Severe Leg Pain - Is this normal
 

Hi again everyone,

I recently posted my routine on here but I was informed that I was doing too many reps with not enough weight so I started squatting with as much weight as I could handle until failiure which was about 10 - 12 reps.
This was 3 days ago and my quads are so painful I cant walk properly and can hardly bend them at all.
If this is normal then thats fine or have I done myself an injury???
Many thanks...Tim

May be your quads are not get accustomed to such style of training. I have similar thing with my legs.
How many sets did you do?

It's just severe DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). It will pass. You didn't have to start with ALL YOU COULD HANDLE and you didn't need to go to failure. Next time leave a rep or two in the tank and just try to increase the next time by reps or weight.

And same question...how many sets did you do?

Just wondering, what did you eat after your workout ? Did you have a post shake at all ?

BTW, some GENTLE quad stretching and some light activity may help alleviate some of the pain and get back the range of motion.

You should consume carbohydrates right after heavy workout. Especially honey.

Hi again,

Its a bit embarrasing but I could only manage the two sets of 10 and didnt continue as I dont have a squat rack and towrds the end of the second set I was in danger of not being able to stand up from the squat so called it a day.
As for what did I eat afterwards..um nothing I didnt know I was meant to. I know I dont know wtf I am doing so just put up with me for now please.
Thanks..Tim

Tim, first admitting you do not have all the information is a good start especially since you will get a lot of help here. Second, when doing squats reduce the amount of weight to where you can complete all of your sets doing 10-15 reps leaving some in the tank like Eric recommended (extremely good advice).

You will recover from the DOMS, but what does your diet look like and supplementation (if any). Having this information will allow us to better guide you. Good luck to you.

:squat2:

Well you can look into pre and post workout nutrtion. I doubt very much that would have prevented soreness. No nutritional strategies have really been shown to consistently help. It's most probably a reaction to muscle damage. And you're not going to undo that with a carbohydrate or an antioxidant or whatever all though it will help with recovery and replenish gycogen, etc.

Another thing is you may not have warmed up properly. If you launch right into a heavyish squatting session with cold muscles then they will simply accumulate more damage and so you will be more sore.

The biggest thing is that you simply increased intensity a whole lot right off the bat without any time to get used to it. You should have picked a weight you could do easily for a couple sets and then built on that for a couple three weeks. That way you would acclimate to it and get much more out of it versus being disabled by such severe soreness that you can't workout.

This should make you realize how little you were actually doing before, though, despite all the reps.

In the future when you recieve initial advice you should probably go back and ask more specific questions based on that advice. For this you just kinda went in half-cocked without any guidelines. But it's not that big a deal...you'll be fine!

Widdoes was posting at the same time as me, btw.

It's important to have some protein and carbs right after a workout. 40g protein ( whey ) and 60g carbs ( maltodextrin ) is what I take. Unless your on a AD and cant have carbs :) THen have a good meal about 1.5hrs after.... Like Eric said , it may not prevent the soreness, but your muscles need the nutrients once they have been broken down.

BTW , if I go over two weeks (which I try not to do) without squatting anything ,then I will be sore when I do squat...