ISO way to loosen tight/sore muscles after lifting

wrote in message

> Hi,
> Ive been lifting since college, I'm getting close to 40 now and
> stronger than ever, but after lifting on the weekend my upper back,
> shoulders, back of neck tighten up the day after and stay that way
> most of the week. I've actually been taking muscle relaxers to loosen
> up and I don't want to do that long term. Ive noticed it more in the
> last 6 months, and granted Ive been doing heavy weight. Does this
> sound like it related to the weight or getting older? Does anyone have
> a strategy to deal with it, more pre or post stretching? Supplements?
> More warmup? Thx

The first thing to ask is whether you've been cycling your lifting. If
you haven't been, consider a three weeks on, one week off/easy/variety
approach. This does wonders, and taking muscle relaxers is definitely
not what you should be doing.

A seasonal approach can help as well, e.g., do less lifting and more
outdoor hiking and biking when the weather allows - it's another cyclic
approach, just on a larger scale.

I recommend you read up on topics like range of motion and joint health.
My choice for this is a book whose routines I followed literally every
day entitled "Super Joints" - a link is here but the book is also widely
available at bookstores, amazon.com, and the like.
http://www.kbnj.com/sj.htm Stretching is an often misunderstood topic.
Super Joints, plus another book by the same author, "Relax Into Stretch"
will put you on the right path. Link to RIS -
http://www.kbnj.com/ris.htm I literally could not touch my ankles, let
alone my toes, and although I only started working on all this at about
age 45, I can now do splits (pictures of which you can find on my web
site, link below).

The older we get, the more important this sort of thing becomes, so good
for you for thinking about it now.

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com
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