Muscle recovery suggestions?

[noamnety]

I joined the Crossfit cult last week. I'm torn between feeling awesome about it and terrified because I'm old enough to be the mom of everyone else in my group.

Yesterday (Saturday) the trainer asked when we wanted our next class, and the men in their 20's blurted out Monday. I said I might need an extra recovery day and got voted down, with lots of encouraging "you'll be fine! you can do it!" cheerleader comments. I'm fairly fit - but female and 2 years shy of 50. The testosterone they all have to repair muscles quickly is just not going to be at the same levels in me. I can scale individual exercises back as needed if I'm still sore but that's not really my goal.

I know to drink lots of water, and one person suggested glutamine before and after a workout. I tried that yesterday, which was our second session. I am doing better than after the first session. Today I have intense muscle soreness, which is an improvement over feeling like the trainer broke into my house and assaulted me with a sledge hammer when I was sleeping, which is how I felt the day after the first session.

Any other suggestions for how I can compensate for my age and gender so the muscles are recovering somewhat on the same timetable as the young whippersnappers I'm working out with?

[Goblinmonger]

1. From what everyone has told me, the best recovery food

is a ration of 4:1 carbs:protein. Chocolate milk fits that bill. I also found some Special K granola bars that are the same ratio. Turkey sandwich on whole wheat is the right ration, too. There is a point where it is too much for the body (something like 100g of carbs sticks in my head, but I wouldn't swear that is right).

[noamnety]

2. Oh no!

That doesn't bode well for my low carb diet!

[Melissa G]

3. I use evening primrose oil

Your mileage may vary, but it is working for me. I have 4 years on you.

[noamnety]

5. Thanks! Now for a stupid question:

you put it in tea or something or rub it on your muscles?

[Melissa G]

8. not a stupid question at all

It gags me a bit, but when I am good I bite into it with my teeth and let the oil get under my tongue and then swallow. (directions from my chiropractor) It is better when I do that with at least one of the two I take, but yuck!

Throwing the caps in a blender drink might work. I have not tried it yet.

I have also not tried the black currant oil which might taste better yet.

[wildeyed]

4. I drink Endurox or coconut water after heavy workouts.

The Endurox has a bit of protein in it but does not taste thick or nasty. The coconut water is nice during the hot weather. Other things that help, hot baths with epsom salt. Gentle yoga on rest days. Look for active recovery yoga, yoga for athletes, deep stretch or restorative style classes. Gentle swimming will help. I like doing very slow laps with many stretch breaks. Helps move the lactic acid out of the muscles. I definitely feel less sore after that. I have heard that ice water baths are helpful as well, but have never tried them myself.

I am 44 and play competitive roller derby off and on. Many of my teammates are young enough to be my daughter AND outweigh me by many pounds, so I know a few things about sore! Good luck with CrossCult.

[noamnety]

6. Thanks for the suggestions!

I don't have a place to swim around here, but I love riding my bike. I wonder if riding that at an easy pace on the off days would help just to move the muscles around (as opposed to my current plan of trying to stay as still as possible cause everything hurts).

We had our third session tonight and I was pretty happy to hear that the other two guys were still sore when they arrived - they jointly decided to schedule an extra rest day before our next one. Yay!

I can't even imagine doing roller derby, omg. At least when I'm doing the crossfit stuff, nobody's attacking me!

[wildeyed]

7. Riding slowly will probably help.

Take breaks to stretch the sore parts and pieces. It feels awesome to do it in the water. something about the buoyancy is really nice, I guess because it take stress off the joints. but the bike will probably be good too.

You will probably become less sore as your body adapts to the more strenuous exercise schedule. The first few weeks are always the worst.

Roller derby is an experience, especially at my age. But big girls trying to mow you down on roller skates is very motivating too

[cbayer]

9. Muscle soreness is due to muscle breakdown.

Muscles need time to repair after being damaged.

While fluid, anti-inflammatories and ice may help, the best thing is resting the damaged muscles.

At least that's my opinion.

[noamnety]

11. Thanks!

Because I was in the newbie class, I had to stick to the group schedule. Now that I've graduated to being allowed to go to any of their classes, I've got a little more freedom to make sure I get enough rest time. And you're right - it feels so much better! Just the one extra day is making a huge difference for me.

[mathematic]

10. Muscle soreness after starting a new intense exercise program is common and normal

This type of soreness should go away after a few sessions. In the mean time, there's nothing wrong with starting slowly and/or taking extra rest.

In general, there are a few solid ways to deal with or prevent muscle soreness.

As somebody said upthread, make sure you consume some protein shortly after your workout (within 15-30 minutes). It doesn't need to be anything high-tech or highly-marketed. Chocolate milk is the classic suggestion. You can also try peanut butter or hummus on a slice of bread, etc. It doesn't need to be a lot of calories. I'm a fairly heavy daily runner (60+ miles per week) and I only have about 200 calories after a workout.

Another way to reduce muscle soreness is effective but against the principles of crossfit (which is basically "all workouts are short and intense&quot . Basically, do some light, easy exercise the day after an intense workout. Depending on how sore you are or what muscles are sore, this could be as easy as taking a 20 minute walk.

Don't be afraid to rest if you're starting to feel general fatigue or notice that you've hit a plateau in your training. The proper amount of rest is absolutely critical in order to get the most out of your workouts.

One final caution: the different parts of your body improve fitness at different rates. Your aerobic fitness will improve at a different rate than your muscle fitness which will improve at a different rate than your tendon strength, etc. I believe this effect gets larger with age. If you're not careful and try to do "too much too soon" this can easily result in injury. This is the main reason why new runners get injured. Aerobically, they can handle 60 minute runs but their tendons and bones have not yet strengthened enough to deal with the added stress. The result is bone fractures and tendonitis.

[noamnety]

12. Do you have any thoughts about the couch to 5k program?

In one of the crossfit sessions we had to run 1/4 mile. I used to do 2 miles regularly (army) and even voluntarily ran a 10k at one point, but that was 20 years ago. The 1/4 mile had me too winded to talk.

In an effort to get to where I'm not humiliating myself, I also started the couch to 5k program. I'm in week one of that, which is 5 minutes walking for a warm up, then 8 reps of 60 seconds jogging and 90 seconds walking. There's a park across the street with a cross country trail marked in white chalk from a local high school, so it's all running on grass, no pavement at all.

I'm trying that three times in a week, then next week it builds to 90 seconds jogging and 2 minutes walking for 20 minutes, then the next week it builds a little more. It seems like that would be a slow enough progression that I wouldn't injure myself, but I'm not sure how long it takes to build up the strength without risking injury.

[mathematic]

13. Yeah, that's a great program to get into running shape

It emphasizes a slow buildup and no skipping ahead in the program. Both are key principles for minimizing injury risk for people just starting running. The hardest part of the program for somebody like you that has past experience in running might be avoiding the urge to run more, ahead of schedule.

One of my friends used this plan to start running. It worked great for him and now he's a regular runner. Whenever my family or friends ask me about getting into shape I advise something very much like this program (nothing specific, just the basic idea).

As for that 1/4 mile effort for your crossfit session, don't worry about being winded for that. It's probably meant to be run at a very hard effort. Even the best trained runners are winded after a hard 1/4 mile run. Look at the olympic 400m for example. The difference is that when you're in shape you'll catch your breath much sooner after you finish the run.

[Hotler]

14. You need 200-300 calories, mostly carbs within 15-30 minutes after a workout

to help recovery. Get some whey protein powder (EAS at Kroger, Safeway) 23gr. protein per scoop @130 calories, 2.5 gr. fat, 1gr sugar.
Blender drink
1-Cup skim milk or light soy milk.
1-cup water
1-scoop protein
1-small banana or some fresh strawberries or fruit,
some ice cubes
Throw in a blender and enjoy.
Don't be afraid of carbs they are energy, protien helps build muscle. protein helps with muscle recovery.
Remember a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. Excess calories put on weight not carbs alone.
40-20-20 is a good ratio. 40% carbs, 20% protein, 20% fat for a diet.
1-gram of carbs = 4 calories, 1-gram of protein = 4 calories, 1-gram of fat = 9 calories.
EAS.com is a good website for training/diet info
Read labels, some protein powders are high in calories and fats, sugars. Some don't desolve as good as others do.
Have a couple of hundred calories of carbs 1-2 hour before a workout.

[mariasemuel]

15. Exercise and Fitness

Thanks for sharing it with us

[alexander9]

16. By correct food.

You get your muscles strong again by just eating the correct food and physical activities.
Take food which is good nutritionally doesn't contain a lot of fats.And make physical activties a party of your daily life.That will surely help you.