Sore Muscles

Sore Muscles and what it means. I'm 27 days into my workouts using P90 from BeachBody. Today my left arm is really sore which does not surprise me because I'm right handed. The other day I had to do my "Fit Test" which I actually should have done 27 days ago. I'm still getting all the tools I need for my workout room and so the only dumbbells I have are 10 lbs. I got to arm curls and I was supposed to do them until failure. Well, I stopped at 75 because I kept pausing and pushing it but the 10 lb DB's just were not heavy enough to cause failure. I had a feeling I was going to pay for this later but that day I seemed to be fine. On the next day, Friday I was scheduled to do more Weight training and once again I pushed it a little harder because the 10 lb weight. I was able to do more reps than they were doing on the training DVD and I decided to just go until the next set started.

Last night my left arm started to really bother me due to the soreness from the 2 days of workouts. Today I'm still very sore but only with my left arm. Being right handed this actually makes sense. With weight training what happens is that the muscles are pushed to the point of breaking down and tarring and the soreness comes from the healing process. Those that train hard know all to well the common quote "No pain, No gain". This comes from the pain of the healing process of torn or broken down muscles.

So what does all this mean? Well first it means that my exercise is doing some good by pushing my limits. I'm actually able to do more in the workouts today than I was when I first started. That's a good thing and it is very encouraging. So if I keep pushing Play and keep pushing my intensity level that I should keep getting stronger and better. Secondly it means that my body is responding to the workouts and my muscles are healing. Soreness is different than strained or damaged and hurt muscles. If you can move your muscles and work out the soreness to some degree you know that you are not hurt just sore. Also, the pain is different when you are sore than when you are hurt. Soreness is more like a dull pain and it tends to lessen as you move around and stretch. When your hurt the pain is very sharp and tens to get worse if you start moving around and stretching.

So, pain is not a bad thing you just need to learn to read it and listen to your body. The same is true with most things in life. Life is a struggle and every pain is telling us something. Sometimes you have to back off and let things heal before you start pushing it again. That's whey your actually hurt. Sometimes you just have to get in there and start moving again even though you know that when you do it's going to hurt a little. That's when you know you are growing and moving past your comfort zones.

I guess I can say that even though I'm sore today, it's still a good thing. Now, if my left arm will just not fall off when I put my shirt on I'll be in good shape.


Just my thoughts.

RiceBurnerMonk