Ok - so, last week I went to the gym all gung-ho and f-ed myself up - mostly my thighs. My hamstrings are tight and sore but not to bad, BUT my quads are SO SORE that when I get up in the morning I have a VERY hard time walking, my legs shake and my knees tend to lock up. When I go to the potty or sit down in the car I don't sit down - I fall down.
I have been taking lots of pain reliever and eating bananas and drinking water and applying heat and streching them out. This is the thing, should I take a work-out break, if so how long, any alternate exercise suggestions (other than swimming)??
Please help, I need to loose weight and I am afraid that if I stop working out even for a little while I won't start up again for awhile.

I had something similar happen, if not to the same extent. I have a problem with my knees, particularily the left one, where I don't have enough cartilige and my kneecap doesn't track right or something. Not bad, but it does pop, click, and hurt from time to time. When I started doing cardio and lifting, my knee got worse. The pain was bearable, but it sure wasn't getting any better. Steadily, it got worse.

Like you, I was nervous about stopping. But I was nervous about doing a potential serious injury to myself as well. I believe that pain is a serious message from our bodies. Being sore after a good workout is one thing. But serious pain? I decided to listen to my body, and took a two week break. It didn't bust my diet, my knee improved, and after the pain subsided I got back to my workouts (carefully!).

I believe that if workouts cause you enough pain, you'll stop them, whether you want to or not. Stopping in a controlled manner, before you do serious harm, seems most logical to me.

If you are worried about starting back up again, set a definate date for yourself for when you do restart. For me two weeks was fine, but I don't know how long you should wait because I don't know how much pain you are in (and can't know). When you do start up, take it slower! I did, and now I'm doing longer workouts and lifting more than when I first started injuring my knee.

I hope this helps some. Good luck to you!

Hi BrunetteChic_2000 I love your AV, you are a very pretty girl!!

Here are my suggestions:

1. Make sure you stretch consistently after each workout...
2. Don't stop working out, sometimes the same exercise that made you sore in the first place will help, but do it at a lower intensity...
3. Exercise will help circulate the blood to the sore area...
4. Get a massage...
5. Take some ibuprofen...
6. Ice it...
7. Take some Glutamine right after the workout it will help with the soreness ...

HTH...

Exactly what Ilene already said