Soreness is a common and somewhat unfortunate part of exercise. It’s never fun to leave a workout or wake up the next day in pain, but it’s actually a very normal part of the experience. When we put stress on our muscles through exercise, the muscle fibers and nearby connective tissues tear, leaving us feeling sore. This tearing is what allows our muscles to grow back stronger after a workout.

It’s easy to hear this and automatically think we must be sore in order to have an effective workout. Fortunately, this is not the case, as our muscles can tear and grow back stronger without soreness, too. There are many other factors that contribute to whether or not our workouts are getting us closer to our goals, and although muscle soreness is a natural part of exercise, it does not determine whether or not we had a good workout. 

It’s important we consider our intention and goal for the workout before determining whether or not it was effective. For example, going on a short recovery run would have very different desired outcomes in comparison to testing our one repetition maximum deadlift, and therefore these two workouts would need to be measured for effectiveness very differently. 

The main goal of the run would be to move our body, get blood flowing to areas that have been challenged earlier in the week, and feel ready to go the next day, meaning we actively want to avoid muscle soreness. Testing how much weight we can lift means we will be pushing our bodies to our maximum capacity, and therefore muscle soreness afterward is expected, yet still doesn’t determine whether or not we have increased the amount of weight we can lift. 

Rather than basing the effectiveness of our workouts on muscle soreness, we can determine whether or not we are meeting our goal and intention for the session by using the rating of perceived exertion (RPE) scale. 

By using RPE, we can rate how difficult the workout feels on a scale of one to ten. Our goal RPE for our recovery run may be between a five and a seven, where our goal for our one rep max test will be a ten out of ten. Using this scale allows us to set a goal for ourselves and adjust the intensity of our workout as we go to help us keep making progress and reach our desired outcome. 

Muscle soreness is not something we can control, and therefore doesn’t make a very good indicator of progress. It’s important to recognize that you may push yourself very hard one day and not feel sore, while the same workout a week later could leave you in a lot of pain. 

Keeping track of your progress in other ways such as logging the amount of weight you lift each week, taking progress photos, tracking your body measurements, or paying attention to how much more energy you have from day to day after a workout will give you a much clearer picture of the effectiveness of your workouts based on your goals than muscle soreness will. Be sure to help your body recover after your workouts by getting enough sleep, drinking plenty of water, and eating nutritious foods. Your body needs these things, sore or not.

Xoxo

Coach Maggi