Muscle soreness (and lack of)

[eco2pia]

Ok this has happened to me a number of times over the years and I have always wondered what it actually means.

I start a fitness/weight training routine, and I am soooo sore for the first few weeks. Then, suddenly I am not getting sore anymore. "Need to increase weight," I think, and so I do, as far as I can without sacrificing form, but still...nothing. So I switch it up, trying something different, and maybe get mildly sore, but still not really feeling it....It can happen after as little as one good solid routine. It can kill me once, but only once apparently. What made me sore last week, wont bother me at all this week, even upping all the weights by 20%. Of course, that rate of weight increase isn't sustainable, eventually I top out somewhere and can't control any more weight with good form for a while.

I have always wondered, is this a good thing, my body just getting much better at handling the recovery faster and faster, or am I just not pushing hard enough?

I realize that this is a silly thing to complain about--lack of soreness is certainly more pleasant, but I don't want to become the weightlifting version of a treadmill hamster--spinning my wheels and getting nowhere...I was just wondering if this is a common thing? Is it something I can rely on for feedback on the effectiveness of my workout, or maybe not so much?

[BadWolf]

This has been happening to me the last couple of times I went to workout, so I don't have an answer, but it's not just you!

[Book]

Yep, very, very, very common. Someone else will be better able to answer why, but natural, healthy soreness happens when you stress muscles in a way they're not accustomed to.

Funny story: My old track club used to use this to weed out the kids who weren't serious. When kids would show up full of enthusiasm, they'd get thrown right in with the rest of the crew. The next day, and for the few days after, they would barely be able to walk. The ones who come back are obviously the ones that are serious about it. Of course, they were never told that once their bodies adjusted to the workouts, soreness would be mostly gone.

As long as you are progressing (heavier weights, faster times, etc), don't worry too much about not doing enough. If your body has gotten used to an exercise, and you're still getting *that* sore, then you're probably doing too much.

[spatzcat]

soreness is not a reliable symptom of how hard you worked out. Overtime, you may find you have it less and less. You may find that switching your program up - adding a different exercise can induce it again.

But, just because you are not sore, does not mean you didn't rock that workout.

[VexedCoffee]

soreness is not a reliable symptom of how hard you worked out. Overtime, you may find you have it less and less. You may find that switching your program up - adding a different exercise can induce it again.

But, just because you are not sore, does not mean you didn't rock that workout.

A million times this. Soreness won't really tell you how hard you should be working out.

[Book]

Well, I will disagree a bit with the previous comments. It is esssential to listen to your body and use soreness to judge how much you should do, just like you need to learn to listen to your body to judge what to eat. Particularly to be able to distinguish between "New Exercise Soreness" and " Injury Soreness". But even New Exercise Soreness is a signal to be careful. It's easy to overtrain at that point, plus your muscles are tighter, and more prone to injury. When the kids would come back having a hard time walking, they would be guided through a much milder workout, with plenty of stretching. To be honest, the fact that it's lasting for weeks may be an indication to progress a little more slowly initially, which ironically, may allow you to progress faster because your muscles are getting enough rest.

[morethanjustamom]

Being new to strength training (I'm old hat at running), I'm learning so much. During our lifting session this morning, hubby spent a lot of time between sets explaining muscle memory to me and how that affects starting a new workout. For example, he has lifted on and off since he was probably 14 (now 37), about the time most young men start playing football or baseball, which requires strength training. Sometimes he was really serious about it, sometimes not, but over the years he has developed very good form in almost every type of lift, and lots of muscle memory.

I, on the other hand, started lifting about two weeks ago for the first time ever (I'm 31). I spend a lot of time struggling with fluid movements, stability, form, not shaking, etc. whereas he makes it all look so easy. He also hasn't gotten nearly as sore as I have, even though it's been 6 years since he last worked out seriously. He attributes this to two things: muscle memory, of which I have none, since I'm "teaching" my body new movements, and small muscle fibers. Since you use the smaller muscles to stabilize yourself when you use free weights, once those are repaired, they aren't sore anymore.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

soreness is not a reliable symptom of how hard you worked out. Overtime, you may find you have it less and less. You may find that switching your program up - adding a different exercise can induce it again.

But, just because you are not sore, does not mean you didn't rock that workout.

I also wanna point out the correctness of this. Just because you are note sore does not mean you're not getting a good workout.

edit:

He also hasn't gotten nearly as sore as I have, even though it's been 6 years since he last worked out seriously.

Same thing happened to me. I started lifting back in November and hadn't lifted since '03. I was incredibly surprised by how little soreness I got, how fast it went away, and the amount of strength I had kept.

[eco2pia]

To be honest, the fact that it's lasting for weeks may be an indication to progress a little more slowly initially, which ironically, may allow you to progress faster because your muscles are getting enough rest.

To be honest this is a bit of an overstatement--I was not walking around groaning and popping advil for weeks it is just that after the first two weeks I had exausted the "new" excercises I know how to do, and the "new" muscles I could engage, and I can no longer make myself sore...Since I started out with at least a day between workouts, that is only about 6 workouts.

Anyway, thanks for settling that for me! I used to be very fit in a very specialized (sport related) way and never got sore from actions related to my sport, but it was easy to get sore over anything new. So, since I had a high level of fitness without chronic soreness, I suspected that it was a just-starting thing, but then I started reading (on other sites) about managing soreness while weight training, and I started to wonder...

[ZenGwen]

Do you eat/take anything after your workouts? I had the same concern for months, then forgot to pack any protein to eat after my workout one day and was achey all over the next morning. hadn't even occurred to me that it was making such a difference, because my boyfriend already lifted and used protein shakes, so he had me on them from the start.

But, yeah, not something to really worry about anyway.

[eco2pia]

Good point, thanks to my time-starved life, I live on protein shakes in the morning right after working out, and that is probably helping too...I used to get less protein in my younger years, with no idea how important it was. It is hard to believe, now that I look back and realize that my protein consumption has nearly doubled, tripled if you go back to my late teens, early 20's...I wonder that I was able to put muscle on at all. Ah youth, fueled by diet soda and candy bars...

[helloterence]

I usually experience soreness after trying out a new workout for the first couple of weeks.

I have always been told that soreness is just your muscles telling you they're hungry, so be a pal and feed them!

[fperez]

Which is a shame for me, and the reason I constantly switch routines every month or two, because I LOVE that feeling of soreness.