T Nation

Soreness After Training?

Bodybuilding
#1

I wasn’t really sure in what forum this belongs… anyway here is the question.

I normally don’t get really sore from the way I prefer to work (lower rep ranges) out but whenever I mix it up and add higher volume work I might get some soreness…and usually I can feel it a little bit the day after but after two days I can feel it even more.

Does anyone experience the same, and does anyone know the reason for it.
And is it a sign that I am not getting enough Protein, Carbs etc…?

Thoughts, suggestions, experiences are all welcomed.

Thanks

Eisenbeisser

#2

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. DOMS is an indicator of muscle inflammation but not necessarily needed for hypertrophy. Forget the protein part. EFA’s are more important to prevent DOMS than protein. You can have DOMS and continue to workout. It is not necessary to wait until they disappear.

#3

I confess that I am outright hijacking this thread for 2 reasons.

  1. Where I’m going is pretty much where it sounds like this guy was going anyway.

  2. It’ll save space on practically duplicate threads.

I would like to hear peoples well thought out self analyzed experience on soreness. I was going to start a thread like this myself.

I don’t care what the studies say or all the mitochondrial gobbledy gook. I also am not looking to ignite a big heated controversy.

Just, how has it been for you.

For me if I don’t get sore I don’t grow. I can’t put it any plainer than that. Also, when dealing with symmetry issues the side that got the sorest was ALWAYS the one that was bigger… period.

I DO NOT train to get sore, but in light of experience I just cannot deny, I do instinctively use soreness as a gauge of how well a muscle group has been worked.

I am in no way implying that my experience is cannonizable as the standard by which anybody else’s should be measured, but I can’t be alone either.

I’m thinking what we’ll probably get here is a wide variety of equally valid experiences.

#4

I have gone through periods where I get sore every workout although the gains don’t seem to follow. I used to think soreness was a great indicator although now I just go by how I am actually progressing.

Lately, I get less sore but I have increased the volume in my workouts and I have been making gains. I have stayed away from failure on every set but I feel my workouts are much better throughout the week.

Basically I don’t care about being sore anymore, I just care about whether or not my numbers are going up. It seems to make more sense to me to focus on the actual progress versus being sore.

my $.02

#5

[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
I confess that I am outright hijacking this thread for 2 reasons.

  1. Where I’m going is pretty much where it sounds like this guy was going anyway.

  2. It’ll save space on practically duplicate threads.

I would like to hear peoples well thought out self analyzed experience on soreness. I was going to start a thread like this myself.

I don’t care what the studies say or all the mitochondrial gobbledy gook. I also am not looking to ignite a big heated controversy.

Just, how has it been for you.

For me if I don’t get sore I don’t grow. I can’t put it any plainer than that. Also, when dealing with symmetry issues the side that got the sorest was ALWAYS the one that was bigger… period.

I DO NOT train to get sore, but in light of experience I just cannot deny, I do instinctively use soreness as a gauge of how well a muscle group has been worked.

I am in no way implying that my experience is cannonizable as the standard by which anybody else’s should be measured, but I can’t be alone either.

I’m thinking what we’ll probably get here is a wide variety of equally valid experiences.

[/quote]

No problem with the Hijack, as it fits to the topic anyway…

I have to admit that I agree to some of your points especially with the symetry…

But I have to say that I don’t get the kind of soreness that I used to get as a beginner, just when I do super high volume sets

#6

[quote]vbm537 wrote:
I have gone through periods where I get sore every workout although the gains don’t seem to follow. I used to think soreness was a great indicator although now I just go by how I am actually progressing.
[/quote]

Did you stop for, like, 2 days straight? I find that when I get increasingly sore, keeping on working out in the meanwhile, I stop for 2-3 days and I grow a lot.

#7

[quote]Eisenbeisser wrote:
No problem with the Hijack, as it fits to the topic anyway…

I have to admit that I agree to some of your points especially with the symetry…

But I have to say that I don’t get the kind of soreness that I used to get as a beginner, just when I do super high volume sets[/quote]

I don’t normally do this, but you see the reasoning so cool.

If someone’s achieving their goals that’s what really matters. Soreness shouldn’t be the focus, but I do believe there are some other guys like me who are ill served by abandoning any reference to it all.

I can’t tell anybody who they are, just that there seems to be a misinformed air these days that automatically goes along with believing that doms means anything at all and I’m not able to believe that that’s always true.

#8

[quote]Imen de Naars wrote:
vbm537 wrote:
I have gone through periods where I get sore every workout although the gains don’t seem to follow. I used to think soreness was a great indicator although now I just go by how I am actually progressing.

Did you stop for, like, 2 days straight? I find that when I get increasingly sore, keeping on working out in the meanwhile, I stop for 2-3 days and I grow a lot.
[/quote]

I should have also stated there were times when I did make gains while being extremely sore. I think both are obviously possible it’s just that I longer use it as an indicator for a good workout and potential gains.

#9

Generally I don’t care if I am sore, I still workout…but I tried the Old School Calf Blaster once, and I hadn’t really worked my calfs directly often…this was a mistake I did the whole workout as written and the soreness I had was incredible, it wasn’t a good feeling as I normally like that feeling, but it was really painful!

#10

I’m surprised we’re not getting more takers for this.

#11

This is my first ever post on here as I have just joined.
I felt compelled to add my thoughts and experiences on this matter.
I have just got back into training about 5 months ago. After a long break (about 20 years)I’m 42 now but still in good shape.
When I first returned to training the after workout pain was to be expected as my muscles were not accustomed to the exercise. Now 5 months later I am getting back into it nicely and as before (20 years previous)I still gauge my level of gain by how much pain I have.
I know the pain it feels good like somethings happening to me. I also know the other pain the one which is bad where I know I’ve damaged something,there must be a fine line between the two.
In just 5 months I have gained about 10 lbs in muscle and the fat is disappearing slowly.
Its just that after every workout especially squats I feel pain the right kind if there is such a thing?
I’m also just wondering if muscles have memory and that they react to training faster than they would normally in that if I hadn’t trained 20 years ago,as I feel that my gains are surprisingly fast.
This is obviously a different question altogether and doesn’t belong on this thread. I’d just like to know what anyones thoughts are?