Top Muscle Soreness Myths Busted + Mistakes to Avoid
LISTEN: APPLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY | STITCHER
With the new year in full swing and many of you diving headfirst into your fitness resolutions, let's talk about something we've all experienced: muscle soreness. It's a sign of pushing yourself, but is it too much? Today, I've got tips to help you decipher between healthy soreness and overdoing it.
In this episode of Embrace Your Real, we'll explore the fine line between beneficial muscle soreness and the kind that leaves you dreading your next workout. I've got practical advice to ensure you enjoy your fitness journey without being sidelined by excessive soreness. Tune in to understand the dynamics of muscle soreness and gain valuable insights on how to keep it in check. No more wondering if you're overdoing it – I've got your back.
What I discuss:
Don’t skip your warm up.
Remain consistent so your body can adapt therefore feeling less sore from your workouts.
Ease into working out. I know it’s exciting to have fitness goals that you are so badly want to reach and this makes you want to push super hard…but it’s actually going to hold you back.
Program your workout days so you aren’t exercising a muscle group on back to back days
Fuel your body for success by giving it the carbs and protein it needs daily…even on days you don’t exercise!
Use proper form.
If you want more from me, be sure to check out...
Follow me on Instagram: @juliealedbetter | @embraceyourreal | @movementwithjulie
Movement With Julie | App: https://sale.movementwithjulie.com/
Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy: https://www.macrocountingmadesimple.com/
Website: www.juliealedbetter.com
Get my eBook: FREE Macro Counting Ebook
Amazon Storefront: Julie Ledbetter's Amazon Page
Transcript:
[00:00:00] Hey there, beautiful human you're listening to Embrace Your Real With Me, Julie Ledbetter, a podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I get you a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned. If you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get it. Let's go.
And welcome back to another episode on the Embrace Your Real podcast with the New Year here. I know so many of you guys are recommitting to workouts, and so I wanted to take some time on the podcast to talk about muscle soreness because I know at least I have heard a lot of this inside the movement. We do a community group over the last few weeks that it's something that you probably are feeling right now, like muscle soreness can be a great thing. It means that you're pushing your body or forcing it to change. But as with anything, I think too much of anything can be not so great. And a muscle soreness is very much included in that. It can also really hinder your day to day life, and it can make you feel frustrated in a sense because you feel like, oh man, I'm so sorry. I can't even push, you know, to my next workout. And so you're skipping workouts and you just feel like overall your quality of life is hindered. And so I want to talk about this in today's episode. But before we dive in, I want to share this review comes from Smiley Cake Bake. I love that she gave a five star review and said, complete mindset shift. I was in the mindset that I just wanted to be in weight loss mode and if I lost weight then I'll be happy. [00:01:32][91.5]
[00:01:32] But Julie lays it out perfectly and has helped me shift my mindset that I don't need to deprive myself and I can enjoy food and workout in a way that is healthy and sustainable. I love this so much. I think this is so true, and I'm so grateful that this is what you're capturing from the podcast, because if there's anything that I've learned over the last decade in this and especially the decade in the health and fitness industry that I've worked in, but then prior to that, the decade of me constantly in this weight loss mode is that if I can enjoy the food that I want to enjoy or the movement that I want to do, it's not going to last. It's not going to be enjoyable. And there is no need in depriving myself, because I can absolutely build the body that I want without depriving myself of the food and depriving myself of the movement that I want to do from day to day. So, so grateful that you're finding just that this is helping you in your mindset. That is ultimately my goal. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to send in this review. If you guys could scooch over to Apple Podcasts and leave a rating and review for 2024, that would absolutely mean the world to me. It takes less than 30s. I know your time is so valuable, and so if you do, please shoot me over a DM and send it to me. I want to personally thank you soon. I want to get voice mail on the podcast and I would love to do like Q&A. So that's coming in 2024 when we figure out the technology with that, I would love to have you guys sending questions and whatnot. [00:02:58][85.5]
[00:02:58] And we can build episodes from there. But in the meantime, your feedback and all of your reviews on the podcast is really the way that we kind of sense how the podcast is helping you, what episodes you're enjoying and whatnot. So thank you, thank you, thank you. Okay, so first things first, let's talk about what the muscle soreness that you're feeling actually is. So delayed onset muscle soreness aka if you've ever heard the term DOMS. DOMDS typically in all caps this is the most common type of muscle soreness. And this is when the day after your workout like you feel okay, but then the second day that you've worked out, you feel like absolutely wrecked. So like the day after your leg day, you're like, I feel pretty good. Then you wake up the next day and you're like, oh my gosh, I feel so sore. That's probably the DOMS hitting, which typically occurs anywhere from 24 to 72 hours after exercise, especially when you're just getting started. You haven't worked out in a while, or you're increasing the intensity or duration of your workouts. But fun fact most people who work out think that DOMS is triggered by a buildup of lactic acid, but research has actually found this not to be true. So lactic acid build up is usually a temporary thing that only lasts a few minutes to maybe a few hours, whereas DOMS can sometimes lasts up to days, right? The exact cause of DOMS is still a little bit of a mystery, but most experts think that it's actually due to super tiny tears in your muscle fibers during exercise. So while these tears are needed to build more muscle, they can actually cause inflammation and a buildup of waste products, which trigger the pain and stiffness that you might be feeling. [00:04:35][97.0]
[00:04:36] So how do you know if you're too sore or the healthy amount of soreness? Right? This is a common question that I get with people, especially when you're just starting out or restarting out after some time off. The simplest rule of thumb is that your daily life shouldn't be completely hindered by the amount of soreness that you're feeling. Like a healthy amount of soreness should allow you to be able to move around to perform most tasks comfortably. Sometimes in some areas might feel tighter or tender. For example, if it hurts to just simply walk like you walking, not going upstairs. Going upstairs is something different because you're essentially doing step ups upstairs, right? But you just walking at a flat, slow pace. If that is just too much for you and you can't even walk, then it's too much. If you can feel when you're walking, but it doesn't alter how you're. Walking, or you don't feel like you have to give up after a few steps. Like that's typically normal, that's a good amount. Another good rule of thumb is that if it worsens or persists for more than a week, this could be a sign that maybe you injured yourself or you completely overdid it. And maybe you need to dial it back on your workouts. Another common question that I get, and this is honestly probably one of the most common questions I get on a daily and weekly basis. Inside my programing, inside my app, messaging, my direct messages, emails is I don't feel sore after my workout. Does that mean that I didn't work hard enough? And the short answer is no. These two are not always related. If you don't feel sore afterwards, don't beat yourself up. How sore you feel really has nothing to do with how effective your workout was. [00:06:14][98.1]
[00:06:14] And this is especially true for those who have been working out consistently for a while. If you workout consistently, your muscles are less prone to DOMS, right? As you get used to a certain type of exercise, your muscles become more efficient at handling the stress, so you might experience less soreness. Now, this doesn't mean that your workout isn't working. It just means that your body is adapting well. So instead of relying solely on soreness as your marker for an effective workout, I would look at other signs like do you have increased energy levels? Do you have an improved mood or better sleep? And of course progress in your workouts? Are you able to lift heavier, do more reps with ease? Do more sets? Are you able to run farther? Perform exercises with better form. These are all signs that your workout are in fact effective. Okay, so if you are someone who feels crazy sore all the time and it feels unmanageable and maybe this is you again, maybe you're just starting out or you are like, man, I do feel sore all the time and I just don't know what to do. I want to kind of go through some common mistakes that I oftentimes see that might be resulting in you experiencing this ridiculous amount of soreness. And don't worry, it's not just you making these mistakes. It's super easy to make these mistakes and not even know about it, especially if you're just starting out. Or maybe you've never really looked into this topic. So let's dive in to those now. Number one, you're skipping your warmup. I know who wants to do a warm up. Oftentimes people say this such a waste of time. I don't have the time anyways. I'm just going to skip the warm up and go straight into the workout. [00:07:47][92.1]
[00:07:47] And many people just question like, am I even getting anything from this? It's not hard, you know, it feels super easy, but this is actually it's a crucial part of your overall workout. And not only will it help to reduce the amount of soreness that you're feeling afterwards, but it will also help you to avoid serious injuries. Pulling your muscles, getting muscle cramps like a tweaked neck or pec, and plus warming up properly can actually help you to lift heavier and perform better in terms of your form in your workouts. So I want you to take your workout seriously. Even if it's a three, you know, 2 to 3 minute warmup, that's really all you need. I mean, if you really want to go deep and this is going to be more when we release our strength program inside the app, you're going to have a more a longer warmup simply because you're going to be pushing in terms of your strength every single week from week to week. But in these weekly workouts, you know, three, five minute warmup, you really don't need more than that. Sometimes people tack on, you know, uh, walk. Maybe they do like a half a mile walk in addition to the 2 to 3 minute warmup in the app. But I do have warm ups and downs for every single workout inside the app, whether it's a 60 minute or 30 minute. Um, so all you got to do is just follow those, and if you feel like you need to add an additional set, you're like, man, I just don't feel like warmed up enough. You can always add an additional set or, you know, do a few longer reps or whatnot. But I want you to really be prioritizing those warm ups, right? Because there are so many benefits to the warm up. [00:09:09][82.1]
[00:09:10] And if you don't really know what to do in terms of your warm ups, I do have again, my app has it all programed for you. Oftentimes, you'll be seeing maybe a bodyweight version of what you're going to be seeing in the workout. So if it's a glute bridge, maybe you're doing a cross leg glute bridge on the right side across like glute bridge on the left side for a bodyweight warmup. Uh, you're doing hamstring scoops. You're doing, you know, pulling your, uh, alternating hamstring holds. You're doing arm assisted squats, uh, sumo squats. You're doing side to side walks. I mean, you'll typically see that it oftentimes mirrors what the workout is in just a bodyweight form, just to make sure that you're warming up those muscles. But again I have that all programed inside my abs. So if you're following my app, all you gotta do is open up the workout and you'll see that there is a warmup program. Just go through those movements before your workouts. Number two, you're pushing too hard, too fast. I know you're excited to see results, but unfortunately pushing too hard doesn't mean faster results. There is definitely a sweet spot that you need to find, and oftentimes we are pushing too hard. Too often we will constantly feel sore and we feel we feel like our body will never have time to fully recover. And if our body doesn't recover, that oftentimes means what our body doesn't repair and grow, and we won't see the results that we're looking for. We're actually getting diminishing. Returns for our efforts. Plus, when you push too hard, too fast and you're constantly sore. Is that really going to help you be consistent? That's something you have to ask yourself. [00:10:35][85.3]
[00:10:35] I don't know about you, but living with constant muscle soreness, that doesn't sound fine. It doesn't sound optimal in terms of, you know, your day to day life. And that's definitely not going to motivate me to continue to show up day in and day out and to really ease into it, find the sweet spot between challenging yourself and doing that, doing more that you can handle at this time, and remember that you're in it for the long haul, so easing yourself is just a part of the plan. Number three, you're over exercising, so not allowing enough time for muscles to recover and repair during workouts. This is going to oftentime lead to accumulated muscle damage increase DOMS. If you just been constantly feeling sore and you can't seem to get, you know, start a workout with fresh legs or fresh arms, it could be that you aren't giving your body enough rest. I know for me, oftentimes one day of rest that's that's not enough. For me. I typically need two, which is why I typically take the weekends off. So, you know, I'm working out five days a week. Or sometimes if I pushed it really, really hard in my leg day. You know, obviously I have my upper body day the next day, which is a totally different set of muscle groups. So I, you know, my legs are sore, but my upper body's not. And then cardio and core comes after that. Some days though, I'm not ready to do shoulders and glutes because my upper body is still a little bit sore, even though we're not intentionally hitting shoulders on upper body, de shoulders are always going to be a secondary muscle group that you're hitting in upper body. And then some days, you know, my legs are still sore on Thursday from Monday. [00:12:04][88.9]
[00:12:05] And if that's the case, I'll either take that day as a rest day and then I'll work out Friday, Saturday, and then I'll take off Sunday. So it's really up to you in terms of how you're feeling and just being super in tune with that. But I need at least two full days of rest and recovery, which is why, you know, I on the days off, at least one of the days I'm fully resting. Typically the second of my two rest days, I call a recovery day. I sometimes do a cycle workout. I'll do something different in terms of movement, so I won't do a lifting movement with Julia workout. I'll do mobility or I'll do stretching, or I'll just take the dogs for a long hike or whatever to get some activity in, but that's not actually lifting. And so I'm allowing my body rest. But I'm still being intentional with my movement. But I typically always do take Sundays off so that I can give my body that full, at least that full day of rest. So I can go into Monday, which is lower body day, feeling my best. Number four, you're working out the same muscles back to back day. So again, let's say that you're doing legs one day and then you're doing glutes the next day. You're likely going to become crazy sore, and it's going to take a lot longer for you to recover. And this is because your leg day also work your glutes right. Your body needs more than 24 hours for your muscles to repair before the muscle group should be worked again intentionally. This is again just a good rule of thumb to kind of go with it. So remember that. And this is why people always ask like, can I be doing abs and core every single day? And I'm like, well, number one, if you're lifting properly, you're engaging your core and pretty much all of your movements. [00:13:39][93.6]
[00:13:39] So you're actually working your core just secondarily in your movements. But no, you shouldn't be working your core every single day. At the very bare minimum, I would say, you know, one day a week of intentional core, maybe two days a week, three days a week. But if you're doing three days a week, I would do Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Monday, Wednesday, Saturday. But really make sure that you're giving your core that proper amount, especially if you're lifting in between them, because again, you're you're intentionally working your core with other movements. So again, just be super mindful of that and be strategic about how you're planning your weekly workouts to ensure that your muscles have that full time to recover before you work them again. And this is another perk of the Movement with Julie app. This is why we program the five days a week that we do. And I always say, you know, if five days is too much, scale back to four, four days is too much to go back to three, but be intentional about that. So three days would be lower body, upper body, full body, four days would be lower body, upper body, cardio and core, shoulders and glutes. Or you can sub the cardio and core for full body. I mean again, just figuring out which what other movement you're doing on a weekly basis, what other muscles are you engaging? Maybe you're doing Pilates. If you're doing Pilates, that's more likely going to be core focus. So you don't have to do the cardio in core. Or if you're running, you know, you don't have to do that cardio in core. You can focus on maybe the full body or the shoulders and glutes. So again, it's going to vary from person to person. [00:15:04][84.8]
[00:15:04] But be strategic there. And that's where following an effective plan like my Movement with Julie app can be very beneficial. Number five, you're not fueling your muscles for optimal recovery. Remember that your muscles need carbs and protein to recover optimally. So here's the breakdown. So first your muscles need carbs to recover to build prevent muscle soreness because during your exercise your muscle. They're primarily using glycogen, which is a stored form of sugar for energy. Right? A super hard workout can and will drastically deplete the storage, leaving your muscles feeling fatigued and sore. So how do you replenish these depleted glycogen stores? Carbs, carbs, and carbs, right? By providing your muscles with the fuel that they need, which is carbohydrates, you're then able to repair and rebuild the damaged tissue. And so when you're building and when your body is repairing optimally, you will greatly reduce muscle soreness and you'll need you like you'll essentially speed up recovery in there. Secondarily, protein is essential for reducing muscle soreness because protein is the building block of muscle, which also makes it the building block for repairing and rebuilding damaged muscle tissue after exercise. So during your resistance training, like I said earlier, super tiny tears occur in your muscle fibers and it's these tears that will trigger DOMS eating enough protein that's going to be key in patching up those stairs that are triggering the soreness. So how much protein and carbs you need? Well, if you don't know, that's that's what I do. I talk about how much protein, carbs and fats you need based on your body and what your goals are. So I do have a program for that. You can learn more about the about it in my Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy, but we really teach you how to customize your macronutrients so your protein, carbs, and fats based on your goals so that you can see optimal results. [00:16:53][108.7]
[00:16:54] And plus, inside that program, we give you a step by step guide on how to enter into those three macrophages. So how to reverse diet. If you are under fueling your body and you're feeling so depleted and you're not seeing the results because you've been eating in a 1200 or 1000 calories for, you know, the last two years or three years, how can you slowly increase your metabolic capacity? That's what a reverse diet will do, maybe even eating too much. Maybe you've been eating too many carbs, too many fats, and you're like, I know that I'm not eating properly, I'm not enough protein, but I'm eating way more carbs and fats and my body needs. That's where body fat loss phase can come into play. Or maybe maintenance. Maybe you're like, I just want to learn how I can maintain what I've built so hard for, or I feel like I'm in a good place right now. I just want to maintain. I want to learn how to properly feel my body. That's where maintenance mode goes in. And then the the fourth, essentially the fourth phase is muscle building, right? So a caloric surplus. So how much your body needs if you are eating more and like you're slowly increasing your daily caloric intake so that you have a surplus of calories, which will allow you to build a significant amount of muscle. And then once you get to a place where, like, I feel like I've built a lot of muscle, now I want to reveal that muscle, right? Because all of it is you're building muscle, but if you have additional body fat, it's just going to be covered up by body fat. And that's where you say, okay, I've been in this caloric surplus muscle building phase. [00:18:23][89.3]
[00:18:24] Now I want to shed shed it. I want to see what muscle I've built. Then you'll go into a body fat loss phase, right? So they kind of work together. And this is why learning all of these things can be so beneficial for you. Because living in a classic deficit is not the answer for you to seeing lasting results. If especially if you don't want to kill your metabolism, this is going to effectively kill your metabolism. If you're just living in a deficit, you're essentially just working super hard, but your body is not seeing the results, and it's because you're not fueling your body optimally. So learning how to properly fuel your body is one of the best investments that you can make in your journey in 2024. Honestly, I is single handedly transformed my life, my relationship with food, my empowerment around food. I just feel confident because I know if I have a specific goal, I know what I need to do. I'm no longer in the dark. I'm no longer saying, oh, you know, I'm just going to let my coach tell me what I need to do, or I'm just going to buy a meal plan. No, I know how much my body needs, and then I'm able to build my meals and snacks around that based on what I actually want to eat, because that's going to be sustainable long term. So if you want to learn more about my program, it's called the Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy. I'll link it in the show notes so that you can easily go check that out. Number six you are using in proper form. So I know who would have thought that this is a reason why you're feeling super sore, but let me kind of explain. [00:19:46][82.5]
[00:19:47] So when you're performing exercises with improper form, the stress gets placed on muscles in unintended ways, right? And this can lead to excessive tension or strain on specific muscle groups, making them more susceptible to those small micro tears. Which is what I again talked about. That is the main contributor to DOMS. So proper form. When you are executing proper form, this is going to ensure that your body is using the right muscles and joints to perform the exercise effectively. Improper form throws off, forcing muscles to work harder or an awkward or less efficient ways leading to your crazy soreness. Plus, when your form is off, your joints become more unstable, which can lead to too much stress on. Surrounding muscles, ligaments, tendons again leading to excessive soreness. So at the end of the day, it's so important that you focus on your form. And this is why inside my app I have form videos for every single movement. Watch those as many times as you need to. So when you're going through the workout, it's just a looping, silent demo video if you need to make it bigger. If you have an iPad below that app up, you can get it bigger on your iPad. And that's going to really help you so that you know how to execute each exercise properly. And this is something that look at it as an investment. Like it might take you more time throughout your workout for the first few months as you're really focusing on executing, you know, perfect form, but it will serve you long term because you're executing on that form. You're working the proper muscle groups for each exercise, and you're limiting your probability of you enjoying yourself or leading to that excessive soreness. [00:21:21][94.8]
[00:21:22] So you might get to the end of this episode and you're like, that's a great checklist. So check check, check. Yes, I'm doing this. Or maybe I can, you know, take more time to look at this to prevent excessive soreness. But how can I actually like, reduce my soreness. Like if I'm sore, what can I do that is going to be an entirely other episode in and of itself that I will talk about in depth on, you know, Epsom salt baths and walking and foam rolling and making sure you're eating enough protein, hydrating yourself. All of those things can be super beneficial. And that's going to be a whole nother episode in and of itself. But kind of concentrating based on what we talked about today. Number one, not skipping your warmups. Number two, remaining consistent so that your body can adapt, therefore feeling less sore from your workouts. Number three easing into your workouts. I know it's exciting to have fitness goals, especially at the new year that you want to hit so badly, but really make sure that you are easing into it. You're doing it in a realistic and sustainable way. Number four programing your workouts so that you aren't exercising the same exact muscle group on back to back days. So number five, fueling your body for success by giving it the proper amount of carbs and proteins that it needs daily, even on the days that you don't exercise. And lastly, number six, executing proper form and really investing in that. I hope that this episode was helpful for you. I hope that it gave you some more insight as to maybe why you're feeling sore and what to do about it. Again, there's going to be a whole nother episode that will do in the coming weeks that talks more about, like, tangible things that you can do outside of your workouts. [00:22:54][92.2]
[00:22:55] That will help if you are feeling extremely sore. So stay tuned for that. But that is all that I have for today's episode. If you want to again learn more about my program, you can go to sale S-A-L-E dot movement with julie dot com. Or if you want to learn more about how to properly fuel your body, go to Macro Counting Made simple dot com. I will link both of those in the show notes, but that is all that I have for today's episode. Love you so much! I mean, I'll talk to you in the next one.
All right, sister, that's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you're not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so. Julie Ledbetter. Yes, it's with an a in the middle for that daily post workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks, and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world, and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it. [00:22:55][0.0]