[Needsdecaf]

All:

The TL DR - I'm looking for ways to help combat DOMS and aid muscle recovery after workouts. I'm finding creatine monohydrate to be the only thing that has helped somewhat, but not sure if should be taking daily, or only after workouts.

The longer version:

So I've always been pretty fit and pretty active. I hit the 6'2" mark in high school and haven't weighed under 200 since 8th grade. Always had very strong leg muscles and carried a lot of weight there. To give you an idea of my build, peak of fitness was when I was 24, running 30 miles a week, and lifting 4-5 times. I was 210 lbs and had about 10% body fat, IIRC.

Fast forward two and a half decades and in 2021 my wife and I looked at pictures of ourselves from New Years and decided enough was enough. I clocked in at 278 and we both started losing weight by extensively modifying our food consumption. I've spoken about Noom before, I won't elaborate, but we both re-learned how to eat better for good. One year later and I was down to 212.5, a few pants sizes, much better energy, sleep, numbers, etc.

We did most of that through better eating and increasing overall activity, but did not pursue resistance training. More walking, much more. Biking and some running as well. But very little weights.

After losing weight, I wanted to start to rebuild my strength and muscle mass but DOMS has really hurt me. At first I thought it was just simply being out of shape but even after I got into a regular routine of 3-4 workouts a week and saw my strength return, and DOMS diminish naturally, it still continues to really plague me. I've not kept up with the weights and get into the cycle if I don't work out for a few weeks, it becomes excruciating to do anything to get back into it. Especially legs. But even from anything strenuous. I played golf the other day for the first time in 6 months and 48 hours later my forearms are still aching.

I've found that taking creatine has helped. But I'm just taking it after workouts. Anything that the over-50 crowd is doing to help this? Anything I need to get tested for? At my last physical a year ago, I mentioned this to my doctor and he kind of brushed it off saying "your numbers look good, you're just getting older" which I kind of understand but also....I listen to my body. I don't think it should be THIS bad. I know aging is inevitable but I see plenty of 50 and 60 year olds without these issues and having been relatively strong and healthy (even when super over weight I didn't have AWFUL numbers or significant health issues). So I refuse to go gently! Right now I'm working on getting really in shape. Weight has come back up a bit to 222 lbs, not terrible considering I stopped logging food in April 2022. Body fat currently at 17.8% and want to get that down into the teens.

Thanks guys.