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This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in May of 2024. For the original video go to https://youtu.be/f1ce28na6Z8
Brad: All right, are you feeling like maybe you should start an exercise program, but maybe you're not going to because the last time you started an exercise program, the next day you woke up sore, you were painful and you said, "Forget it."
Mike: We're going to guide you through five steps to help prevent this pain and make your workouts more enjoyable.
Brad: That's right. I wanted to do this video as a result of a good friend of mine. He is 57 years old and he decided to start a program to get active, physical, and fit. While he went to a program that was in the morning before work, they worked him hard, he was happy about it. He said, "Boy, I really worked up a good sweat." And by the end of the week, he had plantar fascitis so bad, he stopped. He says, "This is not for me. I just cannot be active." This is the kind of thing that can happen. It happens very often, but it does not have to. We can help you out.
Mike: So, if this story resonates with you and maybe you are sore, or you don't want to be sore from starting a new workout program, we have five solutions for you. Some of them are to look at before you start working out and some of them are to help if you're already sore.
Brad: As Mike mentioned, we have five of them. They're all excellent options that you can do. We've worked with them with patients over the years, as well as ourselves. So, carry on and watch all of them. You'll see exactly what we mean. All right. By far, the number one problem is people overdo it. In other words, the old saying, "Too much, too soon." I cannot say it enough. Too much, too soon. People always do too much, because they want to burn those calories and get better, and then they get muscle soreness. So, Mike, how are we going to approach this?
Mike: You need to not do as much right away and slowly build up over time. Maybe you've experienced it yourself, you went out for a walk and you're feeling great. You did a whole mile. Maybe you weren't a walker before this. The next day you woke up, you couldn't even walk to the bathroom because your feet were so tired. You need to back off, initially. It may feel good in the moment, but the next day you have to kind of foresight the consequences. So, maybe if you've never walked before, do a quarter mile, then see how you feel the next day. If it went well, maybe the next day you do half a mile, or wait a day in between. You have to start slow and this pertains to anything, whether it's resistance training, lifting weights, walking, stretching programs, or any of this. Start with less than you want to because you will thank yourself later by not being sore.
Brad: So, if you've just started and you feel like the exercise you're doing is doing nothing, it's very, very easy, you're doing exactly the right thing. Do that for the first week. The second week. Then you can progress and by the time you're in a month, you're doing probably what you thought you should have been doing on the first day, but you have avoided the muscle soreness. Life is going well, so be patient. Okay, the next thing is a warmup. You need to get things moving a little bit, particularly if you're doing it in the morning. Do not get out of bed and get to your exercises. Walk around a bit. This is very true once you get over 50 years old, as you know. So, what we're going to do is show a simple warmup. It only takes a minute or so. Just follow along. You can spend more time on this if you want. We'll start. Mike is going to do it in a seated position if your exercises are done in a chair. If you're up moving, you'll want to stand up and do them as I'm doing. The first thing we do is ankle pumps, or just rock up and go down on your toes and heels.
Mike: So with me, I'm not having any resistance. I'm just lifting my legs. You could do these in a chair. I'm just sitting here for convenience reasons. It's just a nice way to warm up those ankles and joint muscles down there before you start exercising.
Brad: The next one is marching. Bring those knees up. Get those hips moving and those knee joints moving. Again, you spend 10 to 30 seconds doing these. It'll probably be adequate, particularly if you're doing something like walking.
Mike: If your hips are painful, just go to the range of motion that doesn't hurt for you. You don't want to make any pain worse.
Brad: You can add circles in there too.
Mike: The next one is trunk rotation. So, you're just going to turn side to side. Again, choose which range of motion works for you. If you can go all the way, go all the way. If it's painful, stop where it's painful.
Brad: That's right. Again, gentle rotation. Gentle exercises. None of these should create pain. And then arm circles.
Mike: You can do mini ones. You can do big ones. If you can't lift your arms high, it's okay to do them down low. You can also do swings. Just get those shoulder joints moving. We're kind of working from the feet up to the head if you've noticed.
Brad: And then we're going to do neck rotation. Right to left. And we should have mentioned this earlier, Mike, but make sure you're breathing. Take some deep breaths with all of these, so that you get those lungs expanded, and ready for work.
Brad: All right, and last, but not least. When you finish your exercise program, whatever it is, walking, biking, weightlifting, finish up with a cool down. You can do the same exercise program we just did. If you happen to be a runner or a jogger, then you should just walk for a while to cool down afterward. Which by the way, if you want to start running at this age, in your middle age or older and you never run before, or even if you did, make sure you start a run-walk program. Just don't go into running. You can beat up your body and joints if you get after that too aggressively. All right, the very next thing for number three is never exercise every day. When you first start, your body needs to recover after you exercise. Even though it's easy, we're not going too aggressive. A Monday, Wednesday, and Friday schedule is a good way to start. If it's really easy after the first week and there are zero sore muscles even the next week, you could bump it up, but you're not going to go five days a week for several weeks for sure. Increase the intensity and still go Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to start with. Mike, you have some input.
Mike: I would say that having that day off in between when you start, allows your muscles to recover and that's actually when your muscles repair and rebuild themselves, so that is optimal for taking days off in between. Now, if you want to start doing more days per week exercising like Brad recommended, you would possibly say you did resistance training on Monday, maybe on Tuesday go for a walk. You don't want to do the same exercise every day. You can alternate it.
Brad: And if you're not familiar with resistance training, that means either the bands or weights, anything like that. Even just squats are resistance training, to a degree. So, just so we're clear on that,
Mike: Yes, and you should slowly progress up, like Brad mentioned. Start with maybe every other day for the first two weeks and then progressively slowly add more days, being consistent. You don't want to do too much too soon. Be sore. That can lead to burning out and not wanting to work out.
Brad: Right. So, if it sounds like we're kicking the dead horse, we kind of are because it's an important point.
Mike: Tip number four, is for if you already worked out and you are sore because you did too much. So, this is more of a recovery tip here and that is massaging the sore muscle group. So, say your foot, your calf, your hamstrings are sore. What you can do is just kind of massage slowly, doing different strategies, circle techniques, different movement patterns, whatever feels good. There's no right or wrong. Just kind of massage the painful area. Get some blood flow there to help you recover and feel better quicker.
Brad: And then what you'll find when you're doing this like Mike said, we want to get the blood flow because fresh blood into these muscles is going to help recover and let the muscles heal and rebuild. But you may find a knot or a real tender spot in one spot. Let's say on my calf. So, when you find that you're going to massage that and it's going to be one of those things, don't get too aggressive. If it hurts, but it feels like it hurts so good, that's good. If you're in one spot for about 30 seconds and it starts to feel like it's going away or feels numb, that's a really good sign. That means you're getting that knot out of there. If it just starts to hurt more and more, it's not ready for it yet, don't continue to massage it. Now, there is another option with massage, because you will find that your fingers get sore and tired. If you happen to have a massage gun, we're going to show that in just a second. Okay, if you have a massage gun, the size of the gun and how aggressive it is, is something you want to take into consideration. I'm using the Q2 massage gun, it is a smaller gun. It reciprocates forward and back. I believe we have 10 millimeters of travel, which is a good amount for most people. We have the round head on here. There's an airhead where it's squishing soft on good guns. All of our guns have an airhead attachment. You'll want that, particularly at our age. You're going to get into that muscle and if you go straight into that muscle, it's very aggressive. With a round head on it, you turn the gun 90 degrees and it's not nearly as aggressive, but it's going to do a nice job. So, use your judgment, depending on how far you want to get in. Your massage gun will not wear out. It may run out of batteries after a while, but if you've got a full charge, you'll get several days with it. Mike, do you have any input?
Mike: So the massage guns aren't necessary, but they're a good option, especially if your hands are getting tired. You can do what we did before, just with your hands. It's going to work just as well, but this is a good option if you already have one, or you're interested in getting one, they do the work for you.
Brad: So, if you look, Mike is using the C2 massage gun, his is a bigger one. You're probably never going to need one bigger than that, for sure, unless you're really a strong muscular person. Again, the Q2 is the smaller ones, we've got a lot of good feedback with these. You can do these on the hamstrings, or quads, pretty much anywhere in your body except for your neck. You stay away from the neck and of course your head and face. It's to be understood.
Mike: Now, the third option is using a foam roller. You can use these on many different muscle groups. Obviously, if you're not very mobile and can't get down to the floor, this wouldn't be the option for you. But if you're able to, this is a good strategy and they're a lot cheaper than a massage gun to use.
Brad: Right. And Mike's showing his calf, working that calf muscle. Very common muscle that gets sore, and tight with exercise.
Mike: And with these foam rollers, you just go to the problem area, put some pressure on it. As you can see, I'm taking a lot of weight through my arms right now, to take the tension off of the muscle group being massaged. The more I put weight through the foam roller, the deeper it's going to dig.
Brad: You're doing good, Mike. You're doing good.
Mike: You can put overpressure, but this might be a little too excessive for some people.
Brad: One thing I want to mention about the foam rollers is the density of them. You'll see there'll be a soft, medium, or a hard one. You'll probably want a medium one. That's what I prefer. But if you want to get more aggressive, the black ones are harder. It's just the way they build them. There's more carbon in them to get them more hard. So, I really enjoy these. You can get up in that hip. That's one area that really, I think these stand out in, personally. You can get in to work that hip, that piriformis muscle, that gluteus maximus, all those muscles that surround the backside of the hip, in particular. So, you typically will spend three to five minutes. It should feel good. This is a nice thing. It's a feel-good thing. All these massage techniques, between the massage gun, and the hand massage, should feel good. It's good.
Mike: Just pick which one feels best for you and stick with that. You don't have to do all three types of massage.
Brad: That's right. That's a good point, although you may want to. I'm just kidding. All right, number five and the final tip is, again, maybe you have some soreness. You did overdo it even though against our advice. It's okay. There are some options. The number one is NSAIDs. That means ibuprofen, Tylenol, Advil, those types of things. Most people have an awareness of how to use those so they don't overdo them. Make sure you read the bottle, but go with that route. I stay away from that unless I'm really sore. The next thing I like to use is a cold pack. Make sure you have a cold pack that is soft when it comes out of the freezer. You can make your own cold pack. We have a video on how to make it with water and rubbing alcohol and two Ziploc bags. It's very easy and a very good option. The cold packs that you purchase if you want one, the nice thing about them is, that you can use them for cold or if you like heat. You can put these in the microwave and it says right on it, how long. I believe it's 30 seconds and it'll heat up and then you can use that for a hot pack. If you don't know whether to use a cold pack or a hot pack, it's simple. You try one and then you try the other and see how you respond best to it, while it's on there, as well as afterwards. Keep in mind, that everyone is going to feel good with a hot pack on a sore muscle. Not true with cold packs, initially. But after that first little chilliness, then it feels good. If that's the case, then it's going to be for you. I like cold packs, by far. Some people do like the hot packs.
Mike: You can use them for 15 to 20 minutes. After that, they don't have much effect, so it's best to take them off. Another option would be some type of topical cream, which is a pain relieving cream, that you can rub on the sore area. Now make sure just to put it on the sore area. Don't get it all over your body because it'll give you a menthol-tingling sensation. We have the Holy Cowabunga cream. Other brands are fine as well, but it's just something to help you give temporary relief to the sore muscles.
Brad: Right. When I use this type of thing, I put it on, typically before I go to bed, so I can get sleep easier because I have sore muscles keeping me awake. It allows me to sleep better and through the night and things are better in the morning. So, things are looking good for relief with these options. Mike, anything else? Did you get any other tricks up your sleeve?
Mike: I do not, but do you want to talk about your bonus tip?
Brad: Oh yeah, the big bonus tip. This works for me, for sure. If you're starting a routine, get another friend or a buddy who is also starting an exercise routine, and then maybe meet with them once a week and trade stories on how things are going. If they've watched the same video, you can trade information back and forth. If you overdid it and you have sore muscles and say, "Oh my goodness. Yeah, I know what you mean. I did that too." And it makes life a lot more fun. Always more fun with more than one person.
Mike: I would say if you can't find a friend that's dedicated, follow along. Fitness videos are very helpful as well. I've done those in the past and still do them periodically.
Brad: So in conclusion, get your exercise program going. You're going to have great benefits from it. I know I do and I'm sure can work for everyone. Remember, motion is lotion. In other words, that motion is going to help reduce pain, not create it, if you do it right.
Mike: Also, let us know down below in the comment section, which tips worked for you or what we maybe forgot because believe it or not, we do not know everything.
Brad: So, take care and be here. Thank you.
Mike: Thank you for watching.
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