Recovery Issues - diet, lifestyle, or normal?

[Aristotelian]

Hi everyone,

I recently started to get back into the gym and the long and short of it is that I really enjoy the westside for skinny bastards routine. On Monday I did:

(i) Deadlifts (5x40kg, 5x50kg, 5x60kg, 4x70kg, 3x75kg)
(ii) Single leg squats - 3 sets of 10, holding 8kg in each hand
(iii) 45 degree hyper-extensions - 3 sets of 10, holding a 10kg plate
(iv) a very basic abdominal workout - 15 situps, then 12, then I gassed and couldn't do more than 8.

It's Thursday now and I'm still sore, even in the trapezoid muscle area, and it discouraged me from doing an upper body workout - which I will do tomorrow. My legs should be fine by Sunday so I'll do the box jump (dynamic lower body) day.

I am having difficulty getting 4 workouts into one week and yes, this is the very beginning, and you can tell from my numbers that I'm really damn weak. I weigh about 83kg - I'd call myself reasonably skinny/fat, though I do see some musculature.

I think I eat pretty well. I don't eat breakfast but today I had a great duck stir fry for lunch with a huge amount of vegetables, and tonight I'll have a good meal too. I tend to only supplement my two meals a day with a protein shake about 1 hour before I work out - I've read articles saying that if you drink a protein shake after your work out it's already 'too late' because by the time protein is in your blood your muscles would have already been looking for protein to help out.

I sleep about 8 hours a day. I do smoke, sometimes heavily, and drink a few pints twice a week or so.

Is the recovery (and from googling it seems to be 'delayed onset muscle soreness') duration my lifestyle/diet? Or is it normal when getting back into the gym?

If it's on me - how can I really optimize recovery?

 

[Mai72]

I would think rest would be your best bet for recovery. And, since you're getting 8 hours a day that's probably not the issue. You didn't say how old you are. Over 40 and recovery times are going to be longer. Are you taking creatine and beta-alanine? I do. I take both with my preworkout drink. I stack both because it has been shown that they aid with recovery. Creatine will help you get off more reps. After 1-2 weeks on creatine you'll notice yourself getting stronger.

I get both from bulk supplements. They are both dirt cheap, last a long time and are worth it. I take 5 grams of creatine, and 3 grams of beat-alanine. You need to do daily and don't miss a day. About a teaspoon for creatine, little less than a teaspoon for beta-alanine.

If it's been a long time since you were in the gym it's common to be very very sore. At least, in the beginning. Your body will adapt and the extreme soreness will go away. It just takes time. Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day.

 

[cbrunny]

1. Stop smoking.
2. Stretch. In my experience I benefit from stimulating blood flow to sore areas. This means active stretching and light exercise (e.g. walking for an hour). I do 30 mins of active stretching about 4 times a week which has helped my recovery considerably.

 

[deadlyapp]

You want the protein post-workout. While pre-workout or during might help, post workout is what you really want. Target around 25-40g within 30 minutes.

After your workout you should do a cool down, stretching, rolling out, etc which will help prevent as much lactic acid build up and aid in recovery.

High potassium foods after working out also helps (bananas, etc).

Sometimes, just working out hard will cause soreness that you just have to deal with. One of the side effects of building muscle is those muscles tearing and rebuilding It gets better with increased fitness.

 

[Aristotelian]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. It seems that this (at the age of 36) is more about me being in bad shape.

On Tuesday afternoon I did a max effort upper body workout, and with the bench press I worked up to 22.5kg total weight on the bar, which people at the gym said is about 15kg itself. So a 37.5kg bench press is laughable, but I have to start from somewhere.

And on Thursday morning my chest still feels it - it's the most tender part after that entire workout, whereas my forearms and other muscles used (like the traps) aren't sore at all.

The plan is to be able to fit in all 4 workouts in a week like:

Monday: Max upper body
Wednesday: Dynamic lower body
Friday: Repetition upper body
Sunday: Max lower body

I've upped my protein intake, I sleep more, and I'm drinking a LOT more water now actually and find that this, on the whole, helps.

I'm about 84kg and 183cm tall, so I consider myself skinny fat. I am trying to reduce my fat level significantly and would like to stay around the 85kg range, and increase my strength at that weight as much as I can. So expect to see some more posts for me on this sub-forum now