I'm an older guy (50) and have a question for anyone who may know about DOMS. When I do a five day split (working out the same body part on the fifth day) I have little or no soreness. However if I move that back just one day to the sixth day I have a ton of soreness afterwards. My question is whether there's anything to be gained by putting up with the soreness from the standpoint of adding size? I just recently started the six day routine so I could add in a couple of cardio days but if there's nothing to be gained, I see no point to continue it with the added soreness. Thanks in advance for the help.
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Thread: Question about DOMS
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03-18-2017, 07:28 AM #1
Question about DOMS
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03-18-2017, 09:59 AM #2
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from my personal experience, there is nothing to be gained from being more sore from having longer rest periods. In fact, last few years I much prefer 3 to 4 day splits, and some time I do 2 day splits when I train twice daily (4 workouts in period of two days, 48 hrs rest between working same muscle group). Perhaps the best growth I experience if from 4 day splits, but it stalls sometimes and I have to speed up to 2 day splits and get to overtraining mode for a while to get 4 day split to work again.
I used to do 5 and 6 day splits, and kept going hard at it for a few years, because this is what everybody was telling me I should do. Basically, with rest days, it is like working muscle group once a week. It did not work. I was permanently sore for years, with little to show for it.
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03-18-2017, 10:23 AM #3
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There is nothing to be gained with DOMS. For most of us it happens when we've been away from the gym for a while or we aren't working certain muscles often enough. For instance, I used to get crazy DOMS in my legs a few days after "leg day." On the advice of people on this board, I added leg movements to another day in my workout...essentially working the legs twice a week instead of once. The DOMS went away completely.
ALL I ASK IS ALL YOU GOT FOR AS LONG AS IT TAKES
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03-18-2017, 10:50 AM #4
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Muscle soreness is not an indicator of how hard you've worked, the amount of gains you will make nor anything else. What is does mean is that you worked muscles and your diet is probably lacking or you've worked muscles you haven't hit squarely in awhile.
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03-18-2017, 10:59 AM #5
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03-18-2017, 12:56 PM #6
Not saying it is any sorta indication, call me crazy but I strive for it. For me mentally I feel satisfied feeling the worked muscle group the next day. I only train each group once a week and get the most outta it that I can. I'll add drop sets, one and halfs, and very rest periods after my normal regimen. Perhaps a total waste of time, but always disappointed if I don't feel it contracting the next dayy
My journal, not detailed, but heck I never keep track of much anyhow. http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=121196291&p=863931421#post863931421
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03-18-2017, 03:32 PM #7
This isn't exactly what happens, but it serves for illustrative purposes.
If you stress the muscle beyond a certain level, you create microtrauma, which you then need to recover from (food, sleep etc). Total microtrauma is loosely linked to "gains". DOMS loosely indicates a certain level of microtrauma, usually sought by those that train for peak, as opposed to aggregate, microtrauma. In simpler terms, you could experience more microtrauma in a week by training multiple times, but the "peak" microtrauma wouldn't be as high on any given day and you wouldn't feel DOMS.
That isn't exactly how it works, but it demonstrates the principle.Screw nature; my body will do what I DAMN WELL tell it to do!
The only dangerous thing about an exercise is the person doing it.
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03-18-2017, 03:38 PM #8
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03-18-2017, 04:02 PM #9
Well, that certainly wasn't what I was implying. The OP was asking about further bro-ifying his bro-split so he would have DOMS all the time. Much better (IMHO) to switch to a more productive higher frequency based program. If someone has DOMS all the time (past the first couple weeks of training), they probably aren't using an optimal program.
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03-19-2017, 04:26 PM #10
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I'm with you on this one. I also follow a similar strategy. Short rest, constant strip sets, altered cadence, scattered sets, whatever it takes to "fool" my muscles and push them through a plateau.
Although I don't feel disappointed if I don't get DOMS since it is far more rare to me now, when I do get it, to me it just feels right, regardless of the intrinsic value behind it (though I certainly "feel" it's a positive outcome). Feels the way my body first felt so many year ago when I began lifting and as we all know that's when you notice the change in strength and composition, that's when you knew without question you were improving. So, if you can obtain a similar feeling once you have obtained a certain amount of mass, strength and muscle familiarity, you know you are going full out and leaving it all in the gym.Last edited by johnnyfry; 03-19-2017 at 04:28 PM. Reason: addition
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03-19-2017, 05:04 PM #11
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03-19-2017, 06:52 PM #12
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03-19-2017, 07:18 PM #13
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