next day muscle soreness....help!

[Sassy69]

Soooooooooo true.... Its really bad if you get stuck too. Or worse yet, you miss on the descent.

 

[RottenWillow]

So I upped the ante yesterday in my leg work-out and I'm really paying for it today. I acheived a few personal bests in squats & cleans. What do you find helps you recover the fastest?

You're feeling what's very loosely called DOMS, or delayed onset muscle soreness.

The best treatment is prevention. You can avoid a great deal of that soreness by very thorough stretching prior to lifting.

You can prove the accuracy of this by looking at your own experience. Have your biceps ever felt as sore a day or two after a workout as your legs do now? Even nearly as sore? Probably not I'm guessing. The biceps remain closer to full stretch all the time than the quad group and hamstrings. More stretching equals substantially less DOMS.

 

[Sassy69]

LOL "Delayed onset..." -- nothing sux more than the day after the day after a killer workout!

 

[ashley2212]

You're feeling what's very loosely called DOMS, or delayed onset muscle soreness.

The best treatment is prevention. You can avoid a great deal of that soreness by very thorough stretching prior to lifting.

You can prove the accuracy of this by looking at your own experience. Have your biceps ever felt as sore a day or two after a workout as your legs do now? Even nearly as sore? Probably not I'm guessing. The biceps remain closer to full stretch all the time than the quad group and hamstrings. More stretching equals substantially less DOMS.

True, but more stretching before workouts means less strength and/or muscle gains. By stretching the muscles too much before lifting, you're not allowing the tiny fibers in your muscles to rub up against each other effectively enough to stimulate growth. You're loosening the muscles and decreasing the power of your contractions.
If you're really worried about soreness, then take it slow. Don't increase weight too fast and when changing up your workout, slowly ease into it. Honestly though, soreness is one of the best feelings after lifting. I find it to be a feeling of accomplishment and though it sucks climbing stairs or lifting something over my head, I feel more powerful in the end.
There's a cause and effect to everything that you do. If you work your body hard, you're going to feel it in the end. The way I see it is, you either
a) find the strength within you to work hard and find power in your soreness or
b) stick to the "pink dumbells" like Daisy says and you'll never feel the pain or see the gain.