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I've been changing up my routine and going from lifting light and steady state cardio to lifting heavy and HIIT with cardio on alternate days.
Yesterday I lifted heavy and am pretty darn sore. I don't have pain, just soreness in my muscles. I normally work out every weekday but I'm not sure I should bother today because I'm so sore that I feel I'd half-ass my workout and waste my time.
I agree w/ luckyd. Always remember that strength gains are made during rest & recovery, not during the exercise itself. It's during rest and recovery that the body rebuilds stronger version of itself. The soreness is your body telling you that it needs some time to rebuild.
Depends on what kind of 'sore' you are. You may have poor work capacity that will build up with your HIIT and conditioning. Generally, if you're going for strength... that's something that comes in cycles (i.e., peaking).
Anyways, you know your body more than anyone else (especially strangers on a msg board), use your best judgement based on your experiences.
Never do strength training two days in a row (unless you're not doing compound exercises, but every competent strength training routine relies primarily on compound exercises). Also never do HIIT two days in a row, or do HIIT in the same day you do strength training.
Here is my lifting/cardio routine (I do this when cutting, at least). Keep in mind that I do Practical Programming, which is the intermediate step in the Starting Strength program.
Monday: 30 min walk in morning, lifting in afternoon
Tuesday: 30 min walk in morning, HIIT in afternoon
Wed: 30 min walk in morning, lifting in afternoon
Thurs: 30 min walk in morning, 30 min swimming (not HIIT) in afternoon
Fri: 30 min walk in morning, lifting in afternoon
Sat: 30 min walk in morning, HIIT in afternoon
Sun: 30 min walk in morning. That's it. The rest of the day is for rest.
Note that this is a routine that is very taxing on the body, so I do try to get 9 hours of sleep at night, take plenty of fish oil, and eat plenty of fruits and veggies.
I've been changing up my routine and going from lifting light and steady state cardio to lifting heavy and HIIT with cardio on alternate days.
Yesterday I lifted heavy and am pretty darn sore. I don't have pain, just soreness in my muscles. I normally work out every weekday but I'm not sure I should bother today because I'm so sore that I feel I'd half-ass my workout and waste my time.
Thoughts?
Thoughts are you are wasting your time, go with Starting Strength as a poster mentioned, or the 5x5.
If I took a day off every time I was sore, I'd never be in the gym. If I'm not sore within 24 hours, then I'm certainly sore within 48. However, I will not be working that same group of muscles until the following week, and I find that working out the next day helps relieve the general soreness. It's much more effective than sitting around & getting stiff...or sleeping, which is my preference. I defiantely increase my stretching & flexibility exercises when I'm sore. I find too that what I call pain is not necessarily, pain as in "injury" but pain as a good hard workout that I'm not used to. As long as I have full range of motion, even slowly, then I know it's not injury.
I've been changing up my routine and going from lifting light and steady state cardio to lifting heavy and HIIT with cardio on alternate days.
Yesterday I lifted heavy and am pretty darn sore. I don't have pain, just soreness in my muscles. I normally work out every weekday but I'm not sure I should bother today because I'm so sore that I feel I'd half-ass my workout and waste my time.
Thoughts?
More like an "active rest", Big D..Light cardio, a nice fast walk, stretching to help get the soreness out. I also use the hot/cold/hot shower method. Some people say it doesn't work, but I swear by it.
I had only had one response to this thread by the time I left work for the day, so I did one of Jillian Michaels's 'Ripped in 30' workouts; they are a pretty basic 30 minute circuit workout. I felt fine afterwards and in fact I think it's best that I did work out because I felt less stiff and more supple afterwards. I'm less sore today than yesterday, and I actually pushed myself in that workout. I was able to do the advanced modifications much more than usual.
Thanks for the advice guys...by the way, I'm not in the "lifting" community so I don't know lingo like "cutting" and "peaking"...can you dumb it down a shade next time?
I think it depends on how long you have been increasing the intensity of your routine. You know your body and can tell if it is a good day to lift or not. I worked back, biceps and legs yesterday and feel a bit tight perhaps edging to soreness in those groups but today it is chest,shoulders,triceps and they will not really be affected except some overlapping muscle areas. But I have been doing this for a bit compared to when I started and I was severely sore then and would take a two to three days off.
I have to ask what is your routine like?
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