Why Does Working Legs Make You so Sore Compared to Upperbody?

[curling]

I mean what is the deal? I bust my ass on chest, shoulders, back and arms and they might be a little sore the next day. Now legs on ther otherhand(or should I say foot), kill you for two, three and sometimes 4days later. WTH? I mean why do legs get so sore and the rest of your upper body doesn't?

I know it is a bigger muscle but what does that matter?

I do legs for the fat burning properties of having bigger muscles(especially because long shorts are still in style ). Because personally I hate working them but I still do to stay more trim (I hate cardio more than legs)

But anyway why do you think legs hurt so bad compared to other muscle groups?

 

[The mann]

man i wondered the same thing!!!ther's nothing like a good squat workout.it just a total body ass whoopin'!!!..you're right...

 

[MrMuscle]

it depends on how you train the muscle i belive..when doing legs, you tend to go real heavy on the weights..you are lifting more weights than you do on any other bodypart. and most exercises for legs doesnt just target one muscle, but several musclegroups. and yes, the fact that it is a bigger musclegroup has a lot to say.

having said that, im as sore in my back, arms, chest, abs two days after working them, as i am after working legs...

 

[calvesodeath]

most exercises for legs doesnt just target one muscle, but several musclegroups.

This is the reason IMHO.

 

[bigmag]

another factor in it is that you notice it alot more because you use your legs for just about everything. Think about it. You don't have to use your upper body to walk, sit, stand, or run so you're not fleing those muscles as often as you flex the muscles in your legs and that's when you notice the soreness, when you flex or stretch the muscle.

 

[curling]

That is a very good point bigmag. I never thought about it like that.

 

[GenetiKing]

Soreness is an indicator of lactic acid buildup within the fibers that were unable to be flushed out during exercise.

I honestly don't know but I always assumed it had something to do with the high-endurance type fibers (predominantly slow twitch) that make up the majority of your lower body muscle tissue.

Maybe bignate or Cackerot knows more about this than I do...

 

[Belial]

Nothing to do with any of that.

DOMS isn't due to lactic acid, and has nothing to do with fiber types. Besides this, the lower body isn't necessarily composed of slow-twitch. many elite level sprinters have much higer fast-twitch makeups (Enter the chicken and the egg discussion here).

Leg training, especially squats, is pretty heavy eccentric movement; this is one factor. The weights being used are obviously great, so the prostaglandin release, microtrauma caused, etc., is all that much greater.

And there's bigmag's point; next time you do a heavy chest workout, walk around on your hands all day. Not gonna happen. Recovery tends to be slower because of this, and day to day you definitely tend to repeat the motions (leg flexion/extension) that made you sore in the first place.