IS MY WORKOUT EFFECTIVE IF I AM NOT SORE AFTER WORKING OUT?

It’s a common belief among exercisers that muscle soreness are correlated to quality of workout which is NOT TRUE!

Muscle soreness is believed that tiny microscopic tears in the muscle tissue result in inflammation, and inflammation is the main cause of soreness.

 

 

One of the reason that caused DOMS is eccentric contraction which mentioned in the previous articles.

The reason behind is that it requires a significant amount of lengthening (or eccentric) to resist the pull of gravity.

A lengthening contraction is simply a muscle resisting a stretch.

For example, when you perform a bicep curl and you are taking the dumbbells from your shoulder back down to your sides you are performing the lengthening portion of the exercise.

In fact, when you perform the lengthening portion of an exercise you actually use FEWER muscle fibres than on the shortening phase (lifting the dumbbell to the shoulder).

So if you use 100 muscle fibres to lift the weight during the shortening phase, you’ll use 80 to lower it (during the lengthening phase).

Same weight, fewer muscle fibres > damage, inflammation, and finally soreness.

Takeaway:

Muscle soreness is not a good indicator for a good workout whereas progressive overload is a better indicator for an effective workout. (We’ll discuss this topic in the other chapter)