Should I be sore?

[confusedmushie]

I have been working out for approx 2 weeks now. I have set myself a routine and have been following it pretty well.

From the past, I remember that whenever I worked out, I would be pretty sore for a couple of days. I could also feel the after effects right after the workout.

For the past few days, I have been working out and been adding weight as much as I can. I have noticed that I am not anywhere nearly as sore as I was in the past. Does this mean that I am not working out hard enough? I do consider myself to be working out as hard as I can, but the after effects are different.

Can anyone explain that to me?

Thanks all.

Ian

 

[gmanlax7]

bump for mushie

 

[Deepsquat]

being sore does not mean you are growing .../not being sore does not mean you are not growing.... who can say

 

[confusedmushie]

hahaha.......

With muscle tearing and healing, I thought I'd at least feel a little soreness from them.

As I have said, I do consider myself to workout hard! I don't slack and I take the workouts seriously. It's just that from past experience, I do get sore, but now, I am sore for maybe one day, if that and then I am back to normal again.

However, I do have a hard time to even do pushups after a workout, maybe that's telling me that I am putting fourth a good effort?

Thanks gmanlax7 for the bump!

 

[JollyRogers]

If you feel a bit sore the next day, just a tee wee bit, it means you worked them good... sounds like you are getting used to your workouts, sometimes, changeing the days you workout can make you really sore, or just changeing what excersices you do helps.

 

[confusedmushie]

I have heard that it is good to alternate routines. What I was told was that the muscles starts to get use to the routine and starts to not strain; where the workout starts to lose effect. How true is this?

I like to feel at least a little sore, it tells me that I am working hard and am keeping up without slacking.

Ian

 

[MikeyG]

Well, there are alot of factors contributing to this 'soreness' confusedmuscle.

I would think that if you are overtraining, or not giving you enough rest time in between-- you wont acheive a general soreness, just a fatigued muscle. If you are adding weight at every workout-- don't worry about it!

Soreness is aka, as the DOMS, is the delayed onset muscle soreness, it is caused by two things-- the mechanical trauma theory and the local ischemic theory. I'm not gonna get into the details of this. But, usually soreness does give a sign of a good workout-- but, I would really try to aim for a "big pump" feeling in your muscle when leaving the gym.... after all fatique will not build muscle, the overload principle will.

For example, squat for 50 reps with light weight, sure you'll get a hell of a pump, but too much lactic acid build-up which will cause a burn, inhibiting you from performing any more reps-- but lactic acid will be cleared from your system in 10-15 minutes. BUT, in the next day you'll be SORE as hell because in the ischemic theory of DOMS, you depleted yourself of ATP, Creatine Phosphate, and some inflammation in the muscle fibers-- which isnt good at all for muscle growth.

hell-- i dont even know what i'm talking about but-- i'm just gonna say just aim for strength increase at every workout-- and size will follow bro!

 

[Lee]

i rarely get extremely sore. but i always have a tad bit less felxibilty the following day, but that goes away. sometimes my triceps will get a little sore after a very instense workout, but this doesnt mean im not growing, i can tell i am. soreness differs person to person.

 

[satchboogie]

my triceps, back, chest, hamstrings, calves get sore for 2-3 days EVERY TIME!!!!!!!! and that's been the routine for the last few years!

my delts, biceps, quads, and abs - no matter how hard i work them will not get sore.

 

[MikeyG]

satchboogie-- have you ever tried doing slower reps (eccentric part of the lift) with supersets following the exercise?

For example, try Military Presses--(with slow eccentric reps) then after that do 2-3 sets of lateral raises w/ slow reps as well... then tell me if you're not sore the next day, if you're not.. you may want to bump up the weight!

 

[confusedmushie]

I have had the wrong impression for a long time. I was also mislead to think that lesser weight with increased reps will cut and tone the muscles; whereas heavy weights with decreased reps will only build strength.

This was a thread that I started a while ago. Since then, I have moved my lifting routine from lighter/more reps, to heavy/less reps.

Wonder what the real correct answer is. There are 50/50 opinions in regards to the whole theory I mentioned above.

Overall, I am happy with the progress that I am making right now. I do see a little difference and I am happy with that. I post a lot of different subjects in search of the correct explaination. So far, this board has been a lot of help, but it does come down to the point of whom I want to believe.

It has been just a little over a month now, I have lost approx 13lbs and have, I believe peaked. I am still lossing weight, but not as dramatic as I was in the beginning. I have relaxed a little on the diet (adding a little pasta and sweets, not much though). I am pulling myself back to my original diet routine.

Ian

 

[satchboogie]

satchboogie-- have you ever tried doing slower reps (eccentric part of the lift) with supersets following the exercise?

For example, try Military Presses--(with slow eccentric reps) then after that do 2-3 sets of lateral raises w/ slow reps as well... then tell me if you're not sore the next day, if you're not.. you may want to bump up the weight!

bro....

i'm not an amateure.
been in bodybuilding (either training pros or reserching effectiveness of different routines) and no matter how hard i train my biceps, delts, abs, or quads, they simply won't budge!

 

[gmanlax7]

when you say they wont budge, do you mean they havnt grown in a long time, or you just cant ever get em sore ?

 

[satchboogie]

when you say they wont budge, do you mean they havnt grown in a long time, or you just cant ever get em sore ?

oh.. they grow allright, but wont get sore.

on very rare occasions, my quads and front delts will get only slightly sore. again, very slightly.

the other muscles (back, triceps, hams, calves) get sore after each and every single workout though.

i'm very satisfied with my mass, proportion, and symmetry.

if i could post a pic i would but not enough posts for that yet.

5"11, 190 8-10% bf

 

[MikeyG]

I'm surprised Satchboogie. I just always believed that by overloading your muscles with progressively heavier weights will create some set of DOMS, soreness. But in your case, it just different with specific muscles.

 

[DrBones]

Satch....
email me a picture at [email protected] and I will post it for you...
About Doms...

I never get it in my delts, calfs or biceps but ALWAYS get it in my back,chest,hams, quads, tris.

I find the bigger muscles get it worse than the smaller ones

 

[gonelifting]

I think soreness for me is when I do FULL range of motion (extreme stretch) with overhead tricep ext. etc. SO my guess is the STRETCHING of the muscle AND microtrauma is causing the soreness FOR ME.
That` why it`s hard to get biceps sore or shoulders because it`s difficult to Extreme stretch those muscles while performing the lift.