Ouch

[Gem Flower]

I was wondering if any of those smart Playgrounders could give me some advice.

So, as I have the week off from school, I decided to up my fitness routine. I am running for an hour each morning, and doing 200 push-ups and 100 sit-ups a night. Right now, my legs and abs hurt. A lot. Does anyone have any advice on how I can alleviate this pain sufficiently for me to be able to do my push-ups and sit-ups tonight?

[Haruki-kun]

Not really. If you're gonna do this routine daily you'll inevitably be sore from the previous day.

[RabbitHoleLost]

OMG GEM FLOWER I MISSED YOU

Your abs and legs hurt for this reason;
Working out rips the muscles you've worked out. It tears them.
Then, your muscles scar over, and become larger.

Atleast, that's how I've always understood it.
Here's my suggestions:
Warm-up and cool-down. Stretch before and after.
You might try shortening your routine by fifty situps, or pushups, and alternate.
Run one day, pushup/situp the next. This gives those painful muscles times to heal.

Also, nice warm baths.

[Cristo Meyers]

You might be overdoing it. Some soreness and the like is normal and expected when taking on a new exercise routine, but it should diminish with time. Like Rabbit pointed out, you're literally breaking down and rebuilding muscle, and that takes time.

I think that, ideally, you should really only be exercising two days in a row at most, then resting so your muscles can rebuild. After the day off, slightly increase the amount of exercise. Lather, rinse, repeat.

[Haruki-kun]

OMG GEM FLOWER I MISSED YOU

Your abs and legs hurt for this reason;
Working out rips the muscles you've worked out. It tears them.
Then, your muscles scar over, and become larger.

This is correct. They rebuild bigger and stronger.


Warm-up and cool-down. Stretch before and after.

Also, correct, but they'll still tear while working out. It's just safer this way.


You might try shortening your routine by fifty situps, or pushups, and alternate.
Run one day, pushup/situp the next. This gives those painful muscles times to heal.

This only if you really feel you overexerted yourself. Listen to your body.


Also, nice warm baths.
Can't hurt. :smalltongue:

[Pyrian]

It is not recommended to do daily strength training above a maintenance level. Give yourself a day (or two!) to recover between pushing your boundaries; otherwise your body will have difficulty healing enough to actually grow stronger.

As to the pain, well, that's what ibuprofen is for! :smallcool:

P.S.: Good to see you here again, I hope you're well!

[Lycan 01]

Stretch before and after each work out. Stretching before loosens them up so you don't hurt yourself, and stretching after relaxes them so they don't tighten up and get too sore.

Resting between days allows your muscles to heal, strengthen, and loosen up. If you work out the day after the initial excercise, you're doing it wrong. Your muscles don't have time to heal and grow stronger, and you're just adding more damage on top of them which won't heal as well, IIRC.

Plus, its a lot less comfortable. :smallwink:



I've been doing push-ups and sit-ups all week. I started with 100 push up and about 30 crunches 5 days ago. Rested day 4. 135 push-ups, 50 crunches on day 3. Rested day 2. Then yesterday I did 200 push-ups and 100 crunches. :smallcool:


My dad can do 600 push-ups. He's been kinda rusty lately. A few months ago, he could do around 1000 a day. His arms are massive. :smalleek:

[Vaynor]

Are push-ups something different here? Cause that's a lot.

Edit: Maybe I'm just a weakling.

[Haruki-kun]

Are push-ups something different here? Cause that's a lot.

Depends on the kind of push-up, the form, and your body weight.

[Gem Flower]

OMG GEM FLOWER I MISSED YOU
OMG RABBITHOLELOST I MISSED YOU TOO


*snip*
Warm-up and cool-down. Stretch before and after.
1. Does stretching count as a warm-up?
2. Does yoga count as a cool-down?


You might try shortening your routine by fifty situps, or pushups, and alternate.
Well, usually my routine is just 100 push-ups and 50 sit-ups. So, all I really changed was adding the running and doubling my normal routine. (Which is why I don't understand why my abs hurt so much:smallconfused:)

[MethosH]

1. Does stretching count as a warm-up?


No. Warm-up is any form of aerobic exercise.



2. Does yoga count as a cool-down?


depends on the "yoga" you are doing, but I'm going with "yes"

[Starscream]

Yeah, the pain is basically your muscle tissue tearing. Then it rebuilds better than before.

[RabbitHoleLost]

OMG RABBITHOLELOST I MISSED YOU TOO
=D

1. Does stretching count as a warm-up?
Yes.
Well, its part of it.
Jumping jacks and similar aerobics are good, too.

2. Does yoga count as a cool-down?
Some of it does, but you're advised to warmup before yoga, too, because its a workout in and of itself...
Greeting the Sun is what my instructor calls the several moves meant to warm up, and I do those along with the Warrior poses, Eagle pose, and Tree pose every morning =)

Well, usually my routine is just 100 push-ups and 50 sit-ups. So, all I really changed was adding the running and doubling my normal routine. (Which is why I don't understand why my abs hurt so much:smallconfused:)
Running actually involves your abs, believe it or not.
It involves every part of you, including your arms.

[Player_Zero]

Excerising the same muscles two days in a row is a bad plan. You should switch in between various excerises over time or you may well suffer some serious medical problems.

Sit this one out or switch to a less intensive excerise.

In addition remember that a properly balanced diet is essential for any excerise to have any pay offs.

To be honest, you sound fairly obsessive over this, what with the disregarding pain.

Also, you should warm up before you stretch.

[Gem Flower]

Greeting the Sun is what my instructor calls the several moves meant to warm up, and I do those along with the Warrior poses, Eagle pose, and Tree pose every morning =)

...I bet that what I learned as a Sun Salutation is practically the same thing as Greeting the Sun :smallbiggrin:

[RabbitHoleLost]

...I bet that what I learned as a Sun Salutation is practically the same thing as Greeting the Sun :smallbiggrin:

Most definitely, I'd bet.
Edit: I just looked it up and it is indeed the same thing :smalltongue:

[Dr. Bath]

Running actually involves your abs, believe it or not.
It involves every part of you, including your arms.

Although running has unwanted side-effects such as damaging joints through constant impact. Swimming does a better job of it, if available.

[Jack Squat]

Although running has unwanted side-effects such as damaging joints through constant impact. Swimming does a better job of it, if available.

That's mostly due to shoe design. Get some "barefoot" shoes* and you end up running landing on midfoot rather than the heel, which solves a lot of this issue. Alternatively, you could just run barefoot.

*There are more than the wonky ones with toes. Nike and New Balance make normal-looking ones, I'm sure others do as well.

[snoopy13a]

I was wondering if any of those smart Playgrounders could give me some advice.

So, as I have the week off from school, I decided to up my fitness routine. I am running for an hour each morning, and doing 200 push-ups and 100 sit-ups a night. Right now, my legs and abs hurt. A lot. Does anyone have any advice on how I can alleviate this pain sufficiently for me to be able to do my push-ups and sit-ups tonight?

You should take at least a day off in order for your muscles to heal.

If you continue running an hour each morning, you risk developing overuse injuries. Honestly, if you're running 5 miles in that hour, that's 35 miles a week. That's is a lot of stress on your joints.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Although running has unwanted side-effects such as damaging joints through constant impact. Swimming does a better job of it, if available.
But running is more fun.

Also: To re-iterate - get some rest, woman! that much exercise daily without allowing your body to do anything about it is bad. Try 3-5 days a week instead of seven.

[Temotei]

You should take at least a day off in order for your muscles to heal.

If you continue running an hour each morning, you risk developing overuse injuries. Honestly, if you're running 5 miles in that hour, that's 35 miles a week. That's is a lot of stress on your joints.

Warm up and cool down properly while stretching and eating properly, and you'll be fine though. In cross country (high school), we do more than that a week for sure, and we rarely get injured. The ones who are injured usually had something wrong with them before the season, have something odd about their form, or they decided to do something stupid (like...falling out of a tree; no, it wasn't me).

Don't run too much though. If you're not conditioned, you'll get hurt. Same with other workouts.

Note: In cross country, we run all week and on Saturdays. One day a week is a meet, with a shorter run before and a longer, slower run after. Saturdays are the really long, fun runs, but they're usually pretty hard, since Fridays are hard as well.

Point: Make a plan for your workouts. Try to stick to it, but don't overdo it if you can't do it. If you can only do 150 pushups one night, that should be plenty. Make it up later if you feel guilty about not finishing all of them.

Also consider doing pushups and situps in intervals. Try 20, 30, 40, 50, 50, or 30, 40, 50, 40, 40. Something like that will work too.

[SDF]

What do you hope to accomplish with this? Do you want to get ripped, toned, just in better shape? Is there a specific task you wish to be able to do from this? Specific goals could probably get better tailored advice.

[Surfing HalfOrc]

All right, in addition to the warm up/cool down and rest periods of at least a day between everybody else has said, I would say add a banana smoothie to the mix. The niacin helps cut down on the lactic acid in your system, which is part of the achieness.

Also, there is a "ramp up" to getting where you want to be. Your dad probably didn't start at 1000 pushups, he started around a hundred or so, then went up from there. Based on the numbers you've posted, you'll get there a lot sooner than I will! Sounds like you have the genes for it!

[Mando Knight]

Well, usually my routine is just 100 push-ups and 50 sit-ups. So, all I really changed was adding the running and doubling my normal routine. (Which is why I don't understand why my abs hurt so much:smallconfused:)
Did it ever occur to you that doubling your normal routine could be related to the problem? I'd scale it back to 150% the previous routine at least. Ease into a harsher routine. You don't jump straight into 276 K water either, do you?

[Sneak]

Yeah, you need to beef up your routine slowly. Otherwise you'll end up pretty sore. And not only that, but you can get injured pretty easily.

There's not much you can do right now, though. Ice what hurts (particularly on your legs), maybe scale the workout back a bit.

Also, always make sure to stretch, especially before and after running (although if you like, you can do dynamic stretching and/or drills before runs instead and then the static stretching after). Otherwise, your legs will tighten up a lot and you will be sore the next day.

[Thajocoth]

The pain of starting a new workout goes away quicker if you continue doing the workout. I know that sounds a bit counter-intuitive, but a lot of things are counter-intuitive.

Obviously don't do TOO much... If you're worried that you went overboard, only do a little bit, but not a full workout.

[Icewalker]

A lot of people have posted about how you shouldn't work the same muscles too hard and daily. My suggestion is that you make a second similar routine doing other exercises, which works other muscles, and switch off between the two each day. Or perhaps more than two routines, and set up a schedule based on the day of the week. That's more of what I do, works great for me.

[Temotei]

A lot of people have posted about how you shouldn't work the same muscles too hard and daily. My suggestion is that you make a second similar routine doing other exercises, which works other muscles, and switch off between the two each day. Or perhaps more than two routines, and set up a schedule based on the day of the week. That's more of what I do, works great for me.

Alternatively, do all the workouts, but switch difficulties.

Day #1: Run hard, light abs/arms
Day #2: Run light, hard abs/arms
Day #3: See #1.
Day #4: See #2.

[Reinholdt]

IT'S GEM!!! YAAAAAY! :biggrin:
Yeah... I got nothing to help you. Though I am impressed. That's a lot of exercise.

[Haruki-kun]

But running is more fun.

I disagree. Running is annoying and painful. ;_;

Swimming is refreshing. Even when you're exhausted it's pretty relaxing to be in the water.

[Serpentine]

Yay, sexercise!
I has also been doing it. Though nothing like that :eek: I'm up to 50 sit-ups, 50... crunch things, where I lie back and bring my bent knees up, 50... crunch things, where I like back and bring my bent knees and shoulders up (this one doesn't feel right, though, and I think I hurt my neck a bit last night) and... uh... zero push-ups. I can't even do one v.v I'm also using an exercise bike - variable distances, 5, 10 or 12km recently, alternating between slow and easy, fastish and as hard as I can at 0.25km intervals. Also I use my boyfriend's 4kg weight to improve my guns (pow pow), do 100-odd step-ups, and stretch (I've already noticed an improvement there!).
I think I'm managing to do this about 3 or 4 times a week, usually in the evening before I shower. I'm also trying to walk to and from uni; 4km each way, with about .5km uphill at the end. Been catching the bus more often than I should, though. I'm working on getting boyfriend's women's bicycle ridable (bought a new seat, but now it turns out the seat's as high as it can get without falling out but is still a few inches too short to be comfortable :smallsigh:) so that any time I'd catch the bus somewhere, I'll ride instead. Not as good as walking, but better than bussing.
I'm also eating better (taking my lunch to uni, usually with at least one piece of fruit and some nuts), and I'm keeping track of the exercise I'm doing each day, and my weight and waist every Sunday. Last Sunday I put on a kg and several centimetres :smallannoyed:

Just sayin'. Helpful to say it, so maybe I keep doing it...

[Zeb The Troll]

There's a lot of repetitive (but good) advice already, so I won't repeat it again, but good for you for exercising.

Some advice that bears repeating -

1. Eat a banana after your workout. I don't know what it is about it (Surfing Half Orc says niacin, but I always thought it was the potassium) but it damn sure helps.

2. Hot bath or sauna after your cool down stretches. This facilitates good blood flow to carry away the toxins that make you ache to the organs responsible for disposing of them.

3. Vary your exercise routine. I don't mean just alternating days (that's important too, but that horse is well flogged by now), I mean do more things than just pushups and situps and running. There are plenty of exercises that can be done, that work the same muscle groups in different ways, that require little to no added equipment. Here (http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/tipsandtricks/a/basictraining.htm) is just the first article that popped up when I googled 'exercise routines without equipment'.

Hope you find some of this useful. :smallcool:

[Gem Flower]

Wow... Lots of new information. Thanks a lot, everyone! :smallsmile:

(Especially that banana thing... Awesome:smallbiggrin:)

[lostlittlebear]

This thread has reminded me I need to start training for the army.

But more on topic, I'd suggest a short cooling-down routine after each day's workout, or at least a quick stretch. And ice can't hurt - we used to have a bucket of it standing by every judo training session.