Is that next day stiffness/ soreness essential for muscle growth?

[Koreys666]

As we all know, the more experienced we get with our lifts, the less and less sore/ stiff you become the next day and the day after that. I've gone from it taking over a week to fully heal to under a few days now. Some muscle I don't feel the burn at all afterwards anymore, and this kind of scares me and makes me think I'm not getting a good enough work-out and my muscles are growing.

I've heard some people say that the post-work-out soreness means absolutely nothing. What is the real truth?

[SouthsideIrish44]

You don't need to feel DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) in order to know you got a good workout and/or are growing. Your body adapts usually.

[soapmaker77]

its extremely rare that i get sore these days, now its kinda cool when i do. if you can lift more than you could the week before thats really the bottom line. if you want to feel sore, do a badass set of skull crushers, works for me

[chazzy1864]

As we all know, the more experienced we get with our lifts, the less and less sore/ stiff you become the next day and the day after that. I've gone from it taking over a week to fully heal to under a few days now. Some muscle I don't feel the burn at all afterwards anymore, and this kind of scares me and makes me think I'm not getting a good enough work-out and my muscles are growing.

I've heard some people say that the post-work-out soreness means absolutely nothing. What is the real truth?

DOMS (or lack of) doesn't necessarily mean you got a good or bad workout, or that you are not progressing.

However for hypertrophy, I feel it is relatively necessary. It shows that you are traumatizing the muscle, which when repaired will be bigger. You don't necessarily have to feel debilitating soreness, but you should feel something.

[Tyrbolift]

Soreness is under-rated. It's not the goal, necessarily, but it's one of the indicators you can use, and if you seem to be going for a while with no soreness, it might be time to step up the poundage a little or the volume (# of sets).

[boettr90]

I've always said -- if you're not sore 24 hours after your workout -- you're not working hard enough.

You don't have to be dying, but lifting is essentially making small tears in the muscle that repair in bigger, stronger form. You should feel the muscles you've worked during the repair process.

[chazzy1864]

I've always said -- if you're not sore 24 hours after your workout -- you're not working hard enough.

Not disagreeing, but one caveat, is that some people are a bit different. At worst, I'll be "tight" the day after I lift. Generally for the most part, pretty normal. Day 2 is when I start to get really tight and feel some soreness. Day 3 and 4 is when soreness gets to be real bad for me.

[chicharrra]

As we all know, the more experienced we get with our lifts, the less and less sore/ stiff you become the next day and the day after that. I've gone from it taking over a week to fully heal to under a few days now. Some muscle I don't feel the burn at all afterwards anymore, and this kind of scares me and makes me think I'm not getting a good enough work-out and my muscles are growing.

I've heard some people say that the post-work-out soreness means absolutely nothing. What is the real truth?

If you are starting to feel less soar, or like your workout is getting easier then its time you change what your doing. keep changing up your workout and you will always be soar! don't get complacent in your workouts, keep adding new things! BTW when I say soar im not talking about barely being able to walk, because that could be an indication that you need a days rest. a little stiffness is fine though

[in10city]

As we all know, the more experienced we get with our lifts, the less and less sore/ stiff you become the next day and the day after that. I've gone from it taking over a week to fully heal to under a few days now. Some muscle I don't feel the burn at all afterwards anymore, and this kind of scares me and makes me think I'm not getting a good enough work-out and my muscles are growing.

I've heard some people say that the post-work-out soreness means absolutely nothing. What is the real truth?

DOMS does not have to take place to grow, but does indicate that trauma has taken place and will be followed by an adaptive response - the question then becomes whether or not the process resolves itself in a progressive manner.

However, DOMS can be a good indicator of how certain exercises hit certain body parts / muscle groups.

The more conditioned and experienced you become, you may not always feel DOMs or feel it to high degrees of severity. And the occurance is in part related to your volume, rep range, exercise selection, and form as well as your muscle conditioning.

For instance...

Ex: Stretch overload will probably induce more soreness than contracted position exercises.

Ex: Bouncing the weight at the turning point will probably induce more soreness than a smooth transistion

Ex: Training a muscle group 1x/week will probably induce more soreness than training it 2x/week.