Question for all the people that seem to enjoy working out.

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Back in college I took a class called "Fitness for life" it was all about living well. Covered good habbits, eating well, ect.. One of the classes took place in the weight room of the college gym. We learned how to work out with weights, ect.. It was my first and only time I ever worked out.

Why was it my only time working out? Because the next day I was so soar I could not move at all. Took me all that next day to recover. I remembered the pain and thought to myself that I would be dumb to ever want to put my body through that much pain ever again.

This is for the people that enjoy putting there body through pain like that. Why do you enjoy it working out if you are in pain all the time?

I work it out but I don't over do it until I am sore. Unless I fall off my bike or fall up running up stairs or something.

you gotta stretch before and after. if it was your first time, your body may not have been used to what you put it through if you went hard. it will take a bit for your body to get used to working out, especially if you dont have an active lifestyle.

There should only be a little stiffness, not pain. If you haven't done it in a long time, you might get pain the first couple of times -- if you launch into it and overdo it. A bad way for people to introduce you to it! Did they get you to warm up first, say with five minutes of stationary bike or other exercises? THat helps prepare the muscles for lifting, the more intense work.

If you do it right, you should feel relaxed, a bit emotionally boosted, and your muscles feel pumped, that is warm more solid rather than tired, saggy or achy. Also, it will cut your appetite for junk food or overeating, as it causes you to burn fat.

One of the early chapters in the book "Body for life" explains how the above works hormonally and metabolically, in about 2 pages. I found it an excellent explanation, but I don't have a link to it for you.

Well looks like I was shown the wrong way to do it and it totally turned me off from doing it again ever. I will never put my body through that again.

Careful you dont pull so many weights, you get haemirods.

The soreness goes away after a few workouts. Do not do any exercise more than once a week except for calves and forearms and don't do more than 4-6 sets including warm up sets. Any more than that is overtraining.

Reminds me of the first time I went to the gym. I went with a so called expert, to teach me everything, was all excited and tried out everything. The next day I hurt so bad I couldn't get out of bed, or move. I know now that it was because I did way to much. If you start out small, like you are supposed to, you shouldn't hurt much at all the next day, maybe just a little sore.
When I am in a race, or training and going up a hard climb, pushing myself to the limit, it HURTS, every muscle is screaming for you to stop, but you keep pushing yourself because you don't want the mountain, or competitors to beat you. The pain is part of the challenge, if it was easy then it wouldn't be very rewarding.
Although I might be pretty worn out the day after a race, and have some minor aches, my body doesn't hurt. If you hurt the day after a workout then chances are you pushed yourself to hard. If you are out of shape, you need to start very easy, see what your limits are, and gradually try to raise them.

Todd

I never had that problem. I must have alot of stamina.

Wurzel,
Just wanted to say, you get stronger by the accumulative effects of training. The days you rest are the days your body builds muscle. One day a week might help if you are out of shape, but you are not going to see much gains from working out only one day a week. 2-3 days a week would be a minimum to see some good gains. I train 5-6 days a week, and I know for a fact that I am not over trained or over training. The number of workouts you do in a week all depends on the type of workout and your bodies ability to recover.

Todd

Any exercise that uses the highly fatigueable type IIb muscle fibers does require at least one week to recover and also as a muscle grows it requires more time to heal. For example, bench press can be done once a week starting out, but after a few months a point is reached where one week is not enough time to recover and progress stalls. At that point cyclical training becomes necessary.

I workout because I enjoy it. The pain or soreness, it is motivation to become stronger and bigger. After leg day I usually can't walk for long periods of time due to the soreness, and the next day or two is still pretty bad. I know I'll heal and come out looking better than ever and stronger than ever so why wouldn't I be wiling to sacrifice a few days so long as I have nothing important to do during those days involving my legs.

You say it was your first time. It will take your muscles time to adjust to the workout. Keep doing it and they will get used to that workout and not get as sore, if sore at all. If you want to get sore again you can change up your workout. Also, soreness does not always have to be an indicator of a good workout. You could do less intensity and still reap benefits without becoming sore.

+1, during the summer i train 6 days a week, a total of 10-12 workouts every week, sometimes weight but usually not in the summer. during the winter season if i'm doing weights it'll be 4 weight workouts a week with 5+ cardio workouts, if i'm not doing weights it'll be 5-10 cardio workouts a week.

you'll never hear of an olympic athlete doing an exercise only once a week, they try to fit as much training as possible into each day without overtraining. it's generally recommended to get 48-72hrs of rest between workouts for each muscle, meaning if you work your quads, wait 48-72hrs before doing them again.

as for the initial question, why do i do it, well there are a number of reasons for this. firstly i need to do it to improve in my sport, that one's a given. second, to me pain is gain (the good kind of pain, soreness. any sharp pains, or pain in your joints, tendons, ligaments, etc. are a bad sign and you should stop what you're doing immediately). if i don't have trouble walking after a leg workout then i didn't work hard enough. if i'm not sore for at least the next day i didn't work hard enough. when you begin to enjoy pushing your body to the limit you start to see the pain in a whole new light and sometimes start to enjoy it. when i bike during the summer, i'll sprint up hills just to get that lactic acid burn, and i'll be grinning on the way back down as my legs keep burning.

one thing, however, that is never enjoyable for me is my standard 2k rowing race. roadracer described it pretty well but i'll post one of my favourite rowing quotes.

once i finish a close race or a 2k erg test (rowing machine test) i'll usually collapse for at least 2mins, breathing hard, unable to stand, pretty much dying of asthma lol, and then i get up, weak legged and wobbly, go sit down for another 3-5mins minimum. after that i'll go for a light row to get rid of the lactic acid, either on the machine or on the water. funny thing about that, though, is the last time i did it i had a workout immediately after my test (i couldn't be there for the scheduled test so i had to do it before a workout) so i was going down the stairs, legs shaking, gripping onto the railing for dear life. i grab my single, which weighs no more than 30lbs, and walk down to the dock to put her in the water, the entire time praying "please don't drop it, please don't drop it" because i could barely manage to hold it.

so 2k's are about the most painful thing i've ever done in any sport. for the first two or three years that i was in the sport i would decide to quit every rece. i'd get to the 1000m mark and think "why the hell am i doing this to myself, once i'm done this race i'm quitting" and yet i'm still in the sport .

so why do i train, do weights, and race if it hurts so much? well to be honest the feeling you get from losing is horrible, you feel down, sore, tired, and just want the day to end so you can forget all about it, but the feeling you get when you row through another boat and see them drifting farther and farther away from your stern is indescribable. when you finish the race in first you're ecstatic and although you couldn't stand if your life depended on it, you muster up the strength to high five, hug, whatever your partner(s) because you know everyone in that boat gave it their all, and you're united in your combined sense of indescribable joy and incredible pain. i guess you could say i'm addicted to winning, and that's what keeps me coming back.

That pain is something that's pretty normal from what I understand with people working with weights
My dad used to do it and he would take a couple of days off afterwards of a heavy workout.
From what I have been told, the pain is from small tiny tears in your muscles and the body rebuilding in the tears is what makes them bigger
I could be wrong though.

true

One other thing. The reason I worked out that way is the teacher told us to do it that way. I was just doing what she asked.