Muscle pain after exercise

After long time without exercising, you ambitiously enter a fitness room and spend the last drop of your energy. You return home satisfied with the thought "it was difficult, but I succeed" and fall asleep. Then the next day comes and you wake up with muscles pain. 

These are the recommended methods to avoid the muscle pain caused by exercise:

1. Practice active recovery. For the muscle recovery rest is necessary, but lying in your bed will not help you. Experts recommend light cardio exercise, such as walking, swimming or yoga. If the pain is very big, it is enough just to walk. But if the pain is mild and you have the desire to continue with the exercise, do not hesitate, just reduce the intensity or change the exercises.

2. Massage your muscles. Massage relaxes muscles and reduces inflammation. 

3. Do gentle stretching exercises. By stretching the muscles you will immediately feel relief. Although scientists are not convinced that stretching mend muscle pain, they still recommend it as a way for its mitigation. Easy and slowly stretch the entire body.

4. Take an aspirin. To reduce the pain immediately, drink an aspirin. It reduces inflammation and improve blood circulation.

5. Cold bath or cold ice compresses. If you feel unbearable pain, you can fill the tub with cold water and stay in it for ten minutes. Get slowly and do not immerse the body over the chest. If you are afraid of the cold bath, you can put ice cold compresses on muscles that bother you.

6. Sleep enough. Make sure you have at least 8 hours of good sleep. Body recovers while you sleep.

7. Eat healthy and drink enough water. It is necessary to drink plenty of water before, during and after your workout. And here is food that helps with muscle pain:

• blueberries
• cherries (cherry juice)
• pomegranates
• bananas
• ginger
• almonds
• salmon
• chocolate milk

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4 Abdominal Exercises

In addition you will find four exercises that are a little more challenging, but they give a greater effect.

1

Stand in push-ups position, then lean your elbows on the floor. Hands need to be on the same width with shoulders and curled into fists and directed towards each other. Tighten your abdominal muscles and set your body inn a straight line (Picture 1).

Push your hips up and hold in this position for 2 seconds (Picture 2), and then return to its original position.

Do 8 reps. After a pause of 2-3 minutes, do another series of eight repetitions.

2

Lie on the floor and place your hands in addition to the body with palms to the floor. Bend your right knee and place your right ankle over left knee. Your left leg during the whole exercise should be straight. Using your abs, lift your left leg and place it diagonally, at an 45° angle from the floor (Picture 1).

Tighten abdominal muscles and lift your legs up so that your hips move away from the floor (Picture 2). Then lower your hips on the floor and put your legs in a diagonal position.

Repeat 8 times.

3

Lie on your back and bend your knees so that your feet will rely on the floor. Set your hands along with the body with the palms on the floor. Lift your left leg up and try to form a right angle from the floor (Picture 1).

Push with your right foot on the floor and raise your hips up. The body needs to shape a straight line from shoulders to knees (Picture 2). Lower your hips down, just to touch the floor, and then restart.

Do 8 reps with raised left leg and 8 with raised right leg.

4

Lie on the floor and place your hands behind your head. Lift your head and shoulders off the floor and at the same time pull your knees towards the chest (Picture 1).

Lower your head and shoulders on the floor while you upright your legs and set them diagonally, at an angle of 45° from the floor (Picture 2).

During the entire exercise keep your abdominal muscles very tight. Repeat 10 times, make a 1 minute break and continue with a series of eight repetitions.

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You don't lose weight because...

1. Exercising on an empty stomach. Do you skip a meal before you start with physical activity? It is time to stop this bad habit because the calories you burn come from the muscles, not from the fat. And the more muscle a person has, the more calories are burned. Having a meal before exercising will not only help you to save muscle mass, but will give you more energy to complete the workout. Perfect meal time is about 1.5-2 hours before starting with physical activity.

2. You reward yourself. "I exercise an hour - I earn two pieces of cake." In your head exercise may  justifies the intake of extra calories, but do not be surprised when the scale does not show the desired results. Physical activity usually does not burn as many calories as you imagine, but significantly less. (For example, one hour aerobics burns about 450 calories and a normal chocolate (100g) has about 500 calories.) It is recommended that your meal after exercise contains about 150 calories.

3. You eat too little. Yes, it is true that if you want to lose weight there should be less calories, but the number of entered calories can be a serious obstacle for weight loss. The human body has built up its own defense mechanism to survive in extreme conditions. When you enter few calories, it slows down the metabolism and burning calories and begins to store fat, because it "thinks" that starvation will continue. Well, at some point, despite exercise your weight will be the same. Generally women should not enter less than 1,200 calories per day.

4. Your workout is a routine. It is great that your workout is a habit, but not when you do it without effort. Repeating the same exercises is not a good strategy for weight loss because the body gets used to the exercises and begin to burn fewer calories. Therefore, your weight will be the same. To lose weight and to have a maximum effect of exercise, you should constantly change the exercises, to increase their intensity, sequence and rest between them.

5. Your weights are too small. Training with weights builds your muscles and speed up your metabolism, which leads to burning more calories. Exercising with light weights does not lead to increased muscle mass. Choose a weight that will tire your muscles after 12 repetitions. When you can do 15 reps with that weights, increase the weight. Minor muscle pain is normal, but you should not feel a strong sharp pain.

6. You are not sleeping enough (7-8 hours). Lack of sleep can reduce the benefits of your body workout and have the opposite effect than desired. For muscles to work at full capacity, you need to give them the needed rest. Moreover, the lack of sleep reduce your energy, slows metabolism and increases your appetite, and does not support your weight loss efforts.

7. You have a health problem. If you are doing everything that is recommended for weight loss and notice that your weight increase rather than decrease, it is best to consult your doctor. There are certain medical conditions that can affect your weight, such as polycystic ovary syndrome, hormonal disorders, thyroid problems, etc.. Also, increased weight can be due to certain medications you take. In any case, it is necessary to consult with an expert.

8. You expect results too soon. If you expect to reduce weight in the first 1-2 weeks of exercise, you can only be disappointed. You can see the exercise benefits after 2-4 weeks, at least. Patience is the key to your success.

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