am i doing this right?

[otispunkmeyer]

at uni we have this session called hour of power.... from the name you an guess its ooohh about an hour long.

anyway its been ripped from some 4x4 fitness thing, apparently its quite popular around the world but i have no idea if it is or it isnt

basically consists of doing reps, using small free weights, to music. weights are usually 1-5kg dumbbells however the number of reps is just insane.

theres all the usual stuff, bicep curls, triceps, squats, shoulder presses and other stuffs and at the end they do a little abs routine with sit ups and press ups, planks, wierd cycling motions on your back etc

overall its a lot of fun and quite the work out.

anyway, i chose to do it because i dont particulalry want to be massive, just want the muscle endurance and the toning.

however, the day after..... my arms are totally fucked.... like it hurts to try and extend them fully. they've only just stopped hurting from fridays session and i was only using 2kg weights

is it supposed to hurt that bad? or am i doing it wrong

 

[skace]

I guess it depends where it hurts. You said it hurts to extend your arm, does it hurt at the joints? Like your elbow? That would be bad. However if your muscles are sore, that is good and is intended. It means you wore out your muscles, possibly caused some minor tearing that will heal over the week. This feeling is exaggerated when you use muscles that you don't normally use in any demanding manner.

High reps is fine, but if the exercise goes over several minutes uninterrupted then it is more of a cardio workout than an anaerobic.

And I seriously wish there was a stickied post in this forum titled "I don't want to be massive but..." because seriously, EVERY newbie says that. Everyone. You don't get massive accidentally. You don't lift a 10lb weight and all of a sudden look like Arnold. Hell, if you could, there would be absolutely nothing impressive with the way he looked. You could work out 4 days a week, all year long, sweating out your ass every work out and never look even remotely massive.

 

[conorvansmack]

That soreness sounds about right. Adding more protein to your diet could reduce the amount of time that you're sore, but a good workout will do that to you.

Some people have suggested very light exercise of the same type with lower weights about 24 hours after the workout/activity that caused the soreness. That recommendation is for dealing with lactic acid buildup though, but I've had it work for me. If it's something you just started, it's just your muscles reacting to new activity. Go do it again, but maybe take it a little easier.

 

[skace]

Originally posted by: conorvansmack
Some people have suggested very light exercise of the same type with lower weights about 24 hours after the workout/activity that caused the soreness. That recommendation is for dealing with lactic acid buildup though, but I've had it work for me. If it's something you just started, it's just your muscles reacting to new activity. Go do it again, but maybe take it a little easier.

I can't find any information right this second on how long lactic acid stays around for but 24 hours sounds incredibly long. I recall reading a light aerobic exercise at the end of an otherwise anaerobic exercise can help lessen the effects but otherwise they diminish rather quickly on their own.

 

[conorvansmack]

Right, I'm not totally sure about that since it was a personal trainer telling me that. I just remembered that a low-weight workout of the same time about a day later helped with soreness.

 

[gramboh]

These classes are pretty common, at least here in Canada. The soreness is probably from the bicep work, I know the first time I curled after not doing any weights for years I couldn't extend my arms fully either for about 48 hours.

I'd say the workout is definitely more cardio focused, but you will gain some muscle tone from it and definitely burn fat. Personally I think there are better ways to get fit/toned but this is a nice structured way to do it, plus I find about 50% of the class is usually populated with gorgeous women which acts as a motivator to show up . As others have said, you do not get huge accidentally, it takes a ton of effort, focused weight lifting, combined with a good diet, can give you a nice toned body but you will not be huge overnight.