Friday, March 14, 2014

Bootcamp DOMS - It's gotta be good for you...

This morning we bootcamp crew made Rich, our trainer, a very happy guy.

As we started to congregate at this morning's session in Bradfield Park, just before 6.00am, there was a common theme coming through the conversation.

DOMS (or Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) was the cause of everyone's complaints this early Friday morning.

And I, fresh from Ironman New Zealand, was suffering like everyone else.

Wednesday had been my first day back to bootcamp.  I was glad to be returning to the fold after 5 weeks away but was also under strict instructions from Coach Dave to temper my activity.  I'm still in recovery mode and so had to make sure I eased my way back rather than go gangbusters.

And so I did.

We did a whole stack of backwards running up stairs, running backwards up hills, lunges and squats.  About halfway through my injured knee started twinging  a little so I stopped with the deep knee work and moved onto cobras, tricep dips and push ups while everyone else did backward step ups.

All good and everyone was happy ... until Wednesday night when virtually every muscle in my body started seizing up.  By Thursday morning I was walking around like an old woman and feeling very achy and sore.  And more than once I was thinking to myself that I wasn't this sore after ironman this year.  

What the?!

I certainly didn't think I had gone hard out but could only imagine that my 5 weeks away from Bootcamp was punishing me big time.  This morning, and due for another hell session, I seriously questioned whether I'd get through it and quietly tossed up whether I should be going.  But I decided to suck it up, and glad I did.

Because as I was standing in the plaza with my fellow bootcampers it soon became clear that my 5 weeks away wasn't the problem.  Instead Rich had managed to come up with a cunning routine that had challenged muscles that we hadn't activated for a while. And that's a good thing.

And so while we were all suffering, he was a very happy trainer.

Oh, and apparently it proves that 50 minutes of bootcamp is tougher than 13 hours of ironman....  In which case I'm looking forward to seeing them all on the start line of ironman next year!

Pass me a walking frame.

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