Weights - Aching - Advice Needed.

Hi, I have recently upped my weights that I am lifting .. they atill are pretty light but my upper core is pretty weak.

My routine is Mon/Wed/Fri Cardi - usually 20mins interval training on bike, followed by 1000m sprint on rower, then 10mins on Arm Bike, then 20mins on Cross Trainer interval training.

Tue/Thur/Sat is weights session, all upper body - 12 workouts in total, 3 sets of 12 reps. Now the thing is, I took 3 days off over the new year period. I went tuesday just gone, and pushed myself a little. However I went to do my cardio yesterday and had aches as normal (of course you tear the muscle to repair itself, this I understand) so some pain the next day indicates a good workout ... but its now Thursday, I am supposed to be doing it all again today but cannot hardly bend my arms without severe difficulty, do I rest up this day or persevere through it and lift what I can?

Wheres Justin when you need him? I would tend towards the rest, but keep your arms moving all day to loosen things off. And carry on with your cardio.

Yeh, I am thinking that, but then when I do the weights session again on Saturday I would have the same problem right ... ? I am thinking that maybe tomorrow when I do my cardio session, I might include the weights session all in the same session. It would mean approx a 3 hour session but then miss Saturdays weights session and possibly go Sunday. It just puts it all out of synch which is what I am worried about.

Just always be sure to have a day between weight lifting, your muscles need time to rest.

I always found that if I wasn't properly hydrated I was more sore the next day, so maybe you can try drinking more water than usual?

Good luck!

Thanks, I will try that. I have had a full 48 hours rest pretty much, but still very much sore. I also ordered some Impact Whey Isolate protein powder which I will be having as a shake right after my weights workout to give the muscles more protein as there is not enough in my diet. It was just bugging me that I have had 48 hours off yet still feel the same as yesterday and I think I am going to struggle with my workout - I think I will go and see what I can do.

Let us know if either work!

I didn't go today, was reading alot up on the web. It said to give it another day, as I may have over done it. I didnt warm up before my workout this time, and I didnt cool down either -that may have caused the problem

The stretches at the end are the most important. I don't think you'll find yourself so sore next time. When I started EA Sports Active I could hardly come down stairs after the second day but I was ok by the fifth day and until I had a months break and then started again 2 weeks ago I never really suffered. I had 3 days agony when I started again but that's gone. I can still feel different muscles on different days but it's just a "good" stiffness.
I'm sure if Justin was about he would nix a 3 hour workout.

Well went today, for my weights session. It didnt help that I am in fact sick, so made it a little tougher hehe. I still was a little tender, but nothing more than what you would get from a normal weights session so I went ahead. I found it ok ... this time I did a warm up and a cool down as well as stretches - I also didn't push myself quite as much as before ... I think it may have been so bad this week because Tuesday I did a full upper body weights workout then wednesday on my cardio I didn't stick to cardio which just involved the legs, i did the rower and arm bike, this may have made it much more difficult for my muscles to recover resulting in me not being able to bend my arms lol. Well gonna monitor this and put a better rotation of cardio exercises in

Hi Shiny,

When you take protein (and when eating in general)...remember that the body can only process "so much" protein in one go. On average your body can process between 30 and 40 grammes at once...so check what the amount is in each shake.

If your muscles are aching..I would recommend that you rest that particular muscle group - perhaps do some lighter cardio or swimming so that you are still burning the cals without causing yourself too much discomfort

The shakes I am making are around 30 grammes each, I have 2 a day. Not brave enough to get in a pool yet hehe got the dreaded overhang that I am trying to deal with as a result of this loss so far When doing cardio I will be mainly focusing on leg based cardio, ie cross trainer without using arms, bike etc.

Then may add the rower and arm bike cardio into my weights session workouts to use for both the cardio element and warm up/cool down