by Kerry Taylor
“Ouch! I’m sore! That was a good workout!” I have heard this comment many times over my 25 year career in fitness. Which doesn’t truly carry a lot of merit when it comes to making progress or the effectiveness of your workout or training. I mean, you can get sore by doing 1 million push ups, does that mean you made progress and that was a smart thing to do or that you’re going to have a huge chest in a few days? No! I know I’m exaggerating here, but when you get sore from a workout or training it shouldn’t be the gauge you use to decide if your workout was of great quality. That soreness is called DOMS, Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, typically showing itself around 24-48 hours after a workout session. It means the following:
1. New stimulus was introduced
You have started doing new movements from the ones your body has become acclimated to. Maybe you’re used to doing split squats but now you are doing rear foot elevated split squats, so the range of motion has increased, so you have applied a new stimulus to your body.
2. Increased Intensity
Intensity can mean a few things. Increased weight, reps or speed (increased or decreased). This can mean many different things to different people.
3. Micro tears
When we workout/train we are actually breaking down our muscles. That sore feeling comes from creating micro tears within our muscles from that break down.
4. Getting the rust off
You started working out again, or for the first time, after being on the couch or taking a few weeks off of working out.
The point I’m trying to get at here is that if you are sore, it does not mean you will build more muscle. You can build muscle and make progress without experiencing soreness. You can also be sore and make very little progress or not make any progress as far as muscle growth. Chasing soreness will only lead to overtraining and not give your body the ability to recover properly.
If you have had this feeling of soreness as a result of training, here are a few things you can do to manage it so you can continue to train.
1. A good dynamic warm up and a cool down of some sort after your workouts.
2. To help along the recovery process, get a good dosage of healthy nutrients into your body and keep the hydration levels high.
3. You’ve heard this one a ton of times, get some sleep. Your body recovers when it gets sleep. So aim to get in a good amount of it.
4. Recalibrate and adjust the intensity of your next workout.
5. Keep moving- increasing blood flow will help to reduce the discomfort you may be feeling.
So next time you are feeling sore from a workout, remember it is a result of a few adjustments in your training that shouldn’t last long. Don’t use it as the rating system for how you did in the gym that day. It will happen to all of us every now and then. If it’s happening all the time and that is what you are shooting for, pump your breaks. Be consistent in your training and the results you strive for will happen. Until next time, continue to live life 1 degree above the rest!