How sore should I be?

[Lisakay007]

Hi everyone! I just got started on weight training and I don't really have a routine nailed down yet (which could be the problem), but I'm really not sure how much I should be doing and how I should feel afterwards. Yesterday I did some basic moves (squats, lunges, bicep curls, tricep kickbacks, etc) and today my butt and hamstrings are killing me but I feel absolutely nothing in the upper body. Is my soreness on bottom telling me I need to do more, or that I'm weaker and need to take it easy? Do I need to up the weight on my top half? Any guidance/suggestions would be incredibly helpful!

[Amanda76]

In this case, your soreness is probably telling you you're doing something you aren't used to doing. Chances are pretty high you'll continue to get sore from challenging yourself. You'll find some body parts have more of a tendency to get sore than others, so your biceps and triceps may have gotten a good workout even though they aren't sore. You may not be able to tell whether what you are doing is working for every individual body part for a couple of months so don't get too concerned about lack of soreness just yet.

Don't work muscle groups that are sore until they're no longer sore. Soreness is an indicator of needing time to repair. At most, you may want to do some light cardio and stretch to assist your legs in doing that.