Soreness and exercise/weight gain
 

So two problems basically.

1. After jogging every day for a week, I rested over the weekend to give my legs a chance to feel a bit better, because I was starting to have a really rough time due to soreness/weak feeling. After two days of just walking/activeish messing around with friends, they are absolutely not better. Can I just go ahead and keep running every day and my muscles will eventually catch up, or will I get weaker over time?

2. I went off plan for the weekend, but not in an extreme way. I would estimate I ate about 2000 calories per day, which is probably a bit more than I should be eating without exercise but should not lead to . . . a weight gain of FIVE POUNDS. Could this be caused somehow by sore muscle water retention stuff? What is going on????

Thanks for your help!

It is most likely from your sore muscles! I had a similar thing happen last weekend after 17 miles of hiking and a huuuge weight gain. Most things I read said you retain fluids while your body is repairing your muscles. Took me about a week to lose all the extra fluid weight, and two days for my legs to feel better (but that was only after a weekend of hiking, not five days of running!)

I would not do any strenuous exercise until the soreness goes away, but DO keep moving. Walking and other moderate exercise should be fine. Stretching is good, but not static stretches without warming up first as that could make it worse in my experience. You may even want to consider icing and massaging your legs since they've been sore for so long.

Also, this is just from personal experience and some online research so take that with a grain of salt.

DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) is caused by tiny microtears to the muscle from eccentric contraction (lengthening contraction). If you have limited range of motion from the pain, it is not wise to exercise again. Remember, tearing the muscle down is not the important part-rebuilding it is. In order to do that, you have to rest. So the most you should be doing is gentle walking in the case of extreme soreness, especially if you tried to exercise and noticed weakness. Walking helps to increase blood flow and therefore, increase healing due to nutrients in and increased circulation of metabolic waste out to rebuild. I know it is terrible to wait, but if you aren't making gains in your exercise because you aren't getting stronger from the rest period, you aren't doing anything anyway. Take care of those sore muscles, and they will eventually not get as sore as they adapt. Happy exercising (and resting).

Thanks for your help! I did as you suggested, and my legs are 100% back to normal. Hopefully my re-introduction to running tonight goes better than ever!