Still stiff and sore

Sore four days after the workout!

Renegade row - one of the killer moves in Saturday's workoutYou all know I work out four or five times a week. And I don’t baby myself. I try to do a challenging workout and push myself every time. Saturday I did a workout that I’ve done numerous times in the past. It’s not an easy workout, but I usually don’t have to modify it (much…). But my lower body is still stiff and sore four days after the workout!

Every time I sit down or stand up. Every step I take. I’m sore. (Sounds like a song, right? But it’s not…)

I’m no stranger to muscle soreness

Since I’ve been exercising for many, many years, muscle stiffness is nothing new to me. But it doesn’t usually last this long!

So, how do we recover from having sore muscles from exercising?

On the mend?

In a nutshell, do more! Keep on exercising. Keep moving. Hydrate! Yes! When we’re sore after a workout, it’s important to keep moving. The recovery, while not fast enough, is much faster than if you baby yourself and be sedentary. The more you move, the faster you’ll feel normal. I’m hoping. At work, I try not to sit more than 20 minutes at a time anyway, but this week I’m up every 10 minutes and walking around. It’s easier to get up the next time if there’s less time between! I still feel like I’m waddling (inner thigh soreness), but it’s getting better.

And yesterday I walk / ran – almost my normal workout for a Monday. It hurt, but I did it.

Hydrate!

And hydrate! Drink more water. It’s possible that I neglected this step on Saturday, the day of my workout, because I was busy the rest of the day. Drink water during your workout, after your workout, the rest of the day of your workout – and every day after that! It’s good for your overall health, as well as helping your muscles heal!

Hydration

Fran's frozen water bottle
Fran’s frozen water bottle

Forget the old saw that says you need 64 ounces of water a day! But, you still need to drink plenty of water or other liquids. It keeps your head clear, keeps things moving, and helps to fill you up. Water also keeps your skin healthy, along with everything inside. Drink when you’re thirsty. More when it’s hot out or you’re doing more.

If your water doesn’t taste good, add some lemon juice. Or, add another flavored juice to your water. Make sure that it’s not sugared, though, because then you’ll undo much of the good that the water does.

And use a bottle that you can wash and re-use. Save the environment while you’re saving yourself! I like to freeze about a third of the volume of the bottle the day before. That ice will keep my water cold most of the next day. If I’m adding lemon juice, I’ll squeeze a half of a lemon and add it to the water that I’m freezing. The next day my water will be tangy and delicious!

I have a huge purple BPA-free bottle that takes up way too much space in the freezer, but I love it. I have a BUiLT-NY cover for it so the condensation doesn’t get all over everything.