On day #10 we discussed muscle soreness and why it happens. On day #11 we discussed the sort of recovery cocktail we should be drinking after every workout. Today, we’ll discuss five ways to minimize the inevitable muscle soreness that comes with improvement and growth.
Five Ways to Minimize Muscle Soreness
1. Warm Up: If you are doing the Body-for-Life 20-Minute Aerobic Solution properly, your warm up is included in the workout. The best way to warm up before a weight training workout is to find a treadmill, track or sidewalk and walk briskly for about five minutes. This will get your blood circulating and your muscles warmed up for the coming workout.
2. Know When to Say When: Too many people are ruled by their egos in the gym. The first step here is to get over yourself. Knowing when to say when includes lifting heavier weights than you can positively control with good form, using the right amount of weight but doing so many repetitions that you are using bad form or just spending so much time in the gym that your workout deteriorates into a sloppy session of throwing weights around carelessly. Know when you’re lifting too much weight for good form. Know when your muscles are truly exhausted. Know when to say when.
3. Increase Workload Gradually: Don’t jump under a 250-pound bench press just because you weigh 250 pounds! You might as well jump in front of a bus for the damage you’ll do to yourself. Start with lighter weights. You can always choose heavier weights if you aren’t feeling challenged by your initial pick. If you start too high, you could cause yourself some harm and put yourself out of commission for a while – and that won’t help your cause at all!
4. Cool Down: Flopping into a Lay-Z-Boy chair immediately after a hard workout isn’t the best idea. It may be the most appealing, but give your body 5-10 minutes of brisk walking to cool down. A brisk walk will keep your blood circulating quickly and help your body flush the lactic acid from the muscles you just worked out.
5. Do Negatives: This means paying just as much attention to the negative portion of each repetition as to the positive. When you bench press, you need to focus on the pushing up of the weight, but doing negatives means you pay just as much attention to the portion of the exercise where you bring the weight back down to your chest. Don’t just let the weight fall quickly to your chest with an abrupt stop. Control the weight and use a count of three to bring it down just as you would to push it up.
If you use all five of these techniques, you should notice great gains from your workouts as well as less extreme muscle soreness.
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