muscle cramping after squats

[kat112]

I just went to the gym for the first time in a very long time yesterday. The personal trainer had me do squats, and kept changing my form and asking me to do another set. It burned and felt like it normally feels, I wasn't in any terrible pain. Then he had me do a couple sets of lunges, again it was hard but not overly painful. A couple minutes afterwards, though, my thigh muscles cramped up like crazy. My legs also felt super weird going down a flight of stairs (kind of felt like my thigh muscles didn't even exist). Today, the next day, I'm in a LOT of pain when I go down stairs or go to sit down. Is this a normal muscular response to this? True I have probably never done a proper squat in my life but the pain feels too excessive to be normal?

[gymdandee]

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[gymdandee]

Stretching can cause your muscle fibers to contract and shorten reflexively.   (stretch reflex) which is your body's defense to avoid tearing of your own joints and muscles. This can cause the muscle to be less responsive to length change and more sensitive to pressure and touch.
Static stretching, increases your risk of injury and does not promote flexibility. The American Council on Exercise warns against stretching cold muscles, promoting warm-up activities before stretching. Also, when performing a static stretch, bouncing or pushing the stretch to the point of discomfort are less effective for improving flexibility and increase your risk of injury.
If you stretch before you lift weights, you may find yourself feeling weaker and wobblier than you expect during your workout. Those findings join those of another new study from Croatia, a bogglingly comprehensive reanalysis of data from earlier experiments that was published in The Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports. Together, the studies augment a growing scientific consensus that pre-exercise stretching is generally unnecessary and likely counterproductive.
After you exercise some, but not all, of the tissue has been warmed by any given exercise. Some tissues have very likely been left out. When you go to stretch after exercise, the warmed tissues may allow the stretch, pushing the force into the unwarmed tissue, which is then more likely to injure.
Using a foam roller, you're placing pressure from your body weight onto a foam roller, knots in your muscles can be released. It is similar to acupressure or a deep-tissue massage where a massage therapist will put pressure onto a knot to release it. Just like with deep bodywork, foam rolling may hurt but you will feel better afterward. Do foam rolling exercises daily and after a workout.

[Caryopteris]

Do stretch after a workout.  Have an Epsom salt bath or take magnesium citrate 500 mg in the morning and calcium 400 mg in the evening for pain relief.  If that's not enough you can take an NSAID like Advil.  

[gymdandee]

it's normal! I don't stretch before doing any exercise routine! What I do is warm up by doing the routine with a light weight so the muscles get warmed up. What you should try is using a foam roller after your routines. The rollers come with directions.