Home Leg Workout + Tips for Soreness

Hello everyone!  One of the difficulties of being busy is finding the time to exercise.  On a good day, I will wake up early (4 a.m. early) and go to the gym for a full strength training workout that lasts about an hour.  Other days, not so much.  Some days there’s no way to get out of the house.  If this sounds familiar to you, you will like the video I’m about to attach.

Yesterday’s task for the I’m Too Busy to Take Care of Myself Challenge was:

#18 – Do 25 squats.  Do a full leg/booty workout if you can make the time.

One of the blogs I follow, www.bethefittest.co.uk saw my #toobusychallenge and sent me their leg workout that can be done at home.  I did it at my computer before writing this blog (I pushed away the chair from the desk, of course).  I was sweating after round 1, it was really easy to follow and required no weights.  Check it out:

Now that the leg workout is done, let’s deal with Challenge #19:

Tips for Soothing Soreness

As a fitness enthusiast, I’m no stranger to soreness.  I’ve run marathons, crawled through mud pits, and did splits on a spinning pole while training for a pole dance fitness competition.  (OK – I never did a full split, but I got really, really close.)  Here are some things I have used to combat soreness.  (Disclaimer – I’m not a doctor and don’t play one on the internet, so just because these things are right for me doesn’t mean they’re right for everyone.  Always check in with your medical professional.)

  1. Ice it.  If you worked out your muscles really hard, try wrapping an ice pack in a cloth and holding it on the sore muscle for 20 minutes, take off for 20 minutes, and then repeat for about 2 hours.
  2. Take an Epsom salt bathEpsom saltTo soothe muscle soreness, add 1-2 cups of the salt to a full bath with warm (not hot) water, and soak for at least 12 minutes…Unless you’re diabetic, have high blood pressure or heart problems; then you need to talk to a doctor first.  (Source: Discovery Health).  Apparently if too much magnesium is absorbed through the skin it can unbalance  blood sugar levels.
  3. IcyHot.  This is a heat rub that comes in various forms (I use the cream) that stimulates the nerve receptors to relieve minor aches and pains.  Just don’t put on too much or it will feel like fire (trust me on this one.)
  4. Supplements.   BCAAL-Glutamine is a supplement you can get at most vitamin stores, as well as online.  This is an amino acid, essential to muscle growth and helps reduce the rate of muscle breakdown.  BCAA is another supplement I use all the time.  It stands for Branched Chain Amino Acid.  Amino acids are the building blocks of protein.  This helps your body recover faster from the muscle tears that occur when you lift weights.
  5. Get rid of lactic acid build-up.  Muscle cramps anyone?  When I was training for my first marathon I used to wake up in the middle of the night with a charley horse in my leg and it felt horrible.  Know what helped?  Eating 1/2 banana and drinking water.  The banana restored my depleted potassium and the water helped to flush out the lactic acid.  The common rule is to drink at least 8 glasses of water per day, and more if you are exercising.  If you are sweating a lot (like doing a mud run on a hot day) it’s a good idea to also drink something like Gatorade to keep your electrolytes balanced.
  6. Foam Roll.
    Self myofascial release
    Self myofascial release

    A foam roller is a hard cylinder made out of foam that you roll up and down.  The fancy terminology for using this tube is called self myofascial release.  It essentially helps you use your own bodyweight to get the knots out of your muscles.  The trick is you have to find the most sensitive spot on your muscle and press your bodyweight against the foam roller and that point, holding for at least 30 seconds.  It hurts like hell, but gets the knot out.

  7. Stretch after your muscles are warm.  Pilates and yoga stretches can be very helpful, but here’s a tip I learned from my pole dance teacher:  before you do any stretching, get yourself really warm by doing some cardio for about 10 minutes first.  The warmer your muscles are the more flexible they become and the easier it is to stretch.

Hope that helps!  How about you?  Did you do your leg workout?  Tomorrow’s challenge?  Go to bed before 10 p.m.  (That will be a HUGE challenge for little miss insomniac here!)

 

One thought on “Home Leg Workout + Tips for Soreness

  1. You are actually finding out some things that would also be helpful to your mom….I realize you may think that it applies to those athletic people who have these issues commonly present resulting from muscle overwork….Yes…True…. I just cannot wait to see the expression on your face when you see just what electronic wonderous contraptions foreigners have devised to remedy all manner of physical problems. That day may come quicker than you know. I’ll be ready to take your expression for posterity Oh….And your insomnia……that to will disappear…..just like that !

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