"n00b" question: I'm sore, what to do?

[nefertiti]

As per advice read here I've steered away from the whole "low weight, high rep" mentality and really pushed myself with my squats/dead lifts/etc a couple of days ago. I'm sore, which I don't really mind, but I want to make sure I handle this properly. How long do I need to allow for recovery before doing lower body stuff again? I've been doing some pretty intense cardio, so should I back off somewhat on that for a couple of days? Anything else I can do to aid recovery? (For a basic rundown on my goals and current situation, see my post on the introductory thread pinned at the top of this forum)

I feel really idiotic asking these questions, but I read all kinds of conflicting stuff on the internet and figure this is as good of a place to turn as anywhere. Thanks in advance...

 

[Sassy69]

Give yourself at least 24 -48 hrs between training the same muscle groups. Part of it is just conditioning to give your body a chance to adapt to the workload & use of "new muscles". You can add l-glutamine to help w/ recovery - you noted in the Are you new... sticky that you are working w/ a nutritionist - you might discuss some supplements - depends on what this person's background is as far as what they consider a "healthy" diet -- (i.e. relative to what a sports background might suggest..)

When you talk about "pretty intense cardio" - what does that mean? If your goal is to gain weigth & muscle mass while dealing w/ an ED, I'm not sure a lot of cardio is really anything you even need to be bothering with. Intensity & consistency (obviously tight form as well) in your training will go a long way towards helping you build lean muscle mass (assuming your diet supports that). I'm not a doc but I sort of don't see the point of cardio if you want to gain muscle mass. Cardio can actually be catabolic which is really just sending you in the wrong direction completely. I'd do it maybe 2-3 x/ week tops. What is the reason for "pretty intense cardio"?

 

[nefertiti]

In that post I also mentioned that I knew I was doing more than I should. My reasons are simply that I feel better about eating when I do...baby steps. I do want to gain weight, but I don't think, mentally, I'm ready to eat enough to pull that off yet. I need to get used to seeing food as a positive thing. I'm still pretty early on in my recovery and developing that food=good mentality is still a hurdle. In the coming month I am going to be shifting my focus away from cardio to lifting as I am able to feel good about taking in more calories, but I am afraid of rushing myself. It's not easy to admit this, but as recently as two months ago simply being able to feel food in my stomach sent me into a blind panic. I am afraid that if I jump the gun and go for weight gain right off the bat, I'll set myself up for another relapse. I'm pretty determined not to let that happen again.

Does that make any sense at all? Anyway, thanks for the response as far as recovery time. I actually think I felt better about myself after that than I did after the hour of running, so I'd love to get back to it tonight.

 

[Sassy69]

I do understand -- lots of people freak if they don't get in several hours of cardio (I"ve never been one of them LOL!) I understand what you are trying to do, but I'm suggesting maybe move some of the intensity to your training from the cardio -- I dunno - does it do anythign to think of intense cardio as something that just eats your muscle as opposed to makes you feel better about "fat"? Its a change in association -- less muscle looks as bad as more fat. Its the distribution of the two that make you look a certain way. I.e. sprinters have very muscular legs and great muscular shape, distance runners look stringy (skinny fat). (This is my observation of them - I don't like the stringy look at all...) I'm not saying you have to go for weight gain, but less muscle catabolism can also be a productive goal.

But yes, give yourself at least 24-48 hrs between muscle groups. Also don't train 7 days / week -- even tho you may be training a particular muscle group, your whole body is being worked every day - so give yourself at least 1 full day off of everything.

 

[nefertiti]

Your suggestion is exactly what I'm going to start doing in the next few weeks now that I'm settling into a relatively healthy diet. Thank you again for the help.

 

[Sassy69]