I've been studying Taekwondo for a couple of years now - typically going 3 nights a week for roughly 1 to 1.5 hours each night.  Recently I've started to ramp up my effort and trying to go more often and to stay longer.  Ideally, I would like to go 4 nights a week for about 1.5 hours a night and then get in an extra practice session on the weekend for an hour.

I've tried doing this for a couple of weeks and am having major problems with severe muscle soreness and headaches.  Last night I started to experience distored vision in class and then had a killer headache all last night and then most of today.  (I'm seeing a doctor on Monday about the distorted vision.)

I'm 38 years old, in pretty good shape, but about 20 pounds over my ideal weight.  I eat a pretty balanced diet and get about 7 hours a sleep a night.  I drink a lot of water during the day, but not during class (we get about one water break per 45 minutes in class).  I don't drink alcohol often - perhaps one beer a week.   I always warm up with some light combinations or forms practice and stretch at the end of class.  I've tried soaking in a hot bath after class and that seems to help with the muscle soreness some.

Is there anything else I can do to reduce the amount of time my body appears to need between workouts?

Cytomax works for me - helps to buffer the lactic acid.

Try an energy bar with potassium.

Both work very well for me.

Ask your doctor about these ideas.

How much water? Be aware that over training is a very under recognized cause of sports injury. Most Elite athletes are cross training and not doing five hours of straight M.A. workouts. Next Question were you sparing any time that night? Maybe a hard shot to the upper body? Seen guys get a kind of whiplash from head shots and body blows, not like a concussion but like a half hour later they get a banging head ach. .

Guys, I saw my doctor today and she said that the vision problems I was having were the first signs of a migraine headache.     She also suggested I try to drink even more water and take 600 mg of ibuprofen before each workout.

I'm going to try that and the extra vitamins and see how it goes.

Thanks for all the input!

Hope you feel better soon.

PROTEIN,PROTEIN, PROTEIN...1 gram per pound of body weight each day taken through out the day and especially before bed.

Protein is what feeds the muscle...the soreness your feeing is due to microscopic tears in the muscle tissue you incure when you exert youself, persistant muscle soreness means that your muscles are starving...feed them...because if you don't, they will begin to feed off of existing tissue...and that sucks.



I'm not real smart but I can lift heavy things.

PROTEIN,PROTEIN, PROTEIN

I can vouch for this!

I have been on a strenuous program for several months and started a thread here bitching about my aching muscles. The guys here reccomended PROTEIN,PROTEIN, PROTEIN and yep it worked!

I'm 39 and with the advice I've gotten here I'm NEARLY half way to my goals.

The protien recommendations are good but carbs are important too. Your muscles store glycogen that gets used for energy during exercise. You need to injest carbs within 2 hours (preferably sooner than later) after exercise to maximize gylcogen replenishment. It's best to take a combination of protein and carbs, 1 gram of protein per Kilogram (2.2lbs) of body weight, and 3-4 grams of carbs per Kg of body weight. It also helps to have some carbs in your system while exercising to help stave off the glycogen loss. I mix up gatoraide with some 100% whey protein powder in the afore mentioned 1:4 ratio, and drink some while exercising and right after.

This is what was recommended to me by both an Olympic speed skater, and a National Team cyclist. It really workes for me.  I have tons of links to information on this too if you'd like.

go to the local supplement store and ask for some glutamine.

I take a meal replacement shake after I run. Its packed Protien and carbs helps in the rebuilding of muscle.