When does exercise stop making you ache?

dandy-candy

I'm not particularly overweight (8 1/2 stone) but I am very unfit. I have started doing gentle yoga daily for the last 3 days and everyday since I began my body is unsurprisingly aching. I am going to keep it up as it's not actually painful - just a little uncomfortable, but how long will it take my body to adjust and stop aching?

Eric_Pisch

for me after about 3 weeks, about the same time i start to get endorphin production

wooohooo :cool:

The_One_Who

Are you warming up and cooling down correctly? Not doing that is often the cause of people's aches and pains after exercise.

dandy-candy

The_One_Who wrote: »

Are you warming up and cooling down correctly? Not doing that is often the cause of people's aches and pains after exercise.

Yes i'm stretching before and after, tbh it's just because my body is only used to sitting and walking

Gillyx

The ache is your bodies way of showing the exercise is working, if you begin to not feel anything you've plateaued and need to work your body harder.

faithcecilia

Gillyx wrote: »

The ache is your bodies way of showing the exercise is working, if you begin to not feel anything you've plateaued and need to work your body harder.

Definately agree with this. Exercise should never get to the point that its easy or you don't ache, if it does then you're not working hard enough and need to push yourself more and/or change to a different type of workout. Stretching every day (not only days you work out) can reduce the pain of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) but you really should feel something. Be careful though - there is a difference between achiness and pain, if its actually real pain you need to rest.

If its any consolation, training on the day you're achey will ease it a bit. Its sensible to have one full day off a week, especially if you do hard exercise, but other than that carry on as you are and I'm sure you will learn to love your aches!;)

faithcecilia

dandy-candy wrote: »

Yes i'm stretching before and after, tbh it's just because my body is only used to sitting and walking

Ooooh, just seen this bit. Stretching before exercise can actually increase DOMS. Think of blue tac, when its cold and you pul it it comes apart really easily, once you've played with it in your fingers it gets really stretchy. Thats an extremely rough idea of what your muscles do;) One thing I was told in my instructor training was that in basic terms, exercise actually damages your muscles, recovery time repairs them and makes them stronger, but stretch cold and the damage can be too much for the body to repair quickly.

jenniewb

Your body is aching for many different reasons.

I would keep an eye on it anyway just incase it is anything which wont get better in time but basicly your body has gotten used to doing your normal daily tasks. Sitting, walking with bag, shopping. It doesn't ache when you do those things as the muscles required to do those things are already developed and easily used.

You going to the gym/doing classes/changing your day to day activities means that your body has to utilise under-used or underdeveloped muscles. It cannot instantly use muscles which are weak and as a result it over uses them (don't be afraid this is normal! This is how they grow)

When you create more muscle fiber, you work to over use the muscle and create many little micro-tears in the muscle fiber. As you rest these tears repair and become stringer. The result? you have stronger muscles. This is why rest is just as important as exercise as is a healthy nutritious diet (you need nutrition to grow and develop these muscles, protein is very important as your body cannot store protein it needs it little and often so it can use the nutrition to help repair the muscles).

How long really depends on many things. When your very new to exercise or are doing a new plan, its very easy to over-tear and make much more then these micro tears as the muscles are very weak and you don't realise how much or little you can take and you push it too far trying to keep up with everyone else or the ideal in your own mind. Too many or too deep a tear and it will obviously take longer to repair and recover.

Rest is also important as I have already said, you tear down the muscles when you exercise, you repair whilst you rest. You need to sleep well and rest well inbetween exercise sessions.

Eating well as your body needs the correct nutrition for obvious reasons: you wouldn't feed a growing child junk food and expect it to grow as well as if it ate healthy nutritious food so don't expect this of your own body either.

If any pain is very bad or causes you too much pain, take pain killers and try to reduce any swelling, seek medical advice if you are worried, ice packs and massage can help as can ibuprofen gels but again, think about what your doing. These are all treatments to reduce swelling so if you suspect an injury rather then just inflamation get some help!

When you return to exercise in your next session its OK to take a back seat until you feel ready. Be aware that circulation helps massivly when it comes to repair so being bed bound is not always the best thing (unless your really seriously injured), milder forms of exercise such as walking or slow jogging for example may be helpful to boost circulation.

Try different forms of exercise, do little and often rather then a massive weekly exercise binge, warm up for at least 10 minutes (start off slow, don't hit full speed until the 10 mins is up), cool down for at least 5 and stretch properly! Holding a pose for 15 seconds just isn't going to do anything! 30 seconds is an absolute minimum and it has been suggested by sports professionals that 2 minutes for each pose is most beneficial. I definetly notice it BIG TIME if I hold any stretch for less then 60 seconds and its not nice to wake up to the next day.

I also find Deeep Heat type products help if I have caused myself too much pain, maybe its psychological but I do notice it speeds things up but go easy as it can make your skin itch.

Oh, and if you have someone who can help, a good massage also makes a difference!!