This is not necessarily a fitness question persay, but i figured this would be the community to ask. About 3 months ago i started a new job, a factory job, where i’m constantly pushing and lifting tonnes of weight daily. i’ve gotten used to it, i don’t feel nearly as sore as i did when i started, the only thing is how i feel when i wake up.
you see, when i first wake up the first thing i notice is how stiff i am, literally it feels as though each of my individual muscles has turned into cold rubber. And the cracks! every time i move now something or another pops or cracks in any given part of my body. Suffice to say none of this is painful, just… uncomfortable. It’s not like they gave me a “how to adapt your body to suddenly doing manual labor 101” pamphlet when i joined, so what exactly should i be doing different? Or is this just a normal phenomenom that i’m not used to?
I’ve found it to be the opposite; if I don’t move enough for long enough, I get stiff and sore and any existing injuries feel worse. I think it’s at least partly due to my job, as it requires sitting for longer than a human being should.
Having done manual labor before changing careers, my experience aligns with what others have already said: hydration and stretching are your friends. To add to that, I found supplementing with creatine and BCAAs to be helpful when I was a package handler. Creatine is ridiculously expensive now, but might be worth the price if it makes you feel better.
ETA: hydration matters not just during your shifts, but also before and after work. If you don’t do this already, try drinking a few glasses of water before bed and see if it makes a difference in how you feel in the mornings. I tried it for a few days and it made waking up less painful, so I try to make sure I’m well-hydrated before bed.
It means you need to eat more, especially the right proportions of protein and carbs. You’re probably eating the same as you did when you were sedentary, which means that your muscles don’t have the required nutrients to recover and heal. Eat more food today and I bet the soreness goes away within hours.
Hydrate, including electrolytes. Stretch. Eat proteins and green vegetables. Supplement magnesium, glucosamine and possibly arginine & glutamine. Wear high quality footwear.
https://youtu.be/sOuKeVuej9E
