Soreness and recovery/ soreness and frequency

[Cinder]

Okay so I haven't worked out in 10 months. My first day back was last Saturday, where I did a little bit of chest and triceps (3 exercises)
The soreness is still severe, and it's Tuesday. I haven't touched a weight since.
As such I had a few questions...

For one... obviously I'm sore as shit because I haven't worked out in awhile. This is something I haven't had in a long time, so I'm wondering.

1. Is soreness correlated to recovery time, as to whether or not you work out the same muscle again?

2. Even though this is my first time working out, is this soreness telling me something about my recovery period for chest and triceps?

I don't wanna get in the habit of overtraining.
I replied to an old post about 2x a week per group, if y'all wanna look at that. It's about how many guys from 2017 to now are doing one body part per week (or per 72 hours) like Cutler did back in the day. Or so it's been said.
I haven't been this sore in a long time, so I'm kind of using it as a ridiculous gauging system.

 

[yomstf]

I don't think hours of recovery is a good measurement. If I do 3-5 sets for back at 80% of 1 RM my recovery will be faster than 8-20 sets for back at 80% of 1 RM. Also if you are in a caloric surplus or on a deficit, if you rest well or not, and so on.

There is a lot of factors... I will take more time if I have DOMS or maybe do less volume per session. In my opinion the optimal frequency is individual and changing so right now for me could be 72h between sessions of the same muscle but in the future could be 48h (volume, intensity, rest, caloric intake, etc.)

 

[TheOtherOne55]

I wouldn't look at your recovery abilities just yet.
You just threw some BRAND NEW STIMULUS at your chest and tris....after 10 months of a lay off.
It's expected that this new stimulus is shocking to the system and you feel pretty beat up days after.

To be honest, MOST if not all of your other bodyparts are going to be like this. Personally, some light pump work to flush the lactic acid and get some new blood flow in there might be good...but NOT another training session. Ease yourself into this, in a month or so you'll be back to hitting this harder and more frequent without the debilitating soreness.

 

[danieltx]

1. Is soreness correlated to recovery time, as to whether or not you work out the same muscle again?

Very likely. The scientists will tell you that we still don't know 100% what causes soreness, that it's not a proxy for a good workout, etc., but advanced bodybuilders probably know a bit more here.

Once a muscle has been trained and is sore, I don't train it again until it's no longer sore. No pump work, nothing. When I hit a muscle, I want it fresh so I can give it 100% and get as much out of the workout as possible. I personally don't feel this should change over one's bodybuilding journey - recovery isn't something that you can improve consistently over the years. You can really only make extremely incremental improvements, unless you've been doing something like regularly sleeping only 4 hours a night.

2. Even though this is my first time working out, is this soreness telling me something about my recovery period for chest and triceps?

Too early to determine - extreme, prolonged soreness should be expected right now. If you're still experiencing this after 3 months of consistent training, you probably need to reconsider how you're training and / or recovery factors.

I don't wanna get in the habit of overtraining.

I wouldn't worry about that - most people will never train with enough intensity on a consistent basis to reach a truly overtrained state. Thumbs might be the exception here, it's everyone's favorite muscle to hit no matter what gym you go to.

 

[alfresco]

Cinder,

I have written considerably on this subject (some may say worse than worthless bullshit).
Because my travels have forced me into extended layoffs, when returning to training muscular
soreness is something I always look forward to and subsequently have read considerably
on the subject and experimented a lot and have learned from others as well.

if I may be brief on the subject . . . it is not a indicator of growth, it is not lactic acid, and do
not let it stop you from training, i.e.., only train when the soreness goes away as training,
as panful as it me be, is the best way to remove the soreness and if you can handle it, train
the muscle for sore muscle multiple days in a row, which is quite possibly the best way to
remove it. And some exercises produce zero muscular soreness regardless of how you do
them. Chew on that one for a while . . .

Could go on and on but won't, I don't want to bore everybody won't everybody but if you are
still interested, do a search with my user name and soreness in the subject line.

Here is something I recently wrote . . .

https://www.professionalmuscle.com/forums/index.php?threads/been-training-with-too-many-machines.164672/#post-2829362

I am not an expert on this subject with all this being my opinion of course but drawn from my
experiences and the experiences of others I have trained.

 

[11111]

I wouldn't worry about that - most people will never train with enough intensity on a consistent basis to reach a truly overtrained state. Thumbs might be the exception here, it's everyone's favorite muscle to hit no matter what gym you go to.

AMEN! So damn true.

 

[Fa Seeshus]

Had to layoff my thumb work. This dude with a dog and attack cat smashed my cell phone last month.

 

[Cinder]

Cinder,

I have written considerably on this subject (some may say worse than worthless bullshit).
Because my travels have forced me into extended layoffs, when returning to training muscular
soreness is something I always look forward to and subsequently have read considerably
on the subject and experimented a lot and have learned from others as well.

if I may be brief on the subject . . . it is not a indicator of growth, it is not lactic acid, and do
not let it stop you from training, i.e.., only train when the soreness goes away as training,
as panful as it me be, is the best way to remove the soreness and if you can handle it, train
the muscle for sore muscle multiple days in a row, which is quite possibly the best way to
remove it. And some exercises produce zero muscular soreness regardless of how you do
them. Chew on that one for a while . . .

Could go on and on but won't, I don't want to bore everybody won't everybody but if you are
still interested, do a search with my user name and soreness in the subject line.

Here is something I recently wrote . . .

https://www.professionalmuscle.com/forums/index.php?threads/been-training-with-too-many-machines.164672/#post-2829362

I am not an expert on this subject with all this being my opinion of course but drawn from my
experiences and the experiences of others I have trained.

Thank you for this. I'll be reading this.

 

[tren_plz]

The severe soreness could happen to a regular lifter that rotates in a new exercise. A new stimulus is going to cause the same reaction.

 

[Dens228]

In my football playing days they used to make us come in and do a medium intensity full body workout the day after games......I was always sore as hell and the workouts actually worked as much as we the players not only hated them, but also hated admitting it.

 

[Matsuo Munefusa]

Light volume work for a couple weeks, think feeder sets, you should be pumped but not super fatigued at end of session.

Slowly escalating intensity as your body adapts, this is a good time to log to make sure you're hitting progressive overload each session.

Check your ego at the door even if it means benching 135 for your first session back, if you add 10lb 2x a week you'll be at 315 bench in no time at all (just for instance if that was your old 5RM).

Microlactin in high dose DOES help DOMS.

AAS helps...

Remember it's a marathon, not a sprint...

 

[brutus69]

when im doing heavy low rep sets and change to high reps i can be sore for 3 days.
the very next workout i do im not sore at all.
but, when i go back to heavy sets, again i will be sore for days.
the next workout tho, not sore at all. only when i first change reps/weights.
cant figure that out.
but as was said, u went from 0-100 instantly. of course u gonna be sore for awhile. but i bet the next time u work those muscles u wont be nearly as sore, or not sore at all.