on DOMS cessation... page

[jakey]

in light of mark's fitness themed monday post, i got to thinking about a pattern i've noticed, and a question it raises. here's a recent example:

my triceps were burning with DOMS recently. on fire, two days after doing some military presses and sets of lying trycep extensions. that was on a thursday. well, on sunday, i hit the gym for some squats and RDLs, and low and behold, this morning - while i have some seriously sore legs and an ass that feels damn tired - my tris feel completely fine.

what happened here? why did the DOMS disappear? did some sort of growth hormone release from the squats heal up the triceps (that sounds awfully bro-sciencey...)? thoughts?

[not on the rug]

3 days had passed. i'm rarely sore for more than 2-3 days after a workout. unless i utterly destroyed myself, above and beyond the typical destruction. for example. i had a badass "push" workout last monday, and i would say that i was still sore on saturday night. not so much yesterday though. so 5 days of solid soreness for that workout.

[Knifegill]

Maybe you got a lot of magnesium in your food without realizing it.

[jakey]

3 days had passed. i'm rarely sore for more than 2-3 days after a workout. unless i utterly destroyed myself, above and beyond the typical destruction. for example. i had a badass "push" workout last monday, and i would say that i was still sore on saturday night. not so much yesterday though. so 5 days of solid soreness for that workout.

if it wasn't a pattern i've had repeated - new exercise cancels out DOMS from old exercise, i wouldn't be so darned perplexed.

Maybe you got a lot of magnesium in your food without realizing it.

hey, you never know. it's the only thing i supplement... i did eat a bunch of liver after the squat workout, too.

[primalrob]

in light of mark's fitness themed monday post, i got to thinking about a pattern i've noticed, and a question it raises. here's a recent example:

my triceps were burning with DOMS recently. on fire, two days after doing some military presses and sets of lying trycep extensions. that was on a thursday. well, on sunday, i hit the gym for some squats and RDLs, and low and behold, this morning - while i have some seriously sore legs and an ass that feels damn tired - my tris feel completely fine.

what happened here? why did the DOMS disappear? did some sort of growth hormone release from the squats heal up the triceps (that sounds awfully bro-sciencey...)? thoughts?

this is complete speculation, but i wonder if your body just took the focus of your arms and put it on your legs in their more immediate need. DOMS comes from the repair of muscle fibers, which would require a good amount of blood flow to that area. could it be possible (and here comes the speculation) that when you worked your legs your body saw that as the place that needs more repair, and just stopped or slowed the repair of your triceps?

[jakey]

this is complete speculation, but i wonder if your body just took the focus of your arms and put it on your legs in their more immediate need. DOMS comes from the repair of muscle fibers, which would require a good amount of blood flow to that area. could it be possible (and here comes the speculation) that when you worked your legs your body saw that as the place that needs more repair, and just stopped or slowed the repair of your triceps?

see that's what scares me... did i just stop my body's recovery process (vis a vis the triceps and whatever else got hit that day), and essentially give it the cues to refocus elsewhere? doug mcguff is persuasive about recovery time issues, and after reading his stuff, i do only lift twice a week. i know he advocates an even longer recovery period. i dunno, i feel like your body can't just 'give up' on repairing cellular damage, but stuff like this make me wonder if you should always wait until there's no sign of DOMS anywhere before hitting the gym again, or if that's complete overkill. same ole debate.

[NicMcCool]

I'm kinda with primalrob on this one. Again, pure speculation, but I don't think the body completely stops the recovery process, I think it just slows it down to the least necessary parts of the body.
For example, say I do some wicked bro curls, and the next day my bi's are on fire. Day two I do supes heavy squats and all of a sudden my bi's feel perfectly fine but my glutes are all swollen and emo. The thing that happens to me is if I have a good recovery on day three (shit-tons of food and water) then I'll actually feel my bi's come back around to being sore just like my legs.

[primalrob]

my glutes are all swollen and emo.

i laugh out louded at that. hilarious. and speaking of DOMS...my abs are sore, so it hurt.

[pklopp]

this is complete speculation, but i wonder if your body just took the focus of your arms and put it on your legs in their more immediate need. DOMS comes from the repair of muscle fibers, which would require a good amount of blood flow to that area. could it be possible (and here comes the speculation) that when you worked your legs your body saw that as the place that needs more repair, and just stopped or slowed the repair of your triceps?

I would speculate that it is all due to increased systemic circulation. Nothing gets the blood flowing quite like a good leg workout. Think of the most massive muscles in your body contracting and squeezing blood through the blood vessels. That blood has to go somewhere and most therapies intended to address DOMS involve improving circulation to the affected areas. I would be curious to hear if you experience the same effect from doing isolation exercises with small muscle groups ( i.e. bicep curls helping with calf DOMS ) I would bet that you don't see it due to the small muscle group not having much of an effect on systemic circulation.

-PK

[TorMag]

i laugh out louded at that. hilarious. and speaking of DOMS...my abs are sore, so it hurt.

I was really lucky there was no liquid in my mouth when I read that... just finished my whey....