Ever finish a workout and think “OH MAN I’m going to be SO SORE tomorrow, I DEFINITELY got my workout in”?
Did you know soreness doesn’t indicate you’ve made progress or are any closer to reaching your goals?
Shocking, I know. I used to chase that soreness too, thinking it was a sign I had absolutely crushed my lift and I’d be closer to those muscles I wanted the next day. It wasn’t true.
Here’s why:
Muscle soreness, especially DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness, or second day soreness), is a sign of muscle damage (not a bad thing, it’s thought that working out micro tears muscles and then repairs them stronger, which is how you build muscle). Some people experience soreness with every workout. Some NEVER experience soreness. If you do something you haven’t done for a while, you’ll be sore. If you lift way more than you’re used to, you’ll be sore. If you do something new, you’ll be sore. All of those are good ways to increase your muscle size, it’s true.
But, progressive overload matters when trying to reach a goal. Think of drawing a road map from where you are now to where you’re going. There are steps along the way that you take to increase the amount of weight you use, the amount of reps you do, the tempos you use, and all are meant to continually move you along that road towards your goal. If you blindly jump from one thing to the next (program hopping, for instance), or crush yourself into oblivion along the way, you might get there eventually by sheer luck, but odds are pretty good you won’t get where you want to go.
Frequency and quality of training matter along this road. If you chase that soreness and are so sore that you can’t properly lift for a few days, you lose a day or two of training. And trust me, because I ABSOLUTELY did that when I was younger and dumber, being too sore to sit properly for a few days DOES mean missed workouts. If you try to lift through the soreness, you might get through it–but was it a GOOD lift using the proper muscles, or did other muscles pick up the slack for the ones you were targeting because those target muscles were too sore to properly contract? (I’ll give you a hint: no, it wasn’t a good workout).
And, did you know that when training athletes in season, the goal is to AVOID soreness? If that athlete you idolize on tv is actively aiming to stay strong (and get stronger) without being too sore to compete, do you really think soreness is a must to accomplish your training goals? (Another hint: no, you don’t need that soreness).
Now, if you need to be a little fatigued to feel accomplished and sweaty, there IS a way to do that without crushing yourself, and in fact, they can even help further your goals. Finishers are a great way to up your heart rate and your sweat factor at the end of the workout. They are typically things like airdyne or assault bike sprint intervals, which are excellent for working on aerobic or anaerobic capacity depending on the length of intervals (and man do they make you sweat), or a circuit with low to no weights but higher reps and little rest, which add some volume to your muscle groups and fatigue you and also work on your cardiorespiratory system. Finishers typically last 5-15 minutes and will absolutely leave you sweaty, but usually not sore.
The Fit Witt 