The day after, in this case, anyway, isn’t about the morning following a one night stand, but rather the day after you start on your exercise regimen.

If you’ve been pretty sedentary, there’s certainly a strong chance you’ll be sore. Muscles you’re not used to using–heck, muscles you didn’t even know existed!–have been used harder than they have in a long time, maybe harder than in all of time. Your joints might hurt, particularly if you’re walking, running, or just using shoes that aren’t up to the task. You may have cramps; you might be dehydrated; you may be as stiff as a board; or you may just be more tired than you can imagine.

I know when I started cycling again, I was some of these, in particular dehydrated and stiff (if there’s one flaw of cycling as a form of exercise, it’s the rather limited range of motion of the exercise–over and over and over again). Later on, I was also awakened at night on at least a weekly basis by a violent, recurrent cramp in my right calf (which actually dates back to a beach outing in high school). When I started running, I wasn’t just tight, tired, and dry–I was also sore.

The lesson in all of that is that the worst thing you can do–the thing that will keep you in a cycle of not just being tight, tired, dry, cramped, and sore, but also horribly unfit–is to stop. Yes, rest is appropriate (and part of the unspoken advantage of the training schedules I’ve discussed and will continue to discuss is that it builds in rest to your life) but if you go onto three days of rest that become four days that become a week and then two, you’ll have to start all over when you decide it’s “time to get in shape”–again.

There are several things you can do to help yourself through these times–hot showers in the mornings work wonders when tight, for instance, as does regular stretching, ice, elevation, massage, and a reasonable amount of rest–but the most important thing that will keep you from running into these “day after” problems over and over is to not have a day after–instead, to make and keep exercise a part of your regular routine. Your body will adjust and adapt, often by losing body fat and weight, as well as toughening up your joints and muscles, and you’ll get better at what you do. It may take awhile–trust me, I don’t exactly like getting up before 5 am when I don’t have to go to work and putting on my cycling clothes or running shoes–but it’ll be worth it. Do not, do not, do not give up. Ever.