Aching Muscles

[TartanArMMA]

I had my first MMA class on Monday night. The biggest lesson I learned was that I am really out of shape. My body aches all over and I can now bearly bend my legs.

I have another class tonight and am wondering what I should do. Should I just suck it up and power through it or should I just rest until my next lesson on Monday? Could I really injure myself by not letting my muscles recover properly?

Also, is there anything I can do to help my muscles recover? I heard creatine helps.

Thanks in advance.

[WholeMilk]

Suck it up. You will always be proud of yourself for working out when you are just starting again. Especially if its gonna be until next Monday when you get a chance to train again.

This far after the fact, I'd suggest some advil, but I am not really into supplements. I find that drinking coffee actually helps me feel less muscle soreness. (look it up, its proven that drinking coffee before working out helps with delayed onset of muscle soreness)

I would suggest in the future just stretching immediately after you workout, and eating some carbs. The stretching will prevent some muscle soreness, and eating the carbs will replenish the glycogen in the muscle that you just depleted.

[bigkick]

Yeah, I don't think you need to go all supplement crazy, if for no other reason than they're expensive. Stretch before and after your sessions, give yourself a day to rest between workouts, keep hydrated and eat smart, and just in general learn to listen to your body. As you progress, you'll be able to do more, go longer, feel less sore. Slow and steady climb, in other words. The body is an awesome machine.

[Gary Peters]

Once you get warmed up, you wont feel so sore. Suck it up.

[paolo27th]

I totally disagree with everyone on this (sorry Gary).
It was your FIRST class. If you are still sore just rest till you are not sore anymore. You are a total beginner so no reason to push. Ease yourself into it and don`t push it for the first 2-3 months.
I`ve just seen too many guys jump right into it and train like crazy (relatively to what their body were used to) for the first month or so, then just get fed up of being sore/missing their social life/getting burned out or injured and leave.
You`ll have time to drag yourself on/off the mats eventually. For now just rest and take your time.

[TartanArMMA]

Thanks for all the tips. I think i'll be better prepared for next week i.e stretching , hydration/diet and rest.

[hosed49]

Ibupfrofen directly after your classes and before you go should alleviate some of the pain. Its not any different than getting back into the gym after some time off. Your muscles arent necessarily used to that type of strain so stretching will help alot, and yes the stretching will hurt also. Its not like your going to be dependant on the Ibuprofen because the soreness will go away with time as your body gets accustomed to it. Your not anywhere near overtraining levels yet, just give your muscles time to adapt, it will get easier.

[djmarkiss]

A trainer told me try Advil, also in the shower alternate heat and cool water on the muscles to help out. But like another poster said, once you warm up and start doing stuff you wont even be thinking about the pain.

[kenzo242]

I used to take an ice cold bath after all of my hard workouts. Cold promotes an environment for healing. Especially the first 24 hours are so important to reduce any inflammation. Doing that with ibuprofen should help alot after the fact. The hydration, stretching and proper warm ups are good suggetions also. LAte