Soreness

[uamaverick]

There's one aspect of weight lifting that I've never fully understood, and that's the aspect of soreness and how it correlates to progress/regress. My last leg day I switched up my lifts and now my legs are incredibly sore, almost to the point that I have to support my weight with my arms as I get out of a chair. Even though I've been making consistent gains in my lifts, why does one small change in my regimen cause such a huge change? Is soreness to the point that it hinders normal walking necessarily halting your progress in the weight room?

I know that soreness doesn't always mean much, because my biceps rarely get sore and yet I see gains in my biceps.

What do you think?

 

[BiggT]

Soreness means nothing. All it means is that you made your body do something it wasn't conditioned to do. This is my problem with 'switching things up'. You're not sore because you 'shocked your muscles into growth', you're sore because you are unconditioned to do what you did.

The way to progress is to get good at something (in this case use progressively heavier weights over time).

 

[uamaverick]

Yeah, I always try to bump up at least 5 lbs on all core lifts at least once per week

 

[medical]

All I know is that I miss the soreness when it is gone! It gets so hard to get the longer you lift and when I do feel it, it is nice.

 

[uamaverick]

You can take my soreness then, because my legs are going to melt off of my bones pretty soon. I rarely get sore this bad. I feel like an old lady trying to get out of my car.

 

[medical]

You can take my soreness then, because my legs are going to melt off of my bones pretty soon. I rarely get sore this bad. I feel like an old lady trying to get out of my car.

I am 6'6" and when I drove a Firebird back in the day I had a rove hanging from the ceiling in my carport to assist me in getting out of the car on squat days. Some days I had to lean out, grab the roap and pull my upper body out of the car until I could get my legs under me. Also, if you have never had to walk up stairs backwards then you aren't working out hard enough!

 

[uamaverick]

HAHA, you see, that's just the problem. My classes at my university are all on the 3rd-4th floors of the buildings. 3-4 flights of stairs doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is when one step is hard enough.