OT- weekend warrior question

Sorry for all my off topic questions lately, but Cubbe is fine, healthy,
and not particularly amusing lately. I can't think of anything to
report about her, and I've been running into odd questions that beg for
a bunch of usenet buddies more than googling.


I feel like I'm asking for hangover cures, but I need home remedies for
overworked muscles. I've never been athletic, but about 2 years ago I
joined a gym. I've been doing well with aerobics and weight exercises,
have sometimes felt a little pain from overworked muscles, but have
mostly been able to increase the weight without killing myself. I
thought I was doing pretty well.


I was getting bored with my routine of aerobics and weight machines and
took a class on Thursday. The teacher had us doing all sorts of bizarre
things that involve sitting on plastic orange balls (I felt like it was
an egg and I was brooding a bizarre nest), keeping our balance on rags
which made sure our feet slipped, and "concentrated on core muscles."
There was lots of bending backwards while supported by the giant egg and
doing strange sit-ups. I wasn't good at working muscles, keeping my
balance, doing the stretches, paying attention to timing, and tuning out
the torture music at the same time, but I gave it a try and am not
totally against going back.


I started to ache that afternoon. Yesterday was not a good day.
Everything hurt. All that work on the weight machines in one room
turned out to be no preparation for the egg work in the other. Last
night my ribs hurt too much for me to turn over in bed. I'm okay when
I'm not moving, but as soon as I have to sit up, I'm in agony. I'm not
sure if today is going to be any better.


Common sense tells me that it's just overworked muscles, and I'll be
fine, but does anyone have any advice on what to do in the mean time?
Are there home remedies for this sort of thing? This group works out
and is athletic. What gives? What do you do?


--Lia

In article ,
Julia Altshuler wrote:
What gives? What do you do?

A couple of days off or, if it's not that bad, I suck it up
and ignore it. Try to eat well, and if you're not taking a
multivitamin this is a good time to start.

Do a web search on "Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness" and see
if you find anything that helps.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community

"Julia Altshuler" wrote in message
. ..
Sorry for all my off topic questions lately, but Cubbe is fine, healthy,
and not particularly amusing lately. I can't think of anything to report
about her, and I've been running into odd questions that beg for a bunch
of usenet buddies more than googling.


I feel like I'm asking for hangover cures, but I need home remedies for
overworked muscles. I've never been athletic, but about 2 years ago I
joined a gym. I've been doing well with aerobics and weight exercises,
have sometimes felt a little pain from overworked muscles, but have mostly
been able to increase the weight without killing myself. I thought I was
doing pretty well.


I was getting bored with my routine of aerobics and weight machines and
took a class on Thursday. The teacher had us doing all sorts of bizarre
things that involve sitting on plastic orange balls (I felt like it was an
egg and I was brooding a bizarre nest), keeping our balance on rags which
made sure our feet slipped, and "concentrated on core muscles." There was
lots of bending backwards while supported by the giant egg and doing
strange sit-ups. I wasn't good at working muscles, keeping my balance,
doing the stretches, paying attention to timing, and tuning out the
torture music at the same time, but I gave it a try and am not totally
against going back.


I started to ache that afternoon. Yesterday was not a good day.
Everything hurt. All that work on the weight machines in one room turned
out to be no preparation for the egg work in the other. Last night my
ribs hurt too much for me to turn over in bed. I'm okay when I'm not
moving, but as soon as I have to sit up, I'm in agony. I'm not sure if
today is going to be any better.


Common sense tells me that it's just overworked muscles, and I'll be fine,
but does anyone have any advice on what to do in the mean time? Are there
home remedies for this sort of thing? This group works out and is
athletic. What gives? What do you do?


--Lia

I'm so sorry to hear about this Lia. Although I have done aerobics in my
younger years, and still work out with weights and lots of stretching, I've
never done the *ball* workout. I'm assuming you are referring to those
great big exercise balls? We have one, but I've never used it. My husband
bought it for himself. Why, I don't know because he's not a very flexible
person.

Since you have experienced sore muscles before, does the pain you are now
experiencing *feel* the same? Is it that same sort of a muscle burn
feeling, or is it a sharp pain?

When I've had muscle pain in the past, I've just worked through it. Maybe
took a day off, but basically gone back and continued through it until the
muscle strengthened. But I've never had a pain in my ribs/chest area. My
muscle pains have usually been in the arms, legs or lower stomach area,
depending upon which muscle I over-worked. I've never had a hernia, so I
don't know what they feel like. I've always thought it was kind of hard to
bruise ones ribs without a bad fall or some sort of physical injury to them.
I did have pleurisy once, the pain you are describing reminds me of that.
Perhaps you somehow managed to injure your ribs?
-------------------------------

Inflammation of the pleura, usually occurring as a complication of a disease
such as pneumonia, accompanied by accumulation of fluid in the pleural
cavity, chills, fever, and painful breathing and coughing.

------------------------------------------------------------

I'm wondering if you could have injured your pleura? It says it's *usually*
a result of complication from disease, so maybe you can also injure it
another way?


td

Julia Altshuler wrote:

Common sense tells me that it's just overworked muscles, and I'll be
fine, but does anyone have any advice on what to do in the mean time?
Are there home remedies for this sort of thing? This group works out
and is athletic. What gives? What do you do?

Ouch! I experienced something similar, at a much younger age,
when I took a day hike down into a canyon over fairly rough
terrain. The hike lasted about four hours, and we were picked up
by a boat at the end, so we didn't have to climb back up. I was
in fair shape beforehand from walking and biking, so I didn't
anticipate any problems. Hah! Next day every movement made
muscles scream.

Home remedies? There's this:
http://www.mothernature.com/Library/...oks/48/140.cfm

I've never tried the alternating hot and cold shower routine, but
it might be worth a try. When I have sore muscles from overuse, I
usually take a long soak in a whirlpool or bathtub, or take a
long hot shower. I take ibuprofen at prescription-level strength
(600-800 mg 4x/day) for a day, with food. And force myself to
move around gently, to keep blood moving through the muscles to
remove the lactic acid. I don't know how much of my perception
that this works is due to placebo effect or simply the body
recovering at its own pace, but it gives me the illusion that I'm
doing something about it :-| .

HTH -

FurPaw

--
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched,
every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense
a theft from those who hunger and are not fed,
those who are cold and are not clothed."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

To reply, unleash the dogs.

My two cents:

2 Aspirin. 2 Margueritas, 1 hot lingering bath.. whirlpool if possible.

"montana wildhack" wrote in message
news:2008021612124116807-montana@wildhackcominvalid...
(snip)
Strangely, as I age, it gets worse, so increased movement is more
important.


Yes, highly unusual. I think the thing that has really taken a downhill
slide is my singing voice. Incredible.

There have been improvements too, and they actually outweigh the bad stuff.
I smile more.

About 10 years ago my Doctor thought I was developing arthritis and it
scared the crap out of me. I could not imagine living in that much
continual pain. It turned out to be the beginnings of carpel tunnel and
related nerve stuff, very liveable after everything went numb.
Karla

When I wrote this morning, I felt as bad as I did yesterday. 4 hours
later, and I could say that there's some improvement. I don't feel
quite good, but I can see an end in sight, so I'm not nearly so
discouraged. Now it's 8 hours later (guests arrived before I sent the
message earlier), and I think I might be okay before next week's class.


Thanks for the search term "delayed onset muscle soreness." I don't
know why I didn't think of that. The search delivered the advice that's
being given he move a bit, stretch a bit, take painkillers, and
don't overdo any of that.


I guess my discouragement came from feeling like I was getting punished
for doing something good. Irrational, I know. I just felt like I'd
done so many things right-- working out on the weight machines, putting
some effort into the class, stopping during the class when I knew it was
too much. Then it hurt so much. I had to wonder if I was doing myself
any good in the years with the machines if I couldn't make it through
one class balancing on ostrich eggs.


I believe I got the original diagnosis right-- no injured pleura or
anything else, just overworked abdominal, back and leg muscles. It
hurts to cough, but I'm not coughing, and it doesn't hurt to breathe.
I'm not sick-- no fever or anything like that, but I do know where the
thought came from. In the days before annual flu shots, I've gotten the
flu bad enough to feel like this in my chest, just an outrageous pain
between the ribs.


I can see the sense in the hot and cold treatment, but honestly, that
sounds like more torture. I am doing the aspirin thing. I'd taken
Aleve yesterday but hadn't known to keep taking it to keep the levels
up. Thanks for that too.


As for how it gets worse with age, I know this is irrational too, but
it's just so unfair. Jim says this is my reward for not doing stupid
things when I was younger. Because I never ran my health into the
ground then, I've made it to the age where exercise classes hurt, and
getting exercise means symptoms get worse at a slower rate. The
treadmill analogy works for the business of getting older. I'm running
faster to stay in the same place.


Thanks to everyone who wrote. I am feeling reasonably better. (The
guests admired the quilts. That always does me a world of good.)


--Lia

In article ,
Julia Altshuler wrote:
I guess my discouragement came from feeling like I was getting punished
for doing something good.

I'm a big fan of the Spinervals video series (cycling
workouts targeted at triathletes and bicycle racers), and
Coach Troy says: you're going to suffer; if you're going to
vomit, vomit to your right; and sure, you could make it
easier but then what's the point? Improvement is all about
stress and adaptation. At some point (soon!) it will stop
hurting and then at some point after that you'll start
feeling pretty darned good.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community

"Julia Altshuler" wrote in message
. ..

Common sense tells me that it's just overworked muscles, and I'll be fine,
but does anyone have any advice on what to do in the mean time? Are there
home remedies for this sort of thing? This group works out and is
athletic. What gives? What do you do?


you probably used muscles you don't use on machines - machines tend to work
one very speciifc muscle group at a time - and its very likely just lactic
acid buildup and small tears in the muscles (what soreness usually is). The
best remedy is advil and light exercise. if you work out gently you REALLY
will feel better.

Melinda Shore wrote:

I'm a big fan of the Spinervals video series (cycling
workouts targeted at triathletes and bicycle racers), and
Coach Troy says: you're going to suffer; if you're going to
vomit, vomit to your right; and sure, you could make it
easier but then what's the point? Improvement is all about
stress and adaptation. At some point (soon!) it will stop
hurting and then at some point after that you'll start
feeling pretty darned good.


I've been talking about this with a number of people, and we all think
that "runners' high" is something that mean people made up as a way of
making fun of the naive. I've never felt it. I don't think I've ever
felt good from exercise. I see it more as a way of staving off feeling
bad. If I don't exercise, I get painful episodes of neck and upper back
pain. If I do exercise, the episodes aren't as frequent, long or
severe. But the exercise never leaves me feeling good. It's more like
feeling self-righteous.


--Lia