Soreness, micro-tears, and the burn! We hear these terms a lot in the weight room, though a lot of people aren’t sure exactly what these things indicate. Yet the same individuals advise about the desired intensity of exercise and casually throw the words around. We must have all felt sore at least once in our lives and are probably not excited about the sensation.
How many times have you been told to aim for soreness while you’re at the gym? Have you felt proud to experience soreness, like it is proof of your efforts in the weight room? Is soreness the target if you want to achieve muscle growth? These questions are not thought about enough and seem almost obvious to many people.
Speaking of soreness, it is the sensation of muscle discomfort felt as a result of muscle damage and can be induced by exercise. It is more prevalent after performing eccentric (negative) focused exercises, or when one is unaccustomed to that particular exercise form. It is an indicator of incomplete recovery and thus limits your capability to perform optimally in future training sessions. As you can imagine, this would mean sub-optimal muscle growth as well. What if I tell you that you don’t always have to push yourself to the point of soreness and fatigue? In that way, many people would look forward to their workouts instead of fearing the next session. Without a doubt, if there is a positive attitude around the resistance training sessions, adherence to the regime will be a lot easier.
Muscle damage itself has not been established as a precursor to muscle growth. There are definitely a few plausible theories that link the two, but a cause-effect relationship has not been found yet. This means it may not be necessary to aim for the parameters of exercise that are significant for microtrauma to gain muscle. This is seen in occlusion training where even small loads produce hypertrophy that is equal to that produced by traditional strength training. It is achieved by creating a hypoxic environment. This hints at some factors other than muscle damage that are responsible for hypertrophy.
We have talked quite some about how soreness is not all that important. As you can imagine, there is another side of the coin that needs to be observed. What cannot be denied is that soreness will give you a clear picture of the muscles that were used. This means that if you are experiencing soreness in the chest and triceps in the days following the bench press exercise, you can be sure that you have successfully targeted the intended muscle groups.
For some individuals who are unsure of the volume or intensity at which they are training at, pushing for muscle soreness once in a while can make sure that you have at least caused a stimulus. Even if that means an overstimulation. If this session is followed by adequate recovery, this kind of stimulus is surely better than undertraining.
With all that said, should you aim for soreness or not? What’s important to understand is that it is just a byproduct of resistance training. It will occur in greater intensity when you train closer to failure and when you focus more on the eccentric (negative) phase of the exercises. You do not need to deliberately try to get sore, neither should you try to stay clear from it. What is, will be.
How many times have you been told to aim for soreness while you’re at the gym? Have you felt proud to experience soreness, like it is proof of your efforts in the weight room? Is soreness the target if you want to achieve muscle growth? These questions are not thought about enough and seem almost obvious to many people.
Speaking of soreness, it is the sensation of muscle discomfort felt as a result of muscle damage and can be induced by exercise. It is more prevalent after performing eccentric (negative) focused exercises, or when one is unaccustomed to that particular exercise form. It is an indicator of incomplete recovery and thus limits your capability to perform optimally in future training sessions. As you can imagine, this would mean sub-optimal muscle growth as well. What if I tell you that you don’t always have to push yourself to the point of soreness and fatigue? In that way, many people would look forward to their workouts instead of fearing the next session. Without a doubt, if there is a positive attitude around the resistance training sessions, adherence to the regime will be a lot easier.
Muscle damage itself has not been established as a precursor to muscle growth. There are definitely a few plausible theories that link the two, but a cause-effect relationship has not been found yet. This means it may not be necessary to aim for the parameters of exercise that are significant for microtrauma to gain muscle. This is seen in occlusion training where even small loads produce hypertrophy that is equal to that produced by traditional strength training. It is achieved by creating a hypoxic environment. This hints at some factors other than muscle damage that are responsible for hypertrophy.
We have talked quite some about how soreness is not all that important. As you can imagine, there is another side of the coin that needs to be observed. What cannot be denied is that soreness will give you a clear picture of the muscles that were used. This means that if you are experiencing soreness in the chest and triceps in the days following the bench press exercise, you can be sure that you have successfully targeted the intended muscle groups.
For some individuals who are unsure of the volume or intensity at which they are training at, pushing for muscle soreness once in a while can make sure that you have at least caused a stimulus. Even if that means an overstimulation. If this session is followed by adequate recovery, this kind of stimulus is surely better than undertraining.
With all that said, should you aim for soreness or not? What’s important to understand is that it is just a byproduct of resistance training. It will occur in greater intensity when you train closer to failure and when you focus more on the eccentric (negative) phase of the exercises. You do not need to deliberately try to get sore, neither should you try to stay clear from it. What is, will be.
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