[butterfly71]

Hi all, just really looking for some advice.. Currently I am trying to do cardio and weight training 3 times each per week.. However this week I did a really hard weight training on Monday leaving my legs really sore.. Today they were still sore, so I skipped on my weights today because I did not want to tear anything.. In this case.. when is it safe to exercise and weight train with sore muscles and when is it not.. Any advice is helpful.. thanks

[Mini-Me]

If they're REALLY sore, rest a day. If the 'pain' is tolerable, just do something light.

A hot bath with Epsom Salts can sometimes stave off DOMS.

[BlueToBlue]

Ibuprofen can also be really helpful.

[WindyCityChick]

The health feature on the news this week announced that caffeine is actually more effective than ibuprofen in reducing soreness after a workout. So try a cup of coffee perhaps!

[thintowin]

If you are extremely sore, wait a day. But if you stretch before lifting, it will really help the pain. Also, when you begin lifting again your muscles will get warmed up and not hurt so much.

But keep it light if you're still sore- you don't want to injure anything.

[nelie]

Are you doing a whole body workout every time? You might want to look at splitting it up into something such as lower body and upper body. I like to give my muscles a 3 to 4 day rest between workouts of the same muscle group.

[AmberD]

If your legs are sore, trying going for a brisk walk or a lite jog. Just something slow that will warm your muscles up a little and stretch them out.

[SaskNewfie]

As most have said, do a lighter routine while sore. Make sure you stretch before and after your workout. Just a point, from personal experience "working out" the soreness helps. If you legs are sore, you should find a light jog or walk will actually help...at least that works for me.

[Depalma]

As long as we are talking soreness and not pain, I would try to go through with the workout as scheduled. I would do my normal warmup of some type of cardio for 5-10 minutes. If I'm really sore, I might extend the warmup a bit. If after the warmup and after doing a light warmup set or two, the soreness is still at a point that you are worried about injuring yourself, then you can abort or modify the workout.

While there are conflicting studies, stretching after a training session has been said to reduce DOMS somewhat. At the very least it will help with your flexibility so I would recommend post-training stretching.

Stretching an already sore muscle however will not make the soreness go away. Also if you are going to stretch prior to training, make sure you warmup first. Stretching is not a warmup and stretching a cold muscle could cause injury, the very thing most people feel they are avoiding by pre-training stretching.

[butterfly71]

Thanks to all, i actually do warm up and do stretch in between sets in need be, and after my workouts.. I will try out a lighter workout... to see if that helps . Thanks again