Using a foam roller and lacrosse ball helps to work out the soreness. I use them when I'm watching TV, etc. Really helps with the sore muscles. Best of luck.

Fish oil. Water. Water. Water.

So I realize I'm relatively new here and I apologize if I missed this, but why the hell didn't anyone care to ask her about her protein intake?

Performance is 20% exercise 80% nutrition.

You can eat as many carbohydrates and pop as many fish oil pills as you want, but if you're not replenishing your body with its most basic building blocks then you'll be wasting your time. So I'm going to ask the question.

What's your typical protein intake like in a day? Is it a few eggs in the morning, only a piece of chicken or meat for lunch and dinner? How much protein do you eat per day, and more specifically post-workout.

WARNING. Completely anecdotal recommendation to follow:

The only way I can hope to do intense CrossFit workouts consistently is if I follow my workout with an immediate jump into a cold pool / cold shower and a large post-workout meal containing a fair amount of carbohydrate and sodium (homemade french fries, anyone?). Several hours after my ice bath dunk and feeding, I do a fair bit of mobility work and stretching to keep everything loose and resilient.

Best of luck, I hope someone has a more clinical response for you,
-Ian

How sore are you? Sometimes you just have to go and work through the soreness. If you're always waiting until you're fully recovered, you're not going to be adapting to the work. Try going every-other day for a couple of week and see how it goes. Or I like to do 3-on,1-off,2-on,1-off. I schedule my rest days on Thursday and Sunday. Those are the only days I skip, if I'm feeling crappy or sore on a non-rest day, I still go, but may have to dial it back a little. Just be smart and don't injure yourself, but just play around with different schedules and see how you react to them.

Cold therapy. It's magic. Sit in a tub of ice water. I do it whenever I do workouts like squats, deadlifts or kettlebell work for reps. I'll literally just sit with legs and part of torso in the water and it really reduces soreness.

The crushing soreness starts to fade after about 2-3 weeks in my experience. Unless you are really, really sore and borderline injured, you can probably go back and work out if you pay extra attention to stretching and warming up. If you think you are really injured though, you need to abstain.

For recovery, I find that a generally anti-inflammatory diet helps, plus ice packs at night within 24 hrs of the workout. Magnesium citrate seems to help me recover too.

Fish oil, antioxidants / polyphenols, both are anti-inflammatory.

i know it is hellishly expensive, but I've tried lots of different fish oils and Sears Zone liquid fish oil does it for me.

Lots of high anti-oxidant fruit (like berries) and vegetables also help.

The most reliable ways to produce muscle soreness (DOMS) are eccentric exercise and varying your workout.

Training intensely twice a week and doing different exercises each session, there's probably no way to avoid muscle soreness without some heroic measures.

If you want to avoid soreness, pick a few compound movements and stick with them. After a few sessions, muscle pain will be minimized or eliminated.

I know exactly what you're going through. I would go on Monday and be totally dead until Friday. I started taking fish oil + a post-WOD protein shake and have really noticed a difference in my recovery period. Now I can go Mon, Wed, Friday no problem. Last night's WOD was insane and I thought I'd be wrecked for the weekend but NO, feeling awesome and strong.

To be honest, go when you're sore. There is a difference between soreness and pain. Soreness is fine, work through it, it goes away after you train through it for a while. Pain is not okay. Pain is distinctly different than soreness. Soreness may "hurt" in a sense, but pain is, I set my foot down with no weight and want to die, raise my arm and something pops in my shoulder socket, etc. Work through the soreness, two weeks and you will notice a decrease in soreness. Otherwise: Swedish Shower, Mobility WOD, Massages, 8+ Hours of sleep, proper nutrition.

So, start going more than twice a week. There is a reason CrossFit programs to work for 3 days, off 1. If you must, lower the weights a bit, or volume of your workout 10-20% less than normal, and try and go 4 times a week, two days in a row, with a day in between, and then start 3days on, 1day off.

Push yourself. You're only as fortified as your training makes you.

You can do a starting strength type workout 5x5 for a month or two before doing crossfit. And keep doing it while doing crossfit, since the 5x5 workout will do 100x more for you and allow you to do better at crossfit, not the other way around.. and you could get a massage, by a certified massage therapist, Id do it, but Im in Tallahassee.

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