Welcome to the Get Fit Guys quick and dirty tips to slim down and shape up.

Over on our Facebook page and also via email, several listeners and readers have asked how to know

whether they're actually working out hard enough. And this is actually a pretty important

question, especially since I

recently read in the newspaper that an entire team of high school football players in Oregon

wound up in the hospital after working out a bit too hard. But rather than scare you away from exercise

by telling you horror stories about football players, this episode will actually teach you how to know when

your body has had enough exercise to get results or when it needs more. So how sore should you

be after a workout? Well, as you learned in the episode how to build muscle, muscles tear when you

exercise and when given proper recovery, they bounce back stronger. If you do work out hard enough to actually get these results, the tearing causes a little soreness.

If you don't feel a little sore, then you probably didn't stimulate your muscles enough to get results.

But I said a little soreness. That's far different than being so sore that you can't move after workout.

If you can't lift a fork to your mouth, turn the steering wheel on your car, or do the dishes,

then you have gone too far.

As a matter of fact, the medical term for excessive muscle tearing is rabdomiolisus,

and that condition results in the release of muscle fiber contents called myoglobin into the bloodstream. That myoglobin results in kidney

damage, extreme fatigue, intense joint and muscle pain, and seizures. Often, as in the case of the

football players, I mentioned earlier, it requires surgery to relieve pressure from excess

inflammatory buildup around the muscles. So you don't want that type of soreness, but the best way to describe the little

soreness you should have is that you know it's there, but the pain isn't at the front of your

mind.

You won't feel like punching a friend in the face if they touch your sore muscles, and

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