Basically, it's been five days and I'm unable to even sit in a chair without a struggle. I didn't go too hard, mainly squats and leg press. I didn't think it would take this long to recover considering I still run 4 times a week. Is it normal to be this sore and what can I do to help it?
I really really want to get back in there and work on my squat form but I can't even get close to parallel right now due to the soreness
Edit* side note I went from an extremely sedentary lifestyle to a very active one about 6 months ago, starting with running but now my legs are paying the price of no strength training. So it may be that I'm just so new to the workouts
How long have you been going to the gym?
Well I've been going for about 4 months but I was only doing speed training on the treadmill, I starting lifting about 3 weeks ago. I try to get 2 days at least of squats but it's getting hard
At that time frame it is normal
For reference I started lifting with machines first, because injury with the barbells scared the hell out of me, and then one day I was in there alone and finally tried it and it wasn't too bad, I've just got really tight hamstrings
Yeah I can see how it can be intimidating at first, but like you said, it's really not that big of a deal. One trick with tight hamstrings is putting a plate under heel when you squat and as your hamstrings loosen you gradually use lighter plates until you're using none.