Sore Today, Strong Tomorrow

Soreness

I was recently talking with some new Strong Together members about soreness. They were talking about how sore they were and that their co-workers were saying you are too sore to work today. Lol.

I right away think of the quote. "I'll do things today that you won't do so tomorrow I'll do things you can't do."

When we first start working out we may have a bad association with being sore. Maybe you don't want to get to sore or I'm too sore to workout the rest of the week.

The thing with sore muscles is that you earned it!

I have been working out hard for about 10 years now, and when I get sore I can honestly say I am super excited about it. Because I earned it! I must work pretty hard to get sore so I know that it was a great workout and that I am going to get some great benefits from it.

You may be thinking that's just nuts Ben. But everything we do is all about mentality. You need to mentally associate soreness with goals.

Soreness = Results

When we are just starting out, just know that the early soreness goes away pretty quick. Enjoy the journey. It won't be like that for long. And I promise the results are worth it.

So how to we deal with soreness? Here are my top 5 strategies.

1. Sleep 8 hours - make sure to get a good night of rest to let your body heal and recover. Keep a cool house, drink some tea, have a nice dinner, and hit the sack.

2. Drink lots of water - be sure to drink lots of water. We want to drink at least a 1/2 oz of water for every pound. If you drink coffee, energy drink, or tea, you need to replace that with water also. We all know that our bodies are mostly water. So give it water!

3. Walk or do a light workout - "Did you hear me Ben, I'm sore!" I know, I know. But if you just get out and move around, it will go away. It's magical. Take your dog or hubby out for a 20 minute walk and you will feel better. Play an audio book or take your ear buds and get some calls out of the way, whatever works. Just move. Or do a very easy at home workout with light weights barely breaking a sweat. This will help your body metabolize better and get the chemicals in your body processed faster. Remember our bodies are 100 percent made to move till we are 99. Our bodies are NOT made to NOT move, period.

4. Foam roller, stretch, or yoga - This works the same way as a light walk does. The first few minutes will be kind of achy, but a nice 10-15 stretch session goes a long way. Do it right in the living room while playing New Girl on Netflix. Romwod is a new resource that you can check out also.

5. Salt bath or hot tub - I just put this in here because I know people swear by it. But a salt bath or hot tub visit will be nice to relax the muscles. To make it even better, add some light stretches at the same time!

My favorite is number 3.