Biceps workout without supplement pain more than 4 days: Do i need whey?

Question

I saw an expert in Youtube said that muscle recovery took 3 days (roughly 72 hours) but it not same with my case.

I'm not bodybuilding and not using any kind of supplement. I'm doing more for strength and health but don't mind if my muscle size get bigger.

My other muscle (chest, triceps, etc) pain not last so long like my biceps.

Usually once in 5 weeks I'm doing biceps workout using dumbell.

The other weeks I'm not lifting. My life involving a lot of manual works like cutting trees manually and I'm avoid doing heavy workout during the other weeks.

I'm doing multiple sets. Start from second set onwards, I lift until I cannot lift. Then I continue next sets over and over until the last I can only barely lift once or twice reps.

The second & third day is really painful and I cannot put my hand straight. Forth & fifth day I still can feel pain on biceps.

I need to know if I consume whey, how it can help? Do I need to consume whey the next day while it recover even I'm not doing heavy workout?

Answer 1

You are having DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). The only real way to mitigate it is to train more often.

Taking whey (and other protein supplements) is useful when you can't eat enough to have as much protein you want¹, in regard to your goal. If your goal is to grow bigger or to have more strength, you should train more and think of a diet to try to eat roughly 2g of protein per kilogram and supplement you if you can't.

Define your goal, then establish a workout routine (frequency and intensity) and a nutrition program, and use whey (and other supplements) if needed to follow your diet.

¹ There is other usecases to protein supplements (casein before sleep to prevent catabolism...) but not relevant here.

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On a side note, training once in five weeks is not enough to see a real progress. Try to establish a weekly routine that enables you to train each muscle at least once per week. If you don't have enough time, you can do one "full body" workout per week.

Answer 2

Some studies have shown that protein supplements can provide some modest relief from Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) while other studies show no such effect.

It may be something worth your investigation to see how well you respond to it.

Answer 3

You should eat more protein to recover faster and reduce the soreness timeframe, but you will never get over the painful soreness until you workout more often.