question for the weight lifters

[swingbolder]

Hi,

I just started weight training again after not having done it for 3 years. My first time doing weights as a raw person. I've been at it for 2 weeks, and have noticed that the next day, after working out, my muscles haven't been sore at all. Even though I am working hard to muscle failure. Has anybody else experienced this? Do raw people's muscles recover faster?

[Denise Nicole]

Yay, great to hear you are lifting!

It may depend on the person. I am still sore after and generally don't go to failure.

[veggie]

My muscles still get sore on 100% raw. Congrats that you are recovering so quickly!

[tglasco4]

Congrats!

My muscles get sore (it feels great!) but my recovery is much faster than it used to be and I can workout much harder now.

Peace.

Todd

[rawfigure]

I get sore if I lift heavy beyond my norm but I do recover faster. I also find I recover faster from running too. I limited my running when I was into more weights, but now I am running more and though I am 5 yrs older from last time I ran this mileage level I recover so much faster !

[PDMagnusen]

I think I also recover faster, but I still get sore. One thing I have noticed though, is that I don't have any of the knee and joint pain that I used to feel when I go for long runs! :D

[swingbolder]

Thanks for your responses everybody.

[juliebove]

I usually don't get sore any more. I used to when I first started. But that was many years ago. Then I noticed I was losing the soreness so I kept pushing myself using heavier and heavier weights and doing more and more reps. Got to where I was doing three entire workouts in one day, allowing only maybe an hour (if that) of rest between workouts. I really did some damage by doing that. Had to totally lay off the arm workouts for a long time. Also wound up getting tendinitis in one leg so had to stop the lower body workouts as well.

I remember reading somewhere that if you're under 40 you should be using a weight that causes failure at 8 reps. If you're over 40 you should be using a weight that causes failure at 15 reps. For me, that's a pretty high weight! I prefer not to do that because I have a tendency to really bulk up when I use weights that high. I remember wearing a sleeveless top once at a club and hearing some guy comment that my triceps were bigger than his were!

So now I dropped a few pounds off the weights and do more reps. I also try to mix up my workouts so I am challenging my muslces in different ways every day. I rarely get sore from using the weights. And if I do it is fleeting. But I will get sore from other things like gardening. I guess this is because I am using different muscles then.