Lately I have been really trying to up the intensity and weights of my exercises. I have been working with maximal weights and testing one rep maxes. But lately I have’t been really feeling sore. Is this a normal thing? I’m already working as hard as I can push myself but I’m afraid not being sore means I didn’t get a good enough workout. I remember a long time ago working on deadlifts my whole back would be completely roasted the next day. Now I am working much heavier and harder but no real soreness. I feel fatigued and kind of lazy today but its not how it used to be.
What say you? I also want to add that sometimes I switch from strength training in the low rep range to higher rep bodybuilding style training and that makes me sore. Is it like a cns vs actual muscle soreness kind of deal?
It’s eccentric stress and time under tension that seems to cause the most muscle trauma and DOMS (delayed onset muscular soreness). It’s pretty typical to not get as sore or sore at all when one moves to training with low volume or un-emphasized eccentrics.
The subjective feeling for me is that heavier low volume training causes a more dull diffuse kind of soreness and just a general tired feeling whereas higher volume high tension techniques cause a more localized soreness in the muscles that were worked.
In a nut shell, what you’re experiencing is very common. Just because your muscles aren’t sore doesn’t mean that heavy low volume training isn’t taxing your bodies systems it just does so in different ways.
DOMS is usually a by product of lactic acid build up and time under tension. Which doesn’t usually occur half as bad from a 1 rep set. That why ME work won’t make you physically as sore by will fry your CNS but the DOMS from a 20rep Death Squat is enough to leave you limping for days.
[quote]Reed wrote:
DOMS is usually a by product of lactic acid build up and time under tension. Which doesn’t usually occur half as bad from a 1 rep set. That why ME work won’t make you physically as sore by will fry your CNS but the DOMS from a 20rep Death Squat is enough to leave you limping for days.[/quote]
Lactic acid accumulated from training is gone soon after finishing a workout; DOMS (as in, being sore the next day/couple days) is from the micro-tears in the muscle fiber itself.
OP, it could be your body just getting accustomed to your routine, or maybe without realizing it your intensity has dropped, and you’re not training as close to failure. Could also be, as has been said, from training more low rep sets, and/or less volume, regardless of intensity.
[quote]Reed wrote:
DOMS is usually a by product of lactic acid build up and time under tension. Which doesn’t usually occur half as bad from a 1 rep set. That why ME work won’t make you physically as sore by will fry your CNS but the DOMS from a 20rep Death Squat is enough to leave you limping for days.[/quote]
Lactic acid accumulated from training is gone soon after finishing a workout; DOMS (as in, being sore the next day/couple days) is from the micro-tears in the muscle fiber itself. [/quote]
If you’re just a masochist that enjoys the soreness after a workout, give RDLs a shot. I’ve been doing these for months (with low weight and volume) and still haven’t adapted enough to NOT get bed ridden DOMS.
[quote]Fletch1986 wrote:
The subjective feeling for me is that heavier low volume training causes a more dull diffuse kind of soreness and just a general tired feeling whereas higher volume high tension techniques cause a more localized soreness in the muscles that were worked. [/quote]
I was wondering the same thing over the last month… I have been working in the 5 rep rand instead of 8-10 and my level of soreness dropped dramatically… I also have much better supplementation than I used to have though…
That’s normal. When I’m cycling up for a meet and doing mostly heavy singles, there’s no soreness. However, after a meet when I drop the weight and up the volume and frequency, I feel like I’m going to die for the first week.