why so sore?

[forrest_m]

I’ve been suffering the last three days with a highly unusual amount of muscle soreness. We hiked up the mighty Mt. Si on Saturday with some out of town friends, and for three days, I could barely walk, particularly down stairs. I have not been this sore in many years.

 

Now this would be easy to understand if I were coming off the couch, or if this was a super-intense workout. What is so strange is that I’ve been doing a lot of aerobic/leg work the last couple of months, to the extent that hiking up Si is barely a maintenance workout. (I did the same hike twice in one day a few weeks ago and was tired but not in pain...) What gives? Why was I so sore?

I’ve had 2 ideas:

 

1) Two of us scrambled to the top while the others started down; we ran down a ways to catch up, and then it was a slow hike down. Maybe my muscles just got really cold and crampy?

2) Since these were friends we hadn’t seen in a couple of years, we were drinking a fair amount the night before and the night after. Dehydration?

 

I forced myself to do a long bike ride last night, so I’m feeling better now, but I’m still baffled as to why I was in so much pain.

 

[Necronomicon]

Where in your legs are sore?

[allthumbs]

Dehydration is my guess. Booze really takes it outta ya not to mention that it's essentially body poison.

[JoshK]

RUnning down a trail is actually quite a muscle workout too. I can get myself quite sore by running down the entire length of that mount si trail.

[forrest_m]

Necronomicon said:

Where in your legs are sore?

 

thighs. the muscle you use walking down stairs.

[jon]

I got seperated from my partner on a trip to Ingalls and thinking I didn't have my headlamp pretty much ran most of the way down to car to avoid getting caught in the dark, taking wrong turns at one point, good times. My legs hurt like hell for days, I bet that is what happened, just put high amounts of stress for an extended period.

[Ursa_Eagle]

There've been times when I've been a lot more sore than I think I should be, and it's generally times when I don't drink enough (or have too much drink either before or after) I've also run into problems when I've had enough (water) to drink, but run down a few thousand feet. This past weekend, I was feeling sore after a hike, so I drank a lot of water and felt fine the next day for a good x-c ski trip.

[b-rock]

I'll often get pretty sore after most strong workouts regardless of what shape I seem to be in. Something I learned from my cycling days - post exercise, lie flat on your back with your legs straight up against a wall, then massage your thighs downwards for about twenty minutes or so. The idea is that the massage along with gravity encourages the lactic acid buildups to be removed from the muscle, which is what makes you sore to begin with. Dunno if there's truth to this or not, but it seems to work for me.

[Figger_Eight]

When you run down a trail, your quads are repeatedly slowing down and stopping eccentric contractions, or in other words doing a bunch of negative reps. It's very strenous on the muscles and you're working them in a way they aren't used to. That's why they're sore.

[Distel32]

When I was in china we ran down this mountain probably about 2 miles of pretty steep trail. I seriously had trouble walking for two days. As everybody else has said, it's killer on your muscles, and I think slowing down immediately also has something to do with it.

[STORER]

Dehydration and/or low electrolytes. Also stretching will help.

 

Steve

[Courtenay]

Yes, it's both -- even if you can do something like Si twice in a day, if you haven't done Si twice with running both times and then go and include downhill running, your body simply isn't used to that sort of eccentric loading and you'll experience soreness. My guess is if you were to go back and include the downhill running again (with proper hydration) you wouldn't feel nearly as sore afterwards as your body has already started to repair the muscle damage done so that you will be prepared for that same sort of effort again. Stretching, gentle jogging or biking as post-effort "recovery workouts" can all help get you back to pre-soreness condition.

[Bill_Simpkins]

My guesses are:

 

1. Maybe your sick..like mild cold or something. (Last week everything made me sore, really sore, a few days later I came down with a runny nose and other cold symtoms, leading me to believe I was getting sore because I was getting sick, and didn't realize it.)

 

2. Dehydration.

 

3. Weather.

 

4. Diet.

 

5. Shoes and/or pack.

 

 

[Miloshk_Antonopov]

i am finding banana to often be solution to soreness troubles. it is important to be picking ones that are true ripe and not even green in colour. i am having very little soreness each day although i am training very much and this eating of six banana each day is reason why. i am also finding them to be cheap even here so far north!

perhaps the next time you are descending from mount si you are not being so sore with banana to eat !

 

-milosh k

[skyclimb]

WATER WATER WATER. The reason you stay hydrated is to flush out the lactic acid that builds up in the muscles. When your body is fluid think of it as a circle. You are constantly flushing waste products out. Lactic acid is a waste product of burning muscle and fat through exercise. When you drink tons of beer the night before, you are shit out of luck, cause this is a diuretic. That is why WE ALL MUST DRINK WHISKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[rbw1966]

Alcohol is a diuretic.

[Figger_Eight]

FWIW: Lactic acid is a by-product of burning glycogen, not fat nor muscle. It then gets recycled into usable energy, so it's not entirely all bad.

[pope]

Booze makes your head hurt. Old age makes your body hurt. Rap makes your ears hurt. Yo mama makes my eyes hurt. The Forest Service makes your wallet hurt. Any questions?

[leejams]

Pope I'd say that pretty much sum's it up.

[thelawgoddess]

great read. i love being that sore!