How much soreness is normal for a novice?

[apparatus]

Wednesday was my first workout, after much reading and watching the DVD, which I think went fairly ok. I kept the weight fairly reasonable, if not more than reasonable, considering my workset for squats was 75x5x3. I noticed that after my last workset, which was fairly hard but do-able, that when I would sit down to rest between sets my knees would almost give out and buckle. I wouldn't so much sit down as much as sort of "fall" down. This made deadlifts a pain in the ass, since when I would go to touch my shins to the bar, my knees would quake like crazy. Later on I noticed that it was fairly painful for me to fully extend my leg. I attributed this to general novice soreness and didn't think much of it.

The next day, I had slight soreness in my quads while walking, but walking up and down stairs or sitting down was incredibly painful. So on my rest day I crammed down about 4500 calories/250g of protein worth of food and went to bed early to try and recover. Today the pain was a little diminished, but still pretty bad. It isn't just sore while moving, but also sore to the touch like a bruise, although I have no blood under my skin or anything like that. I went to do my workout and tried doing some bodyweight squats, which were pretty painful, to see how those felt before I got under the empty bar. I tried to squat with the empty bar and couldn't even get through a full ROM.

So did I fuck something up or am I just THAT detrained/weak? Could it be a recovery issue? I could probably stand to eat more carbs.

[Michael Wolf]

You joined this forum 5 1/2 years ago and did your first SS workout last week? Better late than never, I suppose.

While that level of soreness is more than usual after a first workout, it's not unheard of. Especially if 75lbs was a bit on the aggressive side for your work sets, as it sounds like it may have been by your description of it being fairly hard. Eat and sleep a lot today/tonight and see how it feels tomorrow. I'd be very surprised if it wasn't fine, and you're not able to squat 85x5x3, by Monday at the latest.

[Brodie Butland]

I get debilitating DOMS when I lift after a long layoff (3 weeks or more)...usually walk awkwardly and shuffle down stairs for up to three days after a heavy squat/DL session. But once I get back into the groove, I only have a slight cramping for a day or two.

It's nothing to be concerned about. Eat, sleep, and lift consistently, and your problems will almost certainly go away on their own.

[Luke S]

75 lbs or kgs? Assuming it is 75 kg, that's close to average male bodyweight, which could be excessive for the first session of a detrained individual.

[hammock23]

I get debilitating DOMS when I lift after a long layoff (3 weeks or more)...usually walk awkwardly and shuffle down stairs for up to three days after a heavy squat/DL session. But once I get back into the groove, I only have a slight cramping for a day or two.

It's nothing to be concerned about. Eat, sleep, and lift consistently, and your problems will almost certainly go away on their own.

^I also get debilitating DOMS after a layoff. It certainly isn't nearly as bad when I'm lifting regularly, but I still get some killer pain every once in awhile. The first time you work out is the worst.

[dienster]

Maybe consider adding BCAAs if the soreness from each workout isn't tapering down after the next session. This is in the book somewhere but you have to power through the soreness within a reasonable amount of time and lift again or you'll be in a perpetual state if soreness and your body won't adapt.

Just starting up or restarting sucks but my experience is that within a couple weeks your body will adapt and the soreness will almost be nonexistent. Just remember how much fun sitting on the toilet is now when you want to take an extended break from lifting.

[CFPeterson]

I get debilitating DOMS when I lift after a long layoff (3 weeks or more)...usually walk awkwardly and shuffle down stairs for up to three days after a heavy squat/DL session. But once I get back into the groove, I only have a slight cramping for a day or two.

I get this extended DOMS too, and it sucks. It can be motivation from taking long layoffs.

[apparatus]

Ate and slept like crazy over the weekend. Slept nearly 14 hours one night, ate an entire meat lovers pizza and two bacon cheeseburgers for dinner another night, gallon of milk a day, 9600mg of fish oil a day, etc. Quads felt only slightly sore today and quite a bit better. Went to workout and warmed up with some bodyweight squats before getting under the empty bar to see how things go and getting out of the bottom of the squat is super painful. Tried stretching my adductors with the squat stretch since they were fairly tight and sore and that didn't help very much.

[Michael Wolf]

That is a lot of calories, so I'm assuming you're a young male. And that the 75 is kilos.

You didn't mention the most important things: where was it painful out of the bottom, and were you able to complete the workout today?

[apparatus]

Yea, I'm 29, about 5'10" and weigh 203 lbs.The 75 is most certainly pounds.

It was painful in my quads and my adductors. Now I have a nagging pain in my left adductor, right where it meets the hip. Didn't finish the workout. I was fairly frustrated at that point so I just bailed. I was fairly warmed up after doing a couple of bodyweight squats and had a little bit of a sweat going and it still wasn't getting better. I tried doing a few reps under the empty bar and it was pretty painful.