Is Not Getting Sore A Problem?
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You give it all you can, but you aren’t getting sore after your workouts? Or did you in the beginning and now the soreness just doesn’t happen? Let’s see if you have to panic.
Not Getting Sore Anymore?
Many of you know the feeling: you did a workout that is about 9 on the 10-point “how brutal was my workout” scale, but next day you feel nothing.
Or you are used to that sweet soreness in your chest after a bench press session, yet now your chest seems to ask, “did we do anything?”
Relax, because due to its nature, muscular soreness is no reliable indicator of making progress or not:
Is Muscle Soreness Actually Not Good At All?
There even is another school of thought: getting sore actually is bad. It’s the philosophy behind the heavy high volume training some lifters do. According to those guys, getting sore shows that your muscles aren’t getting used to being worked. They again and again have to start this process, instead of maximizing strength gains and growth.
Is that true? Well, the research on the “repeated bout effect” (the “preparation effect” I talked about) is still rather limited (PDF). So far there is no sign that avoiding soreness gets you more muscle growth.
Forget Soreness, Concentrate On Results
But that is academic. What should count for you is what I hinted at in the video: making progress or not. If your bench press increases, who cares if there was or was no muscular soreness two days afterwards?
Therefore keep track and the best way to do that is a workout journal. Write down how many reps with what weight you did and when. You’ll get a pretty neat overview about what works or not.
Picture courtesy of Kenny Louie.
12 Comments
This is one of my favorite topics you have addressed!! I rarely get sore – usually only when I do some ridiculous # of reps or after one of my mega runs (like this coming weekend). I know that I push myself, try new things, lift heavy….Loved the explanation!!!
And you are one very fit woman! Goes to show how unreliable soreness is.
You mean there is something besides getting sore??
For the most part, I get sore after using the negative enforced machines at the fitness center and after a long run.
Otherwise, not too much š
There is one theory that says it’s specifically eccentric movements that cause the most soreness – your experience strengthens the idea.
I get sore when I do something new or different, if I’m keeping with the same ol’, even if I’m pushing hard I don’t get noticeably sore. I kinda like getting sore though, I really feel as though I have worked, even though that makes no real sense, just a psychological thing I guess.
Exactly. It is this direct feedback that explains why we think soreness = good.
OK though, here’s a curve ball. What about muscle confusion?
If you aren’t getting sore, but then change up your work out and are sore the next day, I would think that is a good thing… your body telling you
a. this is new
b. i need to grow to adapt to this new challenge
In that way, the soreness may be a good indicator of a good change in your workout.. which you should do regularly anyways…
Thoughts?
Very good point. I wager it’s two things that tend to happen together, but aren’t really related.
Doing a new exercise often will get you toward more muscle growth and then you get sore at the same time. However, the soreness happens because the body hasn’t yet raised the pain threshold for that exercise. It could also happen when you do it with low weight and high reps and are much into the endurance range (that doesn’t lead to muscle growth).
Or to put it more simply: the new exercise likely will still force muscle growth when the soreness has gone.
With weight lifting I DO use soreness as a scale. For me it usually means I wasn’t pushing myself or it’s time to go up in weight!
Perhaps you are pushing yourself, Lisa, even when you don’t get sore.
Reading your blog, I wouldn’t say you take it easy.
I don’t use soreness as a scale, but rather how I feel WHILE I’m lifting the weight (or running). If my face grimaces, I know I’m working hard enough. š
I tend to be a little bit sore, never a lot. Then I go back to training and “dissolve” it with more hard work! š
Hahaha, sounds like a plan! š