they got volunteers to play, get a peice of calf muscle cut out, play and repeat this procedure....hope they got alot of money!) Glycogen runs out in a matter of minutes but these players can obviously continue to play well and this was found to be possible with glucose repleation during the match. Thus the importance of frequent hydration with water and glucose. And the post match glucose consumption was crucial in the 2 hours after ending exercise in order to build up glycogen stores for the next game. This was the basis to the old carbohydrate loading from a decade or two; after going through exhausting exercise and total glycogen depleation, "reboot" the system with a combination of carb to protein calories equalling 4:1. Just check the bottle or bar or meal you are putting in your mouth and make sure the total of carbs and proteins listed equals the mentioned ratio.
Rest and sleep is always important and most of us time the next work out to 1-2 days away. The old way to think was hit the same body part in about 48 hours....which comes out to lift weights for targeting one area 3 times a week. Monday-wednesday-friday for back biceps, abs then tuesday-thursday-saturday for chest, triceps and legs. This is more of a beginners way to exercise. The same muscle group is given 48 hours to heal yet we can still get to the gym and weight train and bond (and hunt in some clubs) every day of the week. There are some more advanced athletes who can train muscle to a higher level of fitness and those folks usually need 2-3 days of rest and time off to fully rebuild and damaged muscle fibers, tendon/bone junctions or ligament insertions. Those athletes are the ones you will see, very stiff and sometimes requiring trainer stretching or massage therapy. These people won't necessarily stay at home for 2-3 days after training a specific muscle group, usually its working on cardio or accuracy or cross training during the down time. Not all can afford a trainer or massage therapist so we all learn to stop pushing the exercise at a certain level while training so as not to tear those ligs, tendons or muscles in efforts to be able to return in 48hours. In the case where a paycheck is involved in the performance, one would get tempted to push the training to the highest level and with the resultant damage, a performance enhancement drug would be used to speed up the healing process. Growth hormone, (anabolic steroids in general) are used to fix the muscle. tendon/bone, ligament. Body builders, football players, profesional wrestlers, baseball players....or more recently, sprinters and even mixed martial arts (MMA) athletes.
Bottom line is that muscle stiffness is usually the result of doing exercise differently than usual. It could be a beginner starting, a good athlete trying a new routine, or an unsafe athlete doing the wrong or unintended movement. Most usually grow to enjoy a little stiffness, (imagine ..... loving pain) knowing a good work out just occurred. When the stiffness makes us walk like frankenstein then that experience of the level of exercise is usually placed in the part of the brain that houses nightmares and spankings from childhood. If the resultant stiffness/soreness effects our job performance for a day or two and we can't work, that to is put to the memory banks as being a "bad work out". Humans usually tailor the exercise for very little pain and maximum recovery time. I believe this is where poor psychological drive or just no motivation to push harder keeps the average joe athlete at a low level of exercise and very slow muscle size gain and poor performance improvement. A trainer is great for motivation, a training partner should be good (but I have seen some that end up talking too much) a training group is great for the encouragement. I have always been a proponent of little rest between sets of exercise. I am always asked, "how many minutes should I rest between lifting a weight". My answer is why wait. With no history of medical problems like heart or lung disease.....I would say go from one station to the next. The way exercise was done about 20 to 30 years ago was station to station with little rest. I used to call it circuit weight training as I remember, Robert Gajda (Mr Universe 1966) termed it PHA or peripheral heart action. Most of the new trainers now know it as HIT or high intensity training (see the "300 work out" on you tube) . If it is worked up to and not done as a beginner, an average person can get a standard workout done in 20-30 minutes and not have soreness the next day yet still get size gains in muscle. An advanced athlete can compress a large workout into a small time. Gajda used to be able to do an easy 200 repetitions in one work out. The "300" was the routine used to get the actors in the movie "The 300" in shape for filming and it involved 300 reps.
Personally, I love the feeling of getting "pumped up" and more importantly the satisfaction of having just finished a workout and being drenched in sweat. I'm 45 and I have to work my heart out with cardio. But I also hold the title of Mr Natural New Jersey 1982 so I have a little body dysmorphic syndrome that makes me want to look like "Arnold". See my post in herbal411review.blogspot for antiinflammatory supplements if you want to speed up healing naturally without steroids.
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