Are Sore Muscles A Good Sign?
Are sore muscles a good sign?1Earlier this week I had the extreme pleasure of training my legs with someone who happens to be my closest friend in the whole wide world. And let me tell you this, the workout probably ranks high up there among the best leg workouts I’ve ever put myself through. Nah, fuck it. I’m going to be definitive and just say it was theeeee best training session EVER in my ENTIRE LIFE!!!*
Anyway, the past few days since we’ve trained, my partner has been whining non-stop about how sore their legs are. As proof, here’s a text message they sent me verbatim: “I cannot walk, I cannot sit, I cannot walk up the stairs, I cannot move…I simply cannot function.”
This person’s bellyaching inspired this week’s blog post, as they were of the opinion that the workout was a good workout on the basis of the soreness alone.
I hope you find the post helpful. And if you don’t? <arms crossed>It’s not like I really care!</arms crossed>
*This person frequents the site, so it’s not like I can bash them to oblivion since they’ll probably read this shit. If you care to know my true feelings, email me or send me a DM on Instagram and I’ll tell you all the sordid details of how horrible a time I had with this truly terrible acquaintance who’s stupid enough to think we’re bosom buddies.
Like, a sign of a good workout? Maybe muscle growth?
After all, they must be with all the memes floating around like this:
“Sore today, strong tomorrow”
“All my muscles are sore today. Success!”
“That feeling when you wake up so sore you can barely move. #SATISFIED”
“Nothing is as satisfying as sore muscles.”
“Sore muscles = Happy Pain.”
“Call me crazy, but I love suffering the day after a workout.”
I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume that you’ve seen these, and similar, memes on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, somewhere between your never ending search for internet porn.
What these memes revel in is the joy of soreness, something a lot of people equate as a positive. It’s what we HAVE to achieve. Fuck, how else can we know we did something and what we’re doing in the gym is paying off?!
If you’re one of those people, then sorry to burst your bubble, because you better think again!
The achievement of crippling soreness that you wear on your sleeve as a badge of accomplishment is really a scarlet letter of ignorance.
Allow me the pleasure of helping you stop being a source of ridicule.
Let’s say that it’s leg day and you’re a neophyte who finally decided to get off their duff and begin working out. Or an advanced lifter changing their training approach. Or just someone who’s returning to the gym after a long layoff.
You, working out legs?
I know, but just play along!
Anyway, got it?
You have the scenario in your head?
Okay.
Now, let’s say that you perform some squats, lunges, leg extensions, and a few other movements for the quads. Let’s say that the very next morning you wake up and get out of bed looking like Leo in the Wolf of Wall Street’s Quaaludes scene because your legs are so sore that you can’t even lift them.2Illegally download or Redbox the flick if you don’t know what I’m talking about!
Gee wiz, that was one hell of a workout, huh?!
Job well done, right?
Let’s say that you work your lower body again the following week…
…but this time you don’t wake up with your legs feeling like you were hit by an Acme truck.
That workout must have been a fucking waste then!
Well, you’re wrong on both counts.
The experiencing of delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS, that comes 24-72 hours after an exercise bout is not an indicator of muscle growth or any other product of a good workout. What DOMS points to is your body adapting to new physical stress in order for it to better handle and recover from that amount of stress when the activity is performed again.
Period.
That’s all it is.
That’s what sore muscles mean.
As suggested above, the debilitating soreness that follows a workout is an inflammatory response by your body to the tiny, microscopic tears in the muscle fibers from picking up weights and putting them back down over and over and over again. How someone may experience DOMS is by performing a workout routine for the first time; performing a particular exercise for the first time or as an addition to their current routine; or changing the weight, intensity, frequency, volume, or tempo.3Muscle soreness isn’t the body’s way of indicating that muscle growth is going on. People who operate under the mindset that soreness serves that purpose may think they have to achieve it and in pursuit of that goal, they may contend there are specific exercises that increase the likelihood of soreness more than another. The truth of the matter is there aren’t.
Whether you get sore or not from any given exercise largely depends on the variables already listed, such as your familiarity with the movement and the intensity in which that exercise is performed. For example, if you’ve never done a certain exercise before or are reintroducing it to your routine after a long break of not doing it, you have a greater chance of experiencing DOMS from the muscle damage than you would if you were to perform that same exercise regularly because your body isn’t accustomed to the stress. The same goes with performing an exercise at a much higher intensity at your next workout than you’ve spent the past few months of your program performing it.
Another factor that influences DOMS irrespective of exercise choice is exactly how an exercise is performed. When attention is paid to lowering the weight in a controlled manner, you have better odds of feeling sore than were you to simply allow the weight to drop because the eccentric phase of an exercise is when the most damage to the target muscle occurs on account of its structural elements experiencing strain from its lengthening under a load.
A lifter, no matter how experienced they are, may suffer DOMS but because it’s an adaptive response, with regularity comes its dissipation as the body becomes better at coping with physical stress and repairing itself from the microdamage in the muscle fibers produced by an activity.4*cough* All that means is that the more often you work out, repeat a movement, whatever, the less often you’ll feel sore the ensuing days afterward *cough*
So are sore muscles a good sign?
Well, now you have your answer!
Sore muscles are not indicative of muscle growth, just inflammation. To add to it even more, there’s actually an inverse relationship between the two, as Lyle McDonald suggests that those with more frequent DOMS usually have less gains than those who experience DOMS less frequently:
(1) DOMS is usually the worst at the beginning of the training cycle, especially with new movements but visible and increased growth usually occurs at the end of the cycle when DOMS no longer happens.
(2) Some muscles, the deltoids are one example, very rarely get sore for some reason, but they grow just fine. DOMS is not required.
(3) People who train very infrequently, such as a bodypart once a week, often report amazing DOMS but many of them don’t grow well.
(4) People who train somewhat more frequently (i.e. 2-3 times/week per muscle group) always report LESS DOMS but MORE growth.
So…ummmmmmm…if soreness means bupkis, then…ummmmmmm…how are you to know whether you really trained the muscle you meant to target or if your workouts are giving you results?!?!
Well, what you should feel the following day is slight tightness in the area that was worked, particularly when flexing. And you’ll know that you’ve gotten stronger and built muscle if following your last workout you go to the gym and can (1) perform at least one more rep on an exercise; (2) use slightly more weight; (3) place the muscle under greater time under tension during each set; or (4) do the exact same workout routine in less time than the workout prior.
That’s it.
Don’t chase soreness.
Pursue performance.
…but you can do whatever the hell you feel like doing.
You can keep going to the gym and raising the training load to brutal heights in your quest to achieve an inhuman level of soreness — just let me know how that works for ya!
My money’s on your body looking exactly the same.
NOTE (1): Super-duper soreness immediately after, or even during, a workout may be a sign of rhabdomyolysis. That word sounds cool as fuck, right? Too bad the condition is anything but. Rhabdomyolysis involves the breakdown of muscle cells and leaching of protein into the bloodstream, one of them being myoglobin, which can cause kidney failure or death. If the pain lasts longer than three days with you experiencing swollen muscles, nausea, and vomiting, dark urine, and more lethargy and weakness than your lazy weak ass usually does, then you might want to seek medical attention yesterday.
NOTE (2): If you’re not new to weight training and find yourself still getting sore, that more than likely indicates that you’re working out infrequently, as touched on briefly. Other reasons may include you program hopping a bit too much and/or your rest and recovery protocols are insufficient.5e.g. not enough sleep, poor spacing of time between training sessions, too few calories, your macronutrient profile is inadequate, blah.
Glossary: exercise, frequency, gym, intensity, leg day, muscle, muscle group, muscle soreness, program, results, routine, squats, training partner, work out, workout
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