Feeling Burn After a Set???

[KenDowns]

Something new happened to me yesterday.

The exercise was press. I'm doing 5x5, with a 5# step between sets. I started only recently so I've been adding 5# per session, with 2 sessions per week, for 10# per week.

So what happened was I got a mild burn *after* completing set 4, added 5# for the last set, completed set 5 ok. A few seconds after I racked the bar and went to write it in the log I began to feel a burn, which continued to get more intense for at least a minute. Overall it lasted at least 3 minutes. My wife was keeping me company and she's looking at me saying "what's wrong?" because I was gripping my shoulders. It was like they were on fire. It was the rising burn in that first minute that had me almost panicking, I thought something was seriously wrong.

So I guess my question is, is this normal? I've never heard of such a thing. A burn during a lift sure, but that does not really happen to me on 5x5, but a burn after a lift?

[Oscar_Actuary]

side note

Ever thin kof using a voice recorder?
Wife bought me one. I find in invalueble for recording notes and writing it all down later.

[robertscott]

lactic acid, hurts like hell sometimes. Nothing to be worried about.

personally I live for that deep, deep burn.

[Wouter]

I don't know anything about the pain/burn,
but why do you increase your poundage set by set?
Isn't it more logical to warm-up and then start your working sets with your heaviest weight and then back down?
This way your fresh muscles will train with the heaviest weight
and when your muscles fatigue you diminish the weight used and keep the quality of your reps high.

[stuward]

Lactic acid comes from doing large numbers of reps. 5 reps won't do it. It must be something else. I expect you over-stressed a muscle and it's inflamed.

Of course it depends on how long the reps last. I can get a burn from doing singles of TGUs but a rep can last a long time. Typically you need to be around a minute or so to get a lactic acid burn.

What Wouter said has merit. If you're going for strength, do it early in the workout, right after your warmup sets, then do your volume work with reduced weight if you need to.

How is your shoulder now?

[robertscott]

Lactic acid comes from doing large numbers of reps. 5 reps won't do it.

very true, I stand corrected.

[stuward]

Lactic acid comes from doing large numbers of reps. 5 reps won't do it.

very true, I stand corrected.

I just edited my post qualifying this statement.

[JoeB]

I never feel lactic acid buildup any more. Also, takes about two days before DOMS sets in.

[KenDowns]

Lactic acid comes from doing large numbers of reps. 5 reps won't do it. It must be something else. I expect you over-stressed a muscle and it's inflamed.

Of course it depends on how long the reps last. I can get a burn from doing singles of TGUs but a rep can last a long time. Typically you need to be around a minute or so to get a lactic acid burn.

What Wouter said has merit. If you're going for strength, do it early in the workout, right after your warmup sets, then do your volume work with reduced weight if you need to.

How is your shoulder now?

The shoulders have been fine since the burn wore down in about 3 minutes afterward. I've also only every had burn during the reps, and it hasn't happened in a long time, since I do only sets of five. That's why the post-set burn seemed so crazy, especially as it kept building, that really freaked me out.

As for stepping up vs. down, I guess I never thought about it. Somehow I thought that's how you were supposed to do it. I guess I misread something. But for what its worth I found that the stepping up gives me a continuous flow from the warm-up to the top set, and it has worked well.

[stuward]

...
As for stepping up vs. down, I guess I never thought about it. Somehow I thought that's how you were supposed to do it. I guess I misread something. But for what its worth I found that the stepping up gives me a continuous flow from the warm-up to the top set, and it has worked well.

I'm not saying one way's right or wrong, they're just different. I prefer to ramp to 1 top set as well. I'm not into high volume training.