Walking making legs sore but cycling doesn't. Puzzled!



JamesAA

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Aug 10, 2013
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I'm (almost) 40, and have been exercising most of my life. I play a lot of tennis and bike a lot. I also do squats once a weeks for high reps.

Just this week I began taking up walking, mainly as a way to take breaks from sitting at my PC. I'm talking REALLY short walks, i.e. 20-30 min which translates to just over 1 mile at my pace. And my legs are KILLING me after. I can bike up hills, or go pretty hard for 45-60 min (on the bike), do stairs for 20-30 min, do HIIT with sprints, jog 2-4 miles, etc, and I feel nothing in my legs. But a 20 min leisurely walk is what's making them ache??? You gotta be friggin kidding! I'm utterly puzzled.

Could this just be a classic case of getting sore after doing something different/new to the muscle? I mean it seems totally unlikely as it seems like a similar enough motion to pedaling on a bike or certainly sprinting or jogging (which I also do). But I don't know I'm just so totally stumped.

Sorry, I know this is a cycling forum, but many users here are very knowledgeable about fitness and so I thought I might get some answers here.

Thanks,
James
 
it might be pain from the exercises you mentioned before, not from the walking itself, anyway you get sore where on your legs exactly ? you need to discard any injures first,
 
Yeah, it's a classic case of the need for "specificity" in training. Doesn't matter how good you are on the bike, because walking (and running) use the leg muscles in different positions. Suggest you cut back your daily walks to just 5-10 minutes for the next week, or until the pain goes away completely. When the pain goes away, then slowly add back a minute a day until you get back to your desired 20-30 minutes.

If 10 minutes of slow walking is still causing you leg pain after a couple of weeks, your problem might be something more serious, in which case I'd see a doctor or sports-med professional.

PS, believe you're doing you overall fitness a lot of good by taking walking breaks from the PC during the day.
 
Originally Posted by dhk2 .

Yeah, it's a classic case of the need for "specificity" in training. Doesn't matter how good you are on the bike, because walking (and running) use the leg muscles in different positions. Suggest you cut back your daily walks to just 5-10 minutes for the next week, or until the pain goes away completely. When the pain goes away, then slowly add back a minute a day until you get back to your desired 20-30 minutes.

If 10 minutes of slow walking is still causing you leg pain after a couple of weeks, your problem might be something more serious, in which case I'd see a doctor or sports-med professional.

PS, believe you're doing you overall fitness a lot of good by taking walking breaks from the PC during the day.
Thank you very much for the post dhk2!

I read in a recent study that sitting for long periods of time is very bad for overall cardiac health, even if you do exercise intensely 5x per week.
 
JamesAA said:
Thank you very much for the post dhk2!  I read in a recent study that sitting for long periods of time is very bad for overall cardiac health, even if you do exercise intensely 5x per week.
that might refer to blood circulation also, like sitting 8 hours without moving on an airplane flight, 5x per week exercise is quite good and clearly benefitial for people who do it,
 

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