Severe DOMS after Crossfit WODs page 3

[Xeno]

I haven't tried CF, but I have weight trained a good portion of my life. Your body is telling you there is something wrong. You shouldn't have soreness in a muscle group more than a day or so after you work it. Either you are overdoing it or your body is missing something to repair.

[Tom B-D]

One thing I didn't see mentioned (sorry if I missed it) was ensuring that you're getting adequate protein for muscle building and maintenance. I tracked my diet for a few weeks when I transitioned to Primal and was surprised that my protein intake was below what was recommended. Once I upped it, recovery was better. I've been doing You Are Your Own Gym, not CF, but there were some intense workouts (like learning one-legged squats and one-arm pushups) with several-day-long DOMS. The other thing that sbhikes touched on that was crucial for me was enough sleep. Which goes along with work stress--if I've got a hectic work schedule, I just don't work out as hard--can't do it all at full intensity! Good luck with it.

[TheFastCat]

Your nutrition is lacking.

Describe your diet.

What do you eat following your workout?

What (roughly) is your carb/fat/protein ratio?

How is your omega 3/6 ratio?

How is your sleep?

How is your water consumption?

How do you look, feel and perform outside of the muscle soreness window?

baseline supplements I advocate to athletes:

zinc, magnesium, iodine, vitamin D; consider BCAAs prior to working out. It seems like you could be catabolizing muscle if after 7 months you have these symptoms. Are you underfeeding yourself?

How often do you do crossfit? What's your box's programming like (link to their site)? (lots of metcons?) How are you programming your rest days?

[heatseeker]

+1 on the BCAAs; taking them before and during my workouts has made a big difference for me in both performance and recovery.

Also (god I hate to possibly start this shitstorm in this thread but it's valid), are you eating enough carbs? I do a big sweet potato post-heavy lifting session. I would be sore and tired as hell if I didn't.

[TheFastCat]

What heatseeker said; also I forgot to mention adding more potassium and iron. Sardines, and a banana + black strap molasses coconut milk lime juice smoothie after WODing will get you plenty of both.

[heatseeker]

Daaaamn, that sounds good, TheFastCat! I'm gonna do that as soon as I'm done with this no sugar/no fruit challenge we're currently on (it sucks, in case you were wondering).

[RobbyJ]

You are on point here. The idea that one must eat immediately after a workout is nonsense. It was propagated by the supplement industry to sell protein powders and the like. I bought into it (literally) for a long time. Not anymore. When you are done a hard workout, your body is in a state of WTF just happened. Kind of a state of shock and there are all sorts of chemical reactions going on, waste products being removed etc. You are not ready for food at this point. What I do now is simply wait until I'm hungry. Then I know that its time to start feeding the recovery.

I also train fasted almost all the time unless I'm forced to train later in the day for some reason. It doesn't affect my workout in any way whatsoever.

If that works for you guys, that's great. Look at it from the perspective of someone who doesn't eat for 7+ hours at a time in the day, and throws a high intensity workout in the middle.. then is sore with horrible DOMS after. There's a lot of things it could be (we don't know what her nutrition is like, after all), and not eating enough food could be one of the reasons. I usually listen to my body too & don't eat unless I'm hungry, but whatever this lady's doin' aint workin'!

[emerson]

it's just Rhabdo the Clown; work through it...

[sbhikes]

I get a lot of DOMS, too, and it matters little what or when I eat. I can't believe how sore I am just from the bench press the other day and I've been eating like a hero these last few days hoping to make progress on this problem.

[Heth]

Stretch!
I started trying to just do the Primal Essential movements for the lift heavy things component but found I had extreme DOMS after doing a heap of squats and push-ups. It seems I have solved the problem for myself though. I am now doing a structured weight workout that involves specific stretches (mainly static) to warm-up and cool-down. I don't get any major soreness anymore. I know static stretches are not a part of the PB fitness routine but they have really helped me.