BBing And Soreness

Ok, I am new to this site, I have been on many others, but I heard this site is the $HIOT so here I am. This is always a great discussion, but I never get the answer I want.

So, what do you think about soreness and how it relates to your BBing gains. Some say it means absolutely nothin, cause hey, lots of factors can influence soreness. But say you have been training regularly, you are eating enough, sleeping enough, and you don’t change your routine much, but you get mass sore, what does it mean? My lower back, legs, and chest are the only body parts that get sore. Chest and Legs are where I have gotten best gains. Does this have anything to do with the fact that they are always sore?

Soreness = a sign of damage be it just a bit of muscle fiber damage or an injury. What we are doing in the gym is Damage. It in and of itself is a very cataboilc effect.

Now is soreness bad. Well yes and know if it goes to the point of effecting your everyday life etc then sure you went a bit to far. its odd at first it seems we avoid it and as time passes we chase it.

In the end I wouldnt worry about soreness if you get it or not. Let it be what it is something that may or may not arrise after a w/o. Judge the success of your time in the gym on progression. If you are out performing and/or your physique is changing for the better you are doing something right. If not than its time for a change.

Just my take,
Phill

I agree with Phil. If you are new to lifting, or starting on a new program, then you will be sore. But gradually it will diminish, sometimes to where you don’t really feel it anymore.

This isn’t a marker of how good the program is, however. If you are making gains in size and strength (or whatever the goal happens to be) than stay with it regardless. The numbers you move are alot more reliable than your soreness (as far as effectiveness).

I tend to only get sore in my shouolders and legs. When I mentioned it to a guy at the gym the other day he said then you are not working out correctly if your entire body isnt sore. I thought to myself he was full of it. Now I know he was full of it.

[quote]Hugrafix wrote:
I tend to only get sore in my shouolders and legs. When I mentioned it to a guy at the gym the other day he said then you are not working out correctly if your entire body isnt sore. I thought to myself he was full of it. Now I know he was full of it.[/quote]

Yeah hes a jackass.

I’m willing to bet you’d be sore if you did 10x3 for dead, squat, bench, row, dip, and military press all in one day. Would that be a good program? fuck no.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but it’s kind of goes along with a question I have. I just started Waterbury’s TBT and went to the letter for what he says (failure only on the last rep of the last set, if at all).

My glutes and the upper part of my hamstrings are much more sore than the rest of my body. Not overly sore like an injury, just sore like they got worked harder. The one thing I did differently was to lower the weight for my squats and go all the way down (ass to grass) instead of going parallel like I used to.

Anyway, tomorrow I’m supposed to do my 2nd workout (3x8 - 90 sec. rest). If my legs are still a little sore tomorrow is it okay to still work them? Or should you wait until all DOMS is gone before working that body part again?

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I’ve never dealt with it before. Before starting TBT, I only worked each body part once per week. So soreness was never an issue by the time I was ready to work that same body part again. Like I said it’s not so sore that it’s stopping me from doing anything particularly. Just sore like after a tough workout.

EDIT nevermind - I found a post by Chad recommending that you work through the soreness (as long as it’s DOMS and not an injury).

Thanks guys for all your replies, but still heres the thing, My chest and legs continue to get larger and stronger always. Its like I hardly ever hit a wall with those body parts. And these are the ones that are always sore. On the other hand, I have these little ass arms (15inches) Which I can’t get sore for the life of me. Its doesn’t matter what I do, how heavy I go, how slow I do negatives, they don’t get sore, and they dont seem to get stronger, and they won’t grow for shit. I’ve tried everything.

So anyway for me, it seems like what gets sore grows and what doesnt get sore, doesn’t grow. Maybe its all in my head…

Soreness means a novel stimulus has been used. It’s a good sign, but it’s not something to be chased. A good new program however, should ALWAYS elicit soreness because it should be working the muscles with different tempos and different exercises, creating a brand new stimulus.

Hence, muchacho sorenesseo and with consistent, intense lifting, more strength and new muscle growth.

[quote]GoHardOrGoHome wrote:
Thanks guys for all your replies, but still heres the thing, My chest and legs continue to get larger and stronger always. Its like I hardly ever hit a wall with those body parts. And these are the ones that are always sore. On the other hand, I have these little ass arms (15inches) Which I can’t get sore for the life of me. Its doesn’t matter what I do, how heavy I go, how slow I do negatives, they don’t get sore, and they dont seem to get stronger, and they won’t grow for shit. I’ve tried everything.

So anyway for me, it seems like what gets sore grows and what doesnt get sore, doesn’t grow. Maybe its all in my head…[/quote]

I think everyone has a weak bodypart, my biceps, hams and calves for me. mostly due to more red fiber in those areas, high fatigue fibers which won’t grow as big as white fiber. My biceps never get sore. Even thou i’m a pler, I am making strength and mass gains but not in those areas. Granted I don’t concentrate on biceps for pl, but it’s been like that before i switched from BB. and i’ve been training for almost 20 years. The only thing that did help was a giant set or “Holistic set” 5, 12, 40 reps then repeat and repeat again. 80%,60% 40% no rest inbetween. you’ll probably have to drop weight at each set to do this.

Inducing soreness is easy! Just do bodyweight squats for an hour.

Inducing hypertrophy is harder though.

The day before yesterday I did 5x5s of overhead squat, back squat, and front squat. Today, I’m still walking like an invalid. I got an e-mail from my VMOs, it said Fuck you, arsehole, we’re not working today! And they’re not. Do you know how difficult it is to walk without VMOs…?

I really hope soreness is good for something. I’m screwed otherwise.