JDbowler's Journal, 15 January 2016

Try to apply a heating cream. These one who have menta in ingredients are perfect.  

As a 60+ out of shape accountant, I was struggling with muscle soreness. My trainer suggested adding BCAAs (branch chain amino acids) and I have found that drinking the aminos during and after my workout has greatly reduced my post-workout soreness. The one I drink is called Tri-Peptide. I still get sore, but I can move and continue to work out. The other thing that helps is that I only work out any one part of my body weekly. For example: Monday is legs, Wed is shoulders and back, Friday is arms. Tues, Thurs and Saturday are cardio. Works for me :)  

I know you said you are working and can't do the trainer 1 on 1 but is there any time you can meet with him and set up a program. That way you can do it on your own but with a set program. My daughter did the same thing, although she mentioned that she couldn't hardly walk because of her butt (whatever that exercise was I don't know for sure). She has since met with a trainer and he got her set up so she knows how much weight, reps, and all that to do 

JD, i'll assume you are not a seasoned weight-lifter with the following comments. When you start out lifting, you will be sore...how sore?...this depends on how deep you go when you first start out. Think of your muscles as if they were a frozen finger from playing out in the snow as a kid. You come inside and warm up, it starts to tingle and hurts a bit. If you put it under hot water it will really hurt...so you put it under cold water...warm it up a bit..then gradually increase the water temp until it feels normal. You haven't used all of your muscles in quite awhile and they are dormant. When you are lifting weights, you are firing nerve endings and muscle fibers that have long been dormant. No need to be Superman right out the gate...a house isn't built in a day. The soreness quickly disappears and you have what is called "noob gains" i.e., the weight you can lift quickly increase over the first month. This is your newly activated muscle fibers adding to your ability to lift weight. Once you start to plateau, now you start to build muscle...a lot slower process. Ok, so how do you deal with soreness. First thing is to work with lighter weights and try to determine your E1RM (Estimated One-Set Rep Max). For example...If I gave you a 100lbs Bench Press, and you do this one time, 100lbs is your E1RM. You then workout at no more than 65% of that for the first month. To avoid soreness and cramping, you have to look at what your body is trying to do. Tri-Peptide is good, I prefer eXtend, as it has a better Electrolyte profile to avoid cramps. I would take this during workouts. For after workouts, you need to feed your muscles. Ideally this will involve Protien Powder (has amino's in it also), and carbs. Yes carbs...A good carb spike after weights will help repair muscles better and faster than without. So which protein powder? Typically Whey is the most common, however, I prefer a 50/50 mix of Whey and Casein Protein. Whey is fast absorbing, Casein slow absorbing. I think that should cover it. Maybe one day i'll have an app with my workout program that does all the nice calculations for you. If you don't know your maximums, how do you know what you can lift...and when to increase.