I LOVE working out and I consider myself to be at a pretty advanced fitness level. Lately I've been increasing the intensity of my workouts and also lifting heavier weights. I am following a program to fatigue by 8 reps, so I'm lifting pretty heavy. I lifted on Friday and then did an intense cardio workout on Saturday, which ended up having some squats and push ups (didn't know in advance, otherwise I would have done something else). So yesterday was supposed to be another lifting day (different muscle groups than Friday) but I was SOOO sore that I took it as a rest day. Now I'd like to make up my weight routine today but I'm still pretty sore. Is it normal to be sore for this long? It's not painful to the touch and I definitely didn't injure myself. I can tell it's just from the tougher workouts. Should I be taking another rest day today? I HATE skipping workouts!! But I don't want to do more harm than good.
What type of rotation are you doing? Are you doing a full body weight routine every other day? If you are lifting heavy, I'd recommend looking into partial body rotations so that you are lifting every 3-4 days. When I was lifting heavy at the gym, I'd work one set of muscles once per week and did a 4 or 5 day split.
I'm doing a split routine 3 days a week, usually Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. I think what got me this time was a combination of lifting heavier and the intense cardio. I didn't expect to do so many squats and pushups. I didn't use weights for the squats but we did about a billion of them (give or take a few).
Tuesday, Friday and Sunday - are you doing the same routine/same muscles? Usually a split (such as a 3 day split) would mean that you are working separate muscles each of the 3 days. If you are using the same muscles such as in a full body routine, I'd definitely recommend at least looking at an upper/lower body split routine.
I can also see using a lot of pushups/squats in cardio throwing off your routine. I decided to do some major kettlebell work the other day (which means tons of squats) and that threw me off.
Should I exercise sore muscles?
