Muscle soreness

[g-boaf]

Last week I put in 415km. Nothing major, feeling okay after that. However, I did a session in the gym yesterday morning (fairly high intensity) and I tell you - my leg muscles, the quads in particular are so damn sore yesterday and today I'm even walking slowly.

I know I should get on the bike and ride easily to offset that, but I reckon I could barely turn the pedals. Any other alternatives?

[TimW]

Become a pedestrian and walk the canal cycle path ??

[sogood]

Ok, the key word in this thread is not muscle, it's "415km last week". Monumental effort G-boaf! LOL

[biker jk]

Did you use the foam roller after every ride? It helps reduce muscle soreness and recovery.

[Mulger bill]

Easy solution:
Stay away from gyms...

[3DKiwi]

Happens to me as well after I do a big ride. Things I do:

stretching every day. More the following day after a big ride
rub Voltaren into my quads
rub quads with small hand roller. Like a suitcase handle with 4 lamost ball shaped wheels

[The 2nd Womble]

Tried the Voltaren thing. Those pills are so small and scratchy I don't think they made much difference. They crumble easily as well.

[misterhorsey]

I find stretching the quads post ride makes a big difference. Gentle but firm, holding stretches for up to 3 minutes (standing like a zombie, or kneeling, in front of the telly to keep your mind off the tedium) rather than doing 30 second stretches.

Also very helpful is soaking the legs in a hot bath. No need for epsom salts or anything like that (which isn't absorbed through the skin anyway). Its the self Sous Vide cooking of your quads and hamstrings that seems to help with the soreness.

Other than that, rest is pretty good too!

[g-boaf]

I ended up getting out on a bike ride last night, over 70km at a fairly easy pace with a couple of small efforts on a couple of Strava segments I haven't been on for months and months.

This helped a bit, along with rolling the quads and hamstrings out. That did hurt quite a bit. No riding tonight. Today the quads in particular aren't feeling sore and the legs feel more fresh - not like blocks of concrete.

Easy solution:
Stay away from gyms...

Unfortunately I have to do that stuff - trying to fix up 10-15 years of inactivity and avoid some of the injuries I had last year. Just got to balance it with riding. I haven't found that balance just yet. I still don't enjoy the gym much at all. Fortunately I can do some of the stuff from home. Only go there for the machines I don't have.

[sogood]

Tried the Voltaren thing. Those pills are so small and scratchy I don't think they made much difference. They crumble easily as well.

That's no way to discredit a well based medicine. It works but I would recommend developing a dependency on pharmaceutics. Much better to allow it to resolve naturally.

[Constantheadwind]

Alternatives:
Take it easy in the gym.
Sounds like you gave yourself a resistance workout that you're not used to. Give it a few days rest & you'll bounce back better than before. Cycling is very muscle specific. I did similar to my quads when I first bush walked out of a valley with a full pack on. The vertical climb was only 500m but my quads were ruined for a week. I'm much better now though with practice. I put it down to the walk would have been the equivalent on my bike to a long uphill(500m vertical) grind in high gear at a cadence of 30 yanking up on the bars all the way. Something nobody would normally do given lower gears, at the time my muscles were just not prepared for it.

[Xplora]

DOMS is an interesting kettle of fish for me. When you are well outside your regular workload, you build up epic amounts of "stress" in the muscle. I was the same, ran the 10K Strava challenge and despite aiming for 145bpm HR, struggled to walk the next day. I STILL don't have the zing back after 4 days (racing twice wouldn't help lol).

Recovery rides after heavy rides (20kmh max, rather than riding one lower gear for 27kmh instead of your usual 32-33) help keep things from tightening up too much, but that's not a DOMS issue. That's a "buildup of muscles causes muscle imbalance if you stop riding long enough to let them grow" issue. DOMS really only seems to be cured by tons of BCAAs and glutamine for me. Had some BCAAs after the racing both days and I feel ready for war again.

Should mention that heavy efforts with DOMS already troubling you seems to be guaranteed agony. After my Gong return, I tried to climb up a tree at home for some pruning and the next day the muscles that cramped from effort were KILLING ME.
End of the day - do your gymwork first and riding second, and don't go to DOMS levels of pain from the gym if you want to maintain bike progress. Or give up the gym and just ride harder

[3DKiwi]

Re Voltaren, I meant the "emugel" i.e. the liquid in a toothpaste tube. Rubbed into your quads is a bit like getting a massage.

[Dr_Mutley]

Re Voltaren, I meant the "emugel" i.e. the liquid in a toothpaste tube. Rubbed into your quads is a bit like getting a massage.

Does the emugel actually do anything? Or is it actual just the physical/tactile therapy it includes? I'm sure Novartis* would suggest its the voltaren...

*Edit

[clackers]

Nurofen if not actually injured.

[g-boaf]

Re Voltaren, I meant the "emugel" i.e. the liquid in a toothpaste tube. Rubbed into your quads is a bit like getting a massage.

Does the emugel actually do anything? Or is it actual just the physical/tactile therapy it includes? I'm sure Novartis* would suggest its the voltaren...

*Edit

I don't know about that one, but the Nurofen gel can help reduce muscle pain from strains and the like. It is quite effective - but it is very oily.

My legs are now fine. They got some good workouts tonight.

[sogood]

Skin absorption, nothing local about it and very much the same systemic effect.

[wizardhat]

DOMS really only seems to be cured by tons of BCAAs and glutamine for me.

A BCCA supplement in your water bottle is like witchcraft as far as I am concerned. The difference for me is amazing.

[mitchy_]

BCAA's, glutamine and using the muscles! not to say do the gym routine again, but walking around, stretching them, etc works for me after a ripper leg session.

[Xplora]

DOMS really only seems to be cured by tons of BCAAs and glutamine for me.

A BCCA supplement in your water bottle is like witchcraft as far as I am concerned. The difference for me is amazing.

The user handle and quote are just "magic" together