Worst muscle pain I've experienced-HELP!

Hi guys,

I started training about six months ago, in the beginning I swam daily, then I started to cross train.  I've been alternating swim-kickbox-swim-circuit train-swim-weights/resitance training.  Typically I workout for an hour at a time, but my kickboxing is 1.5 hours, and occassionally I'll circuit train for 1.5 hours.  I also walk an hour a day 5 days a week.  Anyways, I thought I was starting to get into pretty decent shape.  Like, I still have extra weight on my body, but i can see muscles forming, and I have wicked endurance and all that. So, my friend was in town this week and challenged me to doing a double class at Goodlife.  We started with an hour of Body pump (free weights) then we did an hour of kickboxing).  At the time, I was certainly fatigued by the end of it, and a little sore, but, I know I didn't pull anything.  There was no "Bad" pain, so to speak.  Well damn. There's bad pain now!  My upper body is mostly fine, but my thighs are in serious pain.  It particularly hurts when I step down on a stair, or lower myself into a chair. 

I took yesterday off to rest and recover, and did absolutly nothign physical, but I'm still in rough shape today.  I walked half an hour to work this morning, and my thighs were twitching when I finally sat down in my chair.  I'm wondering, does anyone have suggestions on how to reduce this type of muscle pain?  I stretched ahead of time, I stretched afterwards, and I really felt good at the time, I was being conscious and careful, so I don't know what happened here.  Any suggestions to address the pain I'm in now, or to avoid it in the future, would be most welcome!!!!

Thanks!

Last week my quads were in some serious pain after and intense deadlift/squat/lunge session (I do all of these regularily but must have overdid it). Anyways, I didn't go the gym the following day and I was still in quite a bit of pain the next day as well. I really didn't want to skip my workout for a second day so I went anyways and did about 45 mins on the elliptical at a relatively low resistance for me (I usually do about 11 or 12, this time I did about 7 or 8). Afterwards, I felt great! I was so scared it was going to make the situation worse, but it actually made it way better.

 Maybe try and push through and do something fairly low intensity? Even just a walk or something, worked wonders for me.

Whenever I have severe muscle pain I take an epsom salt bath.  You can buy epsom salt at a drugstore, target, etc.  I think you're supposed to use 2 cups per gallon in the bath.  It's really relaxing and soothing, and when your done usually you're in less, if any, pain.  I swim competitively and I always take an epsom salt bath before my meets to help the muscle pain.  Also, have you tried icing it?  

And of course there's always the good old R.I.C.E. treatment (rest, ice, compression, elevation).  Good luck, and feel better!

Thanks guys! I'll hobble out and get some epsom salts.  I will ice it in the meantime.  I didn't really think icing would work with this type of pain.  I'd always thought that was more for acute pain. BUt I will give it a go.  

Thanks for the help!!!!

Ash

that happened to me when I started and I just relaxed in a jacuzzi for a while. it felt wonderful.

icing would probably have been a better idea though.

take some  ibuprophen or soemthing that reduces inflammation, stretching doesnt do much

What causes muscle pain from over use is lactic acid. It is what breaks down the muscle so it can rebuild itself, which is a good thing. Unfortunately, it is a painful thing. The best thing to remember in the future if you have this type of pain is to rest the area for 24 hours or so and then do the workout again, even if it hurts. You don't have to go great guns, but you want to work the muscle to help it release the lactic acid and rebuild. It is why it is important to not work the same mucles on consecutive days. They need the chance to recover and restore.

I do P90X and the schedule is weight training one day, next day a type of cardio, weights again, a cardio DVD and so on for 6 days a week. This is for 3 weeks. The 4th week is called recovery and is basically all cardio. This way the body had a chance to recover from the heavy weights I lift on the weight-training days.

Lots of water and ibuprofen in recommended doses will help. An epsom salt bath is soothing and comforting, too. RICE is mostly for injured joints, such as a sprain.

merrymouse

Everything about lactic acid is false in what you stated. This is not meant in a bad way, just want to make sure people dont spread misconceptions

Original Post by ching12:

 

merrymouse

Everything about lactic acid is false in what you stated. This is not meant in a bad way, just want to make sure people dont spread misconceptions

 I was taught in medical school about the lactic acid you now say is inaccurate...please provide your sources so that I may see how that has changed.  Thanks!

No, Ching12 is correct.

What "we" have learned about muscle burn and lactic acid is indeed false.

The burn/discomfort is from micro tears in the muscle fibers after exercise.

Read more info about the "Lactic Acid Myth".

"Lactic acid or lactate ‘pooling’ is not the cause of delayed muscle soreness"

Susan

One source is http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/lactic-a cid.html  but there are others.

One more idea for the muscle pain:  Icy Hot (or similar products) are a LIFE SAVER!  And it's much more portable (and comfortable) than ice.  

lactic acid builds up when it is produced too  fast and the body just cant keep up.

some myths on lactic acid:

-it is not a waste product

-it cannot be massaged out of the muscles

-it does not cause DOMS

i dont have much time to show sources but im sure a quick search in "pubmed" would suffice, if you wish to search for more info