10/28/2004 Archived Entry: "That Wonderful Feeling"

The intense muscle soreness after a long workout, that I-Can't-Lift-This-Pencil feeling, is so good. That may sound a bit strange, but it's true. I'd call the feeling satisfaction, satisfaction of knowing you did a good job and your body's telling you so. The soreness usually kicks in around 15 hours after the workout and can last from 1-4 days, depending on how good the workout was. So that got me thinking. Picture this schedule: Monday, chest workout, the most satisfying of all since the soreness last 4 days; Tuesday, back, 3 days; Wednesday, Arms, 2 days; Thursday, Legs, 2 days. By Friday my entire body would be feeling like JELLO, man that would be awesome! It'd make Fridays an even better day.

Time for some biology! When you strain your muscles you create micro-tears in the tissue. Your muscles get bigger when these tears get repaired. It can take up to a week to completely "heal" these tears so you give yourself that much time between workouts.

Now imagine you're Wolverine, the fucker with the "healing factor". All you'd have to do is work out non-stop for a couple of days to constantly tear and heal muscle tissue to become a walking mass of muscle. That'd be pretty cool.

Replies: 24 comments

You LIKE to fell like JELLO? Odd. Very odd! At least you're not shooting up with tranquilizers.

Posted by dAN @ 10/28/2004 01:27 PM EST

It's been a while since I've lifted weights, but I have to say, I agree with Rayne. That "Oh My God, I can't stand" feeling is awesome. Kinda makes me miss swimming.

Posted by Ian @ 10/28/2004 08:01 PM EST

You feel sore after swimming??? You peeps are getting old...:P!

Posted by dAN @ 10/29/2004 09:39 AM EST

*giggles*

he said peeps.

*giggles*

i don't get the wanting to feel like jell-o feeling. it just doesn't satisfy me. is it somewhat akin to the waking up in the morning and feeling well rested feeling? b/c i love that one.

Posted by melpie @ 10/29/2004 10:47 AM EST

No, I used to swim competitively, and part of my training was ~3 hours per week of weight lifting. Although, given that it was training, it was fairly frequent that I'd be sore after just swimming, too.

Posted by Ian @ 10/29/2004 08:09 PM EST

after watching the summer olympics, i must say that swimming is an excellent sport for men to partake in. you should reconsider it, ian.

Posted by melpie @ 11/01/2004 01:50 PM EST

You know Mel, if your post was made by a guy, it would be declared sexist on the spot. I'd have my head chopped off if I made that comment...:P!

Posted by dAN @ 11/01/2004 04:33 PM EST

Women swimmers on the other hand...they've lost all their "fat". They should stick to horse riding or something.

Posted by Rayne @ 11/01/2004 05:09 PM EST

Women swimmers develop large shoulder muscles, which makes 'em look more like men, which'd be why they look less appealing.

Posted by Arshwana @ 11/01/2004 08:48 PM EST

dan, that's the good thing about being a girl - you get to take advantage of all those double standards.

but i stand by my original statement - gotta love the male swimmer body (and a lot of my friends agree)

i'm trying to be equal now and think of a sport that produces a good female body ... but i can't think of one right off the top of my head .... maybe tennis? except only to a point ... b/c some of those girls still get rather bulked up

Posted by melpie @ 11/02/2004 09:46 AM EST

Baking! but not eating the baked goods...thats for the guys to do.

Posted by Rayne @ 11/02/2004 10:08 PM EST

Melpie, thanks for the, uh, encouragement, but ten years of waking up too early has done me in. I swim occasionally now, but I've come to terms with my love handles, and I won't be getting up at 4:30 AM, three times a week, just to get rid of them.

As for the whole, sexist double standards thing, you can get used to appreciating the body of a woman who could easily beat you up. Some female athletes are too bulky to be sexy (in my mind), but there are plenty of high-performance, female athletes that have thick pipes _and_ nice curves (nevermind a butt you could crack a walnut on). I had several crushes on swimmers while I was still competing. The one downfall of most athletes I've ever met (including myself) is that the constant praise seems to get to them, and the ego gets inflated.

Ian

Posted by Ian @ 11/03/2004 12:10 AM EST

so once you're no longer competing ... does your ego deflate?

Posted by melpie @ 11/03/2004 04:44 PM EST

It's more that I found a girlfriend-turned-fiancee that has been giving me "corrective training" ever since we started dating. Judging its efficacy is up to people who know me.

Ian

Posted by Ian @ 11/04/2004 01:08 AM EST

He's still got that CS-ego =P

Posted by Rayne @ 11/04/2004 11:41 AM EST

you get an ego being in cs? how does being blanket-labelled as a geek and stereotyped as one who does not wash and therefore is smelly give you an ego? or are those in cs ambivalent to those stereotypes?

Posted by melpie @ 11/04/2004 03:03 PM EST

We're smarter and richer!

Posted by Rayne @ 11/04/2004 03:50 PM EST

only smarter and richer if you can find a job in an unstable market. if only it were the year 2000 again, that would certainly inflate some CS egos.

Posted by Mike @ 11/04/2004 10:38 PM EST

so rayne, if you're richer ... will you be my sugar daddy? i'm still looking for one.

Posted by melpie @ 11/05/2004 04:09 PM EST

Only if there are "benefits" to being your sugar daddy =P

Posted by Rayne @ 11/06/2004 12:34 AM EST

LOL!

Posted by dAN @ 11/08/2004 01:02 AM EST

of course there are benefits (read benefits as: presents for melpie)

the benefits for you are on a sliding scale ... you better hope you pick out good presents!

Posted by melpie @ 11/08/2004 10:53 AM EST

There's no reason for me to engage in this relationship aside from some modicum of satisfaction of knowing you're happy, but that's worthless to me.

Posted by Rayne @ 11/08/2004 11:25 AM EST

i resent being in cs a lot of the time. sure, i have a good job and potential future employment after university. but being in cs has certain conotations, namely the ones melpie mentioned, which i dislike.

because of this i never make an effort to get to know cs people from class. i only know some through other things, and then found out they were in cs later.

lastly: soccer chicks. that's where it's at in terms of a good female body. damn.

Posted by shawnathan @ 11/12/2004 05:39 PM EST