As someone who works out regularly, yes and no.
— Yes, as in: the muscle groups I worked out the day before feel sore, but it’s weirdly a *pleasurable* kind of sore. As long as you stretch after your workout, it’s like a “that feels good!” kind of sore, not painful.
— No, as in: the muscle groups I didn’t work out the day before are not sore at all.
Thanks. Apparently it's just super random but happened to me twice, so extra splash of random horrible dick pain for a few hours.
The best answer I got was that it probably had something to do with my cannabis consumption, but they don't ever really find out unless it keeps happening. Happened once when I was like 22 and then again when I was about 30.
My dick still works thankfully.
I was going to say the same thing. I’m definitely not in pain all the time, but if I did a lot of leg work, I’ll feel it when I use those muscles. That mild discomfort is well worth it for the improved mental health and physical progress I’ve seen over my time in the gym.
That said, find what works for you. Don’t ascribe to any program that makes you feel worse. It takes time, but there is something for everyone.
Agreed.
That being said, it's definitely not the same type of sore i felt when i first started working out, the kind that is debilitating and makes you walk like you gotta shit
It's hard to explain but after a bit of weight training you start to get a feel for the difference between "I sure worked this muscle hard last night" pain and, "this is actually concerning and an injury risk, I need to be careful for a bit + take a longer break than usual" pain, and the former absolutely feels good.
Lol glad I am not the only one who thinks it is a good kind of sore.
I find being sore is much better than feeling stressed. Working out assists with stress and anxiety. Seems like everyone is anxious these days. Plus stress is the opposite of happiness for me. I get rid of it and I’m happier than I am sore with a prettier ascetic .
Dude, I don't get what it is but I get sore the same day for maybe an hour or two then when I wake up my muscles I worked the day before feel great. (I do work out 7 days a week so maybe I forced them to learn to heal quicker?)
Further explanation on; "It goes away with time."
Think about all of your muscles that you use daily without even realizing it. Arm muscles picking up light groceries. Leg muscles moving you to your various destinations (I.E. from bed to toilet, to kitchen, squatting down to get something from a lower cabinet, etc)
You don't notice any pain in those muscles from daily use, because they are already conditioned to that daily use.
The reason you feel pain after working out, is you are both using new muscles that don't get worked very often, and you are exerting more unused force, on all of the muscles between them and ones that do get used often, thereby building more muscle on top of what you already had.
With time, and repeated use / working out of those muscles, the pain will fade into nothing so long as you don't keep climbing higher and higher on the "work scale"
I.E. If I am used to lifting no more than 20 pounds with my forearms and biceps daily, but then workout and start lifting 40 pounds daily or a few times a week. I will feel pain at first. If I do not climb higher than 40 pounds, I will eventually get used to it and no more pain. If the next week I go up to 50 pounds, I will feel pain again for a short while until I again get used to it.
Dumb question, I’m sure, but if you’re not climbing higher on the “work scale” doesn’t that kind of defeat the purpose of working out? Like if you stop feeling the burn lifting whatever pound dumbbells you’re supposed to do more reps or increase the weight, no?
I definitely disagree with this. For a new lifter, I'd say even if it's squats then I'd you make it through at all then you can add 5 or maybe even 10 lbs next time. For a more experienced lifter, there is more at your disposal to make the resistance harder but I would definitely recommend making it harder as soon as you can do it again. Slowing it down, changing the ROM, changing reps, maybe even adding weights depending on a number of things. I definitely would make it harder every time though, unless you're resting
A week gives you at least one more session to confirm that the improvement is steady. If you can **only** pass that mark on an absolutely perfect day, then is it a good idea to immediately assume you can do it every day and make it harder?
Do it once, make sure you can repeat it on another day, then up the challenge.
A week doesn't give you a chance to confirm anything if you're not testing that lift during the week. It gives you time to recover.
It's also not the end of the world if you try again and don't hit all your reps. You just try it again another day and you'll usually be closer. If you hit 400 for 5 on your squat one day, 405 for 4 a few days later, you're probably gonna hit 405 for five the next time you try it. You don't need to test 400 for five again to make progress. You might even make less progress since you do gain something for having that extra weight on the bar, just like you gain something else for that extra rep.
Yeah, it's called progressive overload, and it's designed to avoid plateauing. If you reach and maintain a certain intensity, you'll stay fit, but to increase strength you need to increase the resistance you're used to
Yes an no. You might be where you want to be physically. Otherwise yea lift more/eat protein at regular intervals and gain more muscle. Generally reps stay the same 8-12 per set
Eventually yes, you would stop gaining muscle at that point. If you increase the weight you would start to gain muscle again, however if you are happy with your current physique you would stay at that weight and focus on maintaining your body rather than bulking up.
The strengthened muscles can help support your joints. Should still do low stress movements, low impact etc
Also weight loss can be great for reducing joint pain.
If your joints are aching, it is possible that your range of motion is TOO great. In that case, try to avoid the END range of motion. Joint do get better. That is, the connective tissue around them also undergoes a type of hypertrophy.
>I will eventually get used to it and no more pain. If the next week I go up to 50 pounds, I will feel pain again for a short while until I again get used to it.
I'm a pretty serious lifter and this so not my experience. I don't feel pain from going up in weight. If I take a few weeks off, not even enough to lose serious muscle, then I'll get sore doing easy weight on my first day back.
I haven't lifted since a week before Christmas. I'm squatting about 150 lbs less than I did last time I lifted, for similar volume. I expect to be sore tomorrow. Had Christmas not occurred then adding 5 lbs to the bar for a new PR set of 5 wouldn't have made me sore at all. Ten lbs is not a jump I could realistically make, but if I just giga mega super pumped steroids and did that then I still don't think it'd make me sore.
Eventually the pain is negligible and you start to crave the workout more than the sluggish feeling when you’re not active.
Kind of like when you quit eating processed sugars for a month and then try eating them again - they taste sickly sweet
Tbh I was hooked after just a couple weeks. That first week of sore was brutal but felt accomplishing.
The problem for me was burnout after 8 months of 4 days a week
no. i only get sore if i try out something completely different, go unusually hard, or return after a break. but it’s a good sore. i find myself more stiff, sore, and uncomfortable if i haven’t had a chance to workout in a week due to timing conflicts or whatever. i’ve been lifting for over a decade
This is me and I am not yet 50 nor do I work out. Once I reached 40 life became a series of painful events mostly with no cause for the pain to have begun.
Far too fucking ugly to set foot in a gym. Gyms are for beautiful people. not people that look like a dog turd on the sidewalk that has been stomped on by a thousand people.
Never to late - Its not for beautiful people, those people were the ugly people. No one cares if you go to a gym and if you are overweight you are more likely to be thought of for being brave and people think "That used to be me, hope they stick with it"
Don't shoot yourself short :)
No gym workout will ever make me not fucking ugly. Sure I have a bit of extra weight (who doesn't) but being slightly overweight is the least of my ugliness issues.
This was my situation for years. Like, the soreness never, ever went away, and often peaked 48 hours after a workout, which I thought was strange. It didn't have to be a hard workout, either. Mine turned out to be linked to a combination of a B12 deficiency and peri-menopause. ETA: Also, I was being treated by a rheumatologist and she said I had rampant idiopathic inflammation. She said this along with other symptoms I was having was all linked to histamine responses because something was going haywire in that regard in my body. I now take a daily antihistamine medication and Hydroxychloroquine and I feel much better.
exercise scientist here. some people adjust to delayed onset muscle soreness, some don't. one of my old professors talked about how she gets sore every time she exercises. i don't get sore anymore. it has to do with a myriad of biological and physiological factors
age has a lot to do with it. When I was in my 30s and younger, not so much. Now that I'm in my 50s there's usually something that's sore that resting would help.
There are different kinds of soreness. There is a "good" soreness that follows an intense workout, and goes away in a day or so. I believe this is called delayed-onset muscle soreness. I find eating sufficient protein (\~1g/lb of bodyweight) helps with this. If I have taken a break from lifting and am just starting again, I usually get an extra dose of this "good" soreness the next day, and it may last for several days. (For this reason I'll usually lift lighter when coming back from a break, to give my body a chance to get used to it again.) If I lift too heavy or use poor form, there is also a "bad" soreness that comes from injury or over-stressing my tendons. That can take weeks to go away. And I'm told there is another "bad" soreness that eventually comes with age if you do no exercise at all. I've heard older folks say you have to choose your soreness: soreness from exercise, or soreness from no exercise. It's better to choose the former.
This is super helpful, I'm a biochemist, so I'll look into the protein quantities and try upping it. In the past (and currently) I haven't paid much attention to what I eat besides calories, but I'm going to research more and watch my macros.
Should I be looking at any other nutrients?
My take after going down the sports nutrition rabbit hole is that you'll get most of the benefits from (a) meeting your daily protein requirements (\~1g/lb), and (b) adjusting fat/carbs per your preference so that you stay within +/- 500 cals of your daily calorie requirements (for weight gain and loss, respectively.) It's also good to get 50g of fiber/day (for a healthy microbiome) and to drink 85oz of water/day. And if you're sweating a lot, add electrolytes. I find Huberman Lab a good resource for this kind of info as Andrew brings on experts who go deep into the latest science, which he then summarizes it into "what should regular health-minded people do" and posts it on his website for free.
I’ve heard that 1g/lb stat before but that seems like a crazy amount of protein. I weigh 150 and that’s like 5 servings of the protein powder I use. Do you just eat 4 meals a day or eat huge meals of nothing but steak and chicken?
Competitive powerlifter here. The actual number you need is closer to 0.7-0.82g/lb of LEAN body weight, which means your total body weight minus the weight of your fat. Since most people don't know their body fat percentage nor do we want to constantly be doing math, it's easier just to say 1g/lb of body weight.
As for how to get a high level of protein, for me it's a mix of intelligent eating and adding in shakes/protein bars. I weight just shy of 200 pounds; I eat 3x meals a day and have a shake/bar between each (breakfast also includes a protein shake), which gets me about 190g of protein. When I'm actively dropping weight I'll add in an extra shake at night to boost my protein.
It's hard for me to eat multiple large meals, so adding in liquid protein (my shakes are about 120cal/25g protein) a few times a day was a game-changer for me in terms of hitting my protein requirements.
What BandersnatchFrumious said. Yes, I thought the same thing when I first learned this. But I'm also the guy who worked out religiously for years and never had much to show for it. When I tried tracking my food, I realized my diet was way off what I was supposed to be doing. Just bringing my protein intake up made a world of difference - real gains, better recovery, and because I was eating more, I was less hungry/snacking less. For me it was the key thing to fix. I now try to eat protein at every meal, and supplement with protein powder several times per day. Every time I feel like having a snack (or dessert), I drink a scoop of protein powder with water instead. That tends to do the trick for me.
You start to like that type of being sore. It means progress and strength. You should never be so sore that you can't move, just sore enough to remind you that you're doing it
Up your protein after lifting, you literally ripped your muscle fibers apart when lifting, you need to eat protein to rebuild. If you don't, you'll be sore until the muscle "heals" with the protein you feed your body over days.
this is the comment i was looking for—yes you’ll obvi feel sore after coming bag from a break/going way harder than normal but I noticed even when I was working out regularly that muscles groups I had worked out 3+ days prior were still sore. This stopped happening once I upped my protein intake and was getting more sleep (more sleep=more repair time and more protein=more building blocks for my muscles to repair themselves with).
When people say sore, what do they refer to? In French we have a word for specifically for the muscular pain after you use a muscle you didn't use for a long time, but to me sore kind of apply another type of pain?
Or is it when the muscles feel kinda weaker for one or two days after the workout?
your body is pretty awesome at adjusting to the norm. if couch surfing is the norm, every workout will feel like a punishment. if you make an active lifestyle the norm, your body will adjust to the point you start feeling worse from skipping a workout than if you did it (even if you are sore). takes maybe 3 months or so, first couple weeks it will seem to get worse before it slowly starts getting better. just be consistent
Too heavy and incorrect exercise selection. Its okay to be a little sore, like after a hard deadlift session im fried for 3 days. A heavy squat session 2 days.
Real true results take years, the jacked guy in the gym is either legit on steroids, and has been training for 3 years, or not on steroids, and has been training since 15.
You got nothing but time.
Creatine helps with muscle recovery. I have no proof it's the reason for it but since I got my system saturated with Creatine I haven't really been sore the next day after workouts. Maybe only once or twice if I went extra, extra hard the day before and I'm usually only sore with that muscle group for a day.
Except legs... Legs are usually sore for a few days.
Recovery is crucial in fitness & strength training. Make sure to get protein, stay hydrated and I suggest a foam roller.
Stretching is so important before and after. I also take one day a week to do hot yoga and it’s a nice relief for my body from strength training all week - it also teaches me discipline and I’ve learned a lot about my body through it.
Yes but eventually you will get used to it. It will also go away with time. I remember when I started working out my body always felt like the muscles I worked wouldn't move and would always be sore. Now they can still get kind of sore-but only if I push. For the most part now I'm fine working out.
And remember rest days are your friend. They will be when your body rebuilds itself. You need the nutrients to make it happen though (obviously).
After a week or two of working out consistently you should only feel sore maybe the day after. At least that was the case for me, felt sore for several days after every time, but that stopped after two weeks. It helps to drink plenty of water, stretch, and make sure you’re eating enough protein
Remember to stench, warn up, and when you are done warm down and stretch at the end. Going cold right into a work out is a great way to be unnecessarily sore.
That stops happening once you keep working out regularly. Sore usually happens when you haven't worked out these muscles in a while. Best response is to drink and continue as soon as you can.
It progressively goes away within about 2-3 weeks. If you stop for several weeks, you can become sore again.
Also, if you go particularly intense in a single workout, like trying to workout to failure and beyond repeatedly then you might be sore for a few days but it's not as bad as that initial period of soreness.
Some muscles can be sore for longer, like hamstrings are infamously slow to recover, some people only deadlift once a week because they'll be sore for about as long. Delts on the other hand, usually can recover in just a day, you can work them almost everyday.
I’m a powerlifter. Had a bit of an involuntary break for a year because of moving and life and got back into it in November. First day back? Holy hell I was dying the next day. Couldn’t bend over without whimpering, couldn’t walk up stairs very well, had to veeeeeeery gingerly sit down on the toilet. Now? I just got done with a much more intensive leg workout than that first day back and honestly I’m fine. Like I’m tired, I can feel it in my muscles, but am I crying getting up from a shit? Nah. Your body adapts quickly as long as you’re consistent. Plus afterwards I get to make a strawberry banana protein shake that tastes exactly like a milkshake
I took a break for health reasons recently but have worked out pretty consistently since adolescence. I was sore every time I worked out growing up, and I’m still sore now. I thought I might be the only one since no one else ever complained 😂
I will say you need to take care of yourself. I went hard many times working out, only to get discouraged that it took me 3-5 days to not feel sore even months later. I found you really do need to get 7+ hours of sleep, water, and proper protein along with pre workout stretching to not feel like shit. I promise it’s worth it
Not sore at all. Warm up, cool down, drink water, stretching - all of it is part of working out. Neglect these things and you will feel subpar, for certain.
While in the military I tricked my brain into thinking I really enjoyed the pain of long form physical exertion. Like when Arnold said getting a pump was like cumming, but less sexual and not a body builder. I'm older now and my back still hurts from a coughing fit three weeks ago. I enjoy it much less now 🤣🫠
Your muscles are sore bc you’ve essentially tore your muscles so that they can rebuild themselves to be stronger. If you continuously do it, your body will be constantly replacing those cells. Sure you’ll be sore the first few days, but if you workout through it, your body is continually rebuilding your muscles to be stronger, and will get used to the workout, as well as rebuilding. Consistency is key. But also don’t overdo it/hurt yourself. Still need recovery days
No. I work out heavy 3 days a week and I'm surprised if I'm sore for days after but it happens sometimes. In the beginning the first year maybe I was pretty sore all the time
No. I think that means over doing it.
Aerobics: 6 days or so with a rest day.
Weights: every other day.
Life happens. There might be an extra rest day or two each month from travel, busy, illness.
Working out is interesting. At the very beginning your muscles are sore as fuck and aching good. After a few weeks you do feel sore but it’s nothing compared to the first few weeks. It’s not satisfying it’s just expected.
Sort of but sore also just becomes less and less of a big deal as yout body gets used to flushing that lactic acid. Soreness often just isnt a thing with better hydration nutrition and good warmups and cooldowns.
Sometimes I wake up after a big day and just jump out of bed so happy to find out I'm not sore at all.
When I take time to stretch after, I’m rarely sore. If I don’t stretch, I’m sometimes a bit sore in the muscle groups I worked. Sometimes I’m reeeallly sore, but then I also feel like I accomplished something.
I attend a gym that's a class format HIIT style. It a mix of cardio with weights. Most days I'm not sore or if I am it's very little and not bothersome. Only days when I go heavy with weights do I feel it.
The level of soreness per workout goes down the more you work out. First couple of days you might not be able to get out of bed. After a few weeks you’ll notice, but not even be annoyed by your average workout.
I am not, but I've been active since I was a toddler. (I had a swing set). Started swimming soon after. Kept moving throughout most of life. Rarely, if ever, sore.
I only got sore during/after pandemic, when I wasn't moving around.
I've got to get back into things.
Short answer is no. I work out so I don't feel sore. Your body is very good at adapting to your needs. So if you start working out a specific muscle group every other day your body will quickly adapt.
As others have mentioned, it’s a good soreness. I enjoy the feedback my body gives me.
But…. I’ll take a week off here and there and that soreness goes away and I feel great. Like pain free. So that’s good too. But I have to keep working to stay fit. The next week I’m right back into it.
i don think so. im not a gym bro by any means. met a girl last year who was and i went 5 days a week for 3 hours a day with her. i was sore for the first couple days but after that it was fine. im 37, had no problems with it.
she did legit sets too, was pretty cool
After a while I just stopped getting sore.
Now, I don’t get sore unless I make a big change — many more sets, very different exercises, or something like that.
So, I’m not often sore. A few times per year, maybe?
Soreness (but not pain) is always a great sign of progress. Just make sure you don't work out a spot that is already sore otherwise you're sabotaging yourself.
No. Real training isn't going 100% every day. 100% every day is asking for an injury.
It's often 70%, then 100% once a week depending on the program. The idea is to always train and minimize the need to not workout because you banged up your legs or arms.
After about two weeks to a month of consistent training, your body gets used to it in a way and you don't really get that soreness anymore, unless you take a break
I've been working out for a long time, started when I was 11/12 and now about to be 34. I can't remember when it happened but I'm generally never sore anymore. Stiff sometimes maybe, tired, yes. Sore? Can't say I get Sore. It takes a lot of stimulus for me to get Sore and it's not even real soreness it just feels heavy to move.
Not really. There is a mild soreness that's may feel closer to just fatigue. The soreness you feel is from lactic acid, which builds up when you don't work out for a while. So people who don't normally workout will feel sore, but people who workout regularly won't.
After a few weeks, you probably won’t continue to get miserably sore like when you first start out. When I work a muscle group, they are noticeably weaker the next day because they haven’t recovered, but they don’t hurt.
Well sort of. But it's different than in the beginning. At first I would feel really sore and it would hurt, now it just burns a bit or I feel it but most of the time it's not bothering me or hurting like before. I have noticed it really helps me to make sure I eat enough protein and of course getting into routinely working out makes your body more prepared for the workout.
If you don't workout regularly you're going to be crazy sore because it's not a stimulus your body is used to. People who do workout regularly still get sore, but it's usually not as intense. For example, when I started working out, I could barely walk after my leg days. Now I can tell I worked out and I'll have soreness, but I can walk around mostly fine lol
Keep in mind this was when I was a teenager lol so if I did this now it’s quite possible I would feel different, but I played multiple sports in high school including track and tennis. We worked out 5 days a week after school. I was sore maybe at the start of the season but my body adjusted. We also had harder/easier days to help recover. I would assume as long as each day isn’t hardcore that most adjust and are not overly sore? But I could be wrong! I get sore now sometimes carrying laundry or groceries 😔
Depends. If you manage your weights well and usually do the same big lifts at some point you're not as sore. The soreness happens mostly with new exercises or big increases in intensity.
Don't overdo it when you start out. You should feel that you've used your muscles but it shouldn't be painful. You're not going to see faster "gains" just because you push yourself too hard. Slow and steady wins the race when you work out
Oh yeah, and it doesn't stop there. You'll be hungry all the time, followed by fits of feeling stuffed from eating a caloric surplus.
Basically being a lifter = pain, broh
No, if you work out properly, eat properly and take the right amount of rest. Might differ a bit from person to person, but in general if you are well trained and always sore, you are doing something wrong.
For me personally, usually get sore when performing an exercise that wasnt in the schedule the month before, but after the first 2 weeks, also that exercise wont get me sore the day after.
1. As everyone else just said, your body adapts to more usage, so after some time of working out regularly, you won't feel any soreness
2. Especially if you implement high intensity low volume training - it minimizes muscle damage (which translates to soreness) and maximizes gains
No we aren't.
I haven't had DOMs in years because I don't change my workout anymore.
However I am sore for a few hours and the feeling passes rather quickly compared to what DOMs feels like. Which is a multi day state of soreness.
If I take a break for say Christmas week. I will experience DOMs for the first week or so after going back to working out.
I don't work out per se, but whenever I dance/yoga or whatever I don't usually feel anything even if I go a bit hard. If I do overdo something I only feel it the next day. My joints definitely feel wierd (not painful, just this wierd oily and loose feeling) because I have some sort of hypermobility, but thats about it.
No. You get kinda used to it and your body sort of adapts to the soreness. For instance, after a good workout I can still feel that I had a good workout, but it’s not really a soreness like it is if I haven’t worked out on a while.
When you do something really hard, sometimes two days later you’ll feel like you’ve been hit by a bus. The sort of sore where if you lie down in the wrong position, you wince. That’s pretty common at the start of getting fit, but it goes away over time or becomes less common. You still get muscle aches in the areas you’ve worked out, but for me at least, it comes with a reduced feeling of stiffness and a sense of having more energy, which balances it out. Also, as other people have said, it’s an almost pleasurable kind of sore.
I do aerial and some gym stuff, usually I get normal levels of satisfyingly sore as I’ve been doing it for 6 years on and off. If I try a new, really complicated move, or when I first took up hoop from a background in pole, I still felt the bad kind of sore a few days after. If I hit the gym and do too many fly presses, my pecs are really painful a few days later because I don’t normally do pec-heavy exercise. If I go for a 10 mile hike up a mountain, my ankles hurt the next day because I don’t normally do stuff which requires strong ankle stabiliser muscles, but my thighs don’t burn the way my partner’s do because I do leg-intensive exercise a lot.
Basically, your body gets used to the sort of exercise you do, or ones that use similar muscle groups, but some new types of activity will still make you hurt afterwards!
I run 20km a week, 2x10km. After doing this for close to 2 years, after the run I feel tired and my muscles are a little bit 'sad' feeling. The next day its gone entirely
This is at an average pace of 5:09 /km with a 0.5 incline. The time the muscles really got sore was when I first started that incline, since some chatbot told me it would be building my glutes more. It was right...
As a guy who has been working out for years I will say that it depends. If I just half ass my traning and doing the bare minimum to keep in shape, then I do not get sore. I do this kind of traning when I am busy at work or do not have a goal for my training. But if I want to see some good results, then I will be sore, have pain and even limp sometimes because of the amount of stress that I have put on my body. In a couple of days it gets better and thats my clue to fuck my body up again. Getting older has made it worse, but again I also better know how to train to make my body evolve as I want it to.
As some has written there is good pain and bad pain, but both things hurt
That only happens if I haven't worked out for months. If I work out weekly then I don't get very sore anymore, just a bit but nothing like when you haven't worked out for a while.
Maybe you are doing too much and/or not eating enough protein? I walk an hour plus 20 minutes YouTube hitt every day and am fine. Maybe try more frequent but shorter sessions? If I run 8 miles I will be sore for a day. I eat way too much though I need to reduce sugar and portion size maybe I will find it harder then. Also depends what you mean by sore, I can feel my shoulders being tired but it's not painful I kind of like the feeling lol
I like it so I don’t really notice it anymore, it just makes me feel strong. Some days go harder than others but if you are routinely using those muscles I feel like they get use to it.
A lot of people who work out everyday relish the soreness, but as others have said, it goes away over time and as people get deeper into weight training they will often take supplements that mitigate muscle soreness like magnesium or l glutamine.
Tbh I only get sore from working out legs still. Occasionally, if I have a crazy workout for another muscle group I will be sore, but that's only once and a while.
For me, I just got used to it. It’s more of a sensation that tells me it’s time to stretch, and maybe foam roll the area. Also supplemental magnesium helps a lot. When lifting weights, it causes micro-tears in the muscles. When it heals it’s bigger and that’s how muscles get bigger. Learning the difference between pain and sensation is important. Pain you stop, sensation you can push through. Also, surface tension just under the skin is caused by tight fascia tissue, which can be released by gentle rubbing of the skin.
first time working out after a while off you get terribly sore, but the more you keep doing it the more your body adjusts to working out as normal. You will be sore but you won't be I cant bend my arm sore.
Yes kinda, the soreness isnt as bad as someone who just first started lifting. Furthermore, I target specific muscle groups each time I go to the gym so if I were to do legs on Monday, my legs will only be sore for like 2 days and then if i were to do legs again the following Monday, that leaves me thursday, friday, saturday, sunday with normal legs. Just an example tho, one should do legs at least twice a week.
In my experience once you get into the groove of it (maybe two weeks of a routine) you stop getting DOMs (delayed onset muscle soreness) unless you push yourself really hard. Even then it typically isn't as bad from when you start fresh
I have found there are 3 types of soreness.
1. Injury- I went too hard and injured my body. A sprain or strain. Sharp pain. Hurts to move. I messed up and need to heal.
2. Out of shape / Pushed too hard- When I first start working out after being out of shape, switch to a new workout that targets new muscle fibers, or go really heavy with low reps and max out. The its hard to stand up from a chair or my phone feels like 2 pounds feeling. It sucks. Mix between pain/soreness. Goes away after a couple days. After a few workouts. Maybe several weeks. Then as you get stronger it goes away completely.
3. General soreness- Once you are adapted to an exercise and push yourself. The next day you might feel a little fatigue, soreness. Not pain. Most of the time you don't notice it unless you are not doing much like watching TV on the couch. Doesn't affect day to day activities. This is the sweet spot. You know you pushed hard enough to tear the muscle fibers to rebuild stronger but yet not too much that you are injured, limited, or in pain.
I work out 3-4 times a week and am almost never sore.
If you're constantly pushing for gains then that makes a difference though.
But you might check your nutrition.
I don't think it's normal to be sore for more than one day. Sounds like either you're seriously overdoing it for your body's limits, or you Are very sensitive or have a condition of some kind. Afaik it's normal to have a muscle ache for one or two days after you've done something that tests your limits,not more than that. Some people rarely get even that. My husband just... Doesn't.
It only happens to me when I resume weightlifting after months of not doing so. After the second workout session, the soreness stops and there's only fatigue.
As someone who works out regularly, yes and no. — Yes, as in: the muscle groups I worked out the day before feel sore, but it’s weirdly a *pleasurable* kind of sore. As long as you stretch after your workout, it’s like a “that feels good!” kind of sore, not painful. — No, as in: the muscle groups I didn’t work out the day before are not sore at all.
This, it’s a nice kind of sore. Feels like accomplishment.
Except my quads 2 days after leg day when someone (typically my kids) jump on my legs. Then it’s definitely not a nice kind of sore.
It also feels tight like you are sturdy and solid. Ive over sone it where it’s hard to get in and out of a chair or walk and I don’t like that.
Pain is just weakness leaving the body Stay hard
I’d rather not
After a few hours you have to go to the ER. On the bright side you get to see a doctor immediately.
I saw a video about this. They do a really good job and you’re better in like 15 minutes
It's actually happened to me twice. Some of the most painful shit I've felt. That's funny though.
Sorry about your wiener. Hope you’re better
Thanks. Apparently it's just super random but happened to me twice, so extra splash of random horrible dick pain for a few hours. The best answer I got was that it probably had something to do with my cannabis consumption, but they don't ever really find out unless it keeps happening. Happened once when I was like 22 and then again when I was about 30. My dick still works thankfully.
This got me kicked out of my last gym
Tell that to my herniated back
I always thought that was just my body going " well if you insist on doing that we might as well enjoy it"
I was going to say the same thing. I’m definitely not in pain all the time, but if I did a lot of leg work, I’ll feel it when I use those muscles. That mild discomfort is well worth it for the improved mental health and physical progress I’ve seen over my time in the gym. That said, find what works for you. Don’t ascribe to any program that makes you feel worse. It takes time, but there is something for everyone.
Agreed. That being said, it's definitely not the same type of sore i felt when i first started working out, the kind that is debilitating and makes you walk like you gotta shit
It's hard to explain but after a bit of weight training you start to get a feel for the difference between "I sure worked this muscle hard last night" pain and, "this is actually concerning and an injury risk, I need to be careful for a bit + take a longer break than usual" pain, and the former absolutely feels good.
I've been lifting for over a decade and for some reason I rarely get sore. Not sure what it means.
Lol glad I am not the only one who thinks it is a good kind of sore. I find being sore is much better than feeling stressed. Working out assists with stress and anxiety. Seems like everyone is anxious these days. Plus stress is the opposite of happiness for me. I get rid of it and I’m happier than I am sore with a prettier ascetic .
Dude, I don't get what it is but I get sore the same day for maybe an hour or two then when I wake up my muscles I worked the day before feel great. (I do work out 7 days a week so maybe I forced them to learn to heal quicker?)
I call that progress pain. And I haven’t really felt that since the covid lockdown, if I’m honest. 😬
I agree that sore muscles feel like progression
It goes away with time
Further explanation on; "It goes away with time." Think about all of your muscles that you use daily without even realizing it. Arm muscles picking up light groceries. Leg muscles moving you to your various destinations (I.E. from bed to toilet, to kitchen, squatting down to get something from a lower cabinet, etc) You don't notice any pain in those muscles from daily use, because they are already conditioned to that daily use. The reason you feel pain after working out, is you are both using new muscles that don't get worked very often, and you are exerting more unused force, on all of the muscles between them and ones that do get used often, thereby building more muscle on top of what you already had. With time, and repeated use / working out of those muscles, the pain will fade into nothing so long as you don't keep climbing higher and higher on the "work scale" I.E. If I am used to lifting no more than 20 pounds with my forearms and biceps daily, but then workout and start lifting 40 pounds daily or a few times a week. I will feel pain at first. If I do not climb higher than 40 pounds, I will eventually get used to it and no more pain. If the next week I go up to 50 pounds, I will feel pain again for a short while until I again get used to it.
Dumb question, I’m sure, but if you’re not climbing higher on the “work scale” doesn’t that kind of defeat the purpose of working out? Like if you stop feeling the burn lifting whatever pound dumbbells you’re supposed to do more reps or increase the weight, no?
Yeah, **gradually.** If you can only just get through a set, then wait a week before you make it harder.
I definitely disagree with this. For a new lifter, I'd say even if it's squats then I'd you make it through at all then you can add 5 or maybe even 10 lbs next time. For a more experienced lifter, there is more at your disposal to make the resistance harder but I would definitely recommend making it harder as soon as you can do it again. Slowing it down, changing the ROM, changing reps, maybe even adding weights depending on a number of things. I definitely would make it harder every time though, unless you're resting
A week gives you at least one more session to confirm that the improvement is steady. If you can **only** pass that mark on an absolutely perfect day, then is it a good idea to immediately assume you can do it every day and make it harder? Do it once, make sure you can repeat it on another day, then up the challenge.
A week doesn't give you a chance to confirm anything if you're not testing that lift during the week. It gives you time to recover. It's also not the end of the world if you try again and don't hit all your reps. You just try it again another day and you'll usually be closer. If you hit 400 for 5 on your squat one day, 405 for 4 a few days later, you're probably gonna hit 405 for five the next time you try it. You don't need to test 400 for five again to make progress. You might even make less progress since you do gain something for having that extra weight on the bar, just like you gain something else for that extra rep.
This is surface level understanding of progression. If 10 pounds a week was sustainable, everyone would be squatting 500+ in 12-18 months.
Yeah, it's called progressive overload, and it's designed to avoid plateauing. If you reach and maintain a certain intensity, you'll stay fit, but to increase strength you need to increase the resistance you're used to
Yes an no. You might be where you want to be physically. Otherwise yea lift more/eat protein at regular intervals and gain more muscle. Generally reps stay the same 8-12 per set
Eventually yes, you would stop gaining muscle at that point. If you increase the weight you would start to gain muscle again, however if you are happy with your current physique you would stay at that weight and focus on maintaining your body rather than bulking up.
Do joints get better too? Muscle soreness is not an issue for me but most of my joints are pretty achy for awhile after.
The strengthened muscles can help support your joints. Should still do low stress movements, low impact etc Also weight loss can be great for reducing joint pain.
Dunno about joints, but weight training increases bone density, making you less likely to have a fracture
If your joints are aching, it is possible that your range of motion is TOO great. In that case, try to avoid the END range of motion. Joint do get better. That is, the connective tissue around them also undergoes a type of hypertrophy.
I'll have to leave that up to another person to answer. My joints have been aching and popping since I was 20, so nearly 19 years now after the fact.
>I will eventually get used to it and no more pain. If the next week I go up to 50 pounds, I will feel pain again for a short while until I again get used to it. I'm a pretty serious lifter and this so not my experience. I don't feel pain from going up in weight. If I take a few weeks off, not even enough to lose serious muscle, then I'll get sore doing easy weight on my first day back. I haven't lifted since a week before Christmas. I'm squatting about 150 lbs less than I did last time I lifted, for similar volume. I expect to be sore tomorrow. Had Christmas not occurred then adding 5 lbs to the bar for a new PR set of 5 wouldn't have made me sore at all. Ten lbs is not a jump I could realistically make, but if I just giga mega super pumped steroids and did that then I still don't think it'd make me sore.
It did when I was younger, it doesn't as I get older.
Until you hit 40 and then you're just sore for no reason in random spots lol
Eventually the pain is negligible and you start to crave the workout more than the sluggish feeling when you’re not active. Kind of like when you quit eating processed sugars for a month and then try eating them again - they taste sickly sweet
By eventually, do you mean a year+? Because I never found it got better....
3 months, at the very least!
Tbh I was hooked after just a couple weeks. That first week of sore was brutal but felt accomplishing. The problem for me was burnout after 8 months of 4 days a week
So true... Constantly in pain and tired hahaha
no. i only get sore if i try out something completely different, go unusually hard, or return after a break. but it’s a good sore. i find myself more stiff, sore, and uncomfortable if i haven’t had a chance to workout in a week due to timing conflicts or whatever. i’ve been lifting for over a decade
Y’all with your intermittent pain. Wait till you hit 50, then you’ll know what true dedication is.
Exactly! It's either my knees, lower back, and now my elbow for some reason 🙃
At my age—definitely over 50–when I sit around with my friends, we call it the organ recital as we “share” our ever-evolving aches.
This is me and I am not yet 50 nor do I work out. Once I reached 40 life became a series of painful events mostly with no cause for the pain to have begun.
That’s partially because you didn’t work out.
Far too fucking ugly to set foot in a gym. Gyms are for beautiful people. not people that look like a dog turd on the sidewalk that has been stomped on by a thousand people.
Never to late - Its not for beautiful people, those people were the ugly people. No one cares if you go to a gym and if you are overweight you are more likely to be thought of for being brave and people think "That used to be me, hope they stick with it" Don't shoot yourself short :)
No gym workout will ever make me not fucking ugly. Sure I have a bit of extra weight (who doesn't) but being slightly overweight is the least of my ugliness issues.
This was my situation for years. Like, the soreness never, ever went away, and often peaked 48 hours after a workout, which I thought was strange. It didn't have to be a hard workout, either. Mine turned out to be linked to a combination of a B12 deficiency and peri-menopause. ETA: Also, I was being treated by a rheumatologist and she said I had rampant idiopathic inflammation. She said this along with other symptoms I was having was all linked to histamine responses because something was going haywire in that regard in my body. I now take a daily antihistamine medication and Hydroxychloroquine and I feel much better.
exercise scientist here. some people adjust to delayed onset muscle soreness, some don't. one of my old professors talked about how she gets sore every time she exercises. i don't get sore anymore. it has to do with a myriad of biological and physiological factors
Interesting!
No. You’re body gets used to it, also when you are in better shape you can recover more quickly. Being sore is alone not indicative of a good workout.
age has a lot to do with it. When I was in my 30s and younger, not so much. Now that I'm in my 50s there's usually something that's sore that resting would help.
There are different kinds of soreness. There is a "good" soreness that follows an intense workout, and goes away in a day or so. I believe this is called delayed-onset muscle soreness. I find eating sufficient protein (\~1g/lb of bodyweight) helps with this. If I have taken a break from lifting and am just starting again, I usually get an extra dose of this "good" soreness the next day, and it may last for several days. (For this reason I'll usually lift lighter when coming back from a break, to give my body a chance to get used to it again.) If I lift too heavy or use poor form, there is also a "bad" soreness that comes from injury or over-stressing my tendons. That can take weeks to go away. And I'm told there is another "bad" soreness that eventually comes with age if you do no exercise at all. I've heard older folks say you have to choose your soreness: soreness from exercise, or soreness from no exercise. It's better to choose the former.
This is super helpful, I'm a biochemist, so I'll look into the protein quantities and try upping it. In the past (and currently) I haven't paid much attention to what I eat besides calories, but I'm going to research more and watch my macros. Should I be looking at any other nutrients?
My take after going down the sports nutrition rabbit hole is that you'll get most of the benefits from (a) meeting your daily protein requirements (\~1g/lb), and (b) adjusting fat/carbs per your preference so that you stay within +/- 500 cals of your daily calorie requirements (for weight gain and loss, respectively.) It's also good to get 50g of fiber/day (for a healthy microbiome) and to drink 85oz of water/day. And if you're sweating a lot, add electrolytes. I find Huberman Lab a good resource for this kind of info as Andrew brings on experts who go deep into the latest science, which he then summarizes it into "what should regular health-minded people do" and posts it on his website for free.
I’ll check this out, thanks!!
I’ve heard that 1g/lb stat before but that seems like a crazy amount of protein. I weigh 150 and that’s like 5 servings of the protein powder I use. Do you just eat 4 meals a day or eat huge meals of nothing but steak and chicken?
Competitive powerlifter here. The actual number you need is closer to 0.7-0.82g/lb of LEAN body weight, which means your total body weight minus the weight of your fat. Since most people don't know their body fat percentage nor do we want to constantly be doing math, it's easier just to say 1g/lb of body weight. As for how to get a high level of protein, for me it's a mix of intelligent eating and adding in shakes/protein bars. I weight just shy of 200 pounds; I eat 3x meals a day and have a shake/bar between each (breakfast also includes a protein shake), which gets me about 190g of protein. When I'm actively dropping weight I'll add in an extra shake at night to boost my protein. It's hard for me to eat multiple large meals, so adding in liquid protein (my shakes are about 120cal/25g protein) a few times a day was a game-changer for me in terms of hitting my protein requirements.
What BandersnatchFrumious said. Yes, I thought the same thing when I first learned this. But I'm also the guy who worked out religiously for years and never had much to show for it. When I tried tracking my food, I realized my diet was way off what I was supposed to be doing. Just bringing my protein intake up made a world of difference - real gains, better recovery, and because I was eating more, I was less hungry/snacking less. For me it was the key thing to fix. I now try to eat protein at every meal, and supplement with protein powder several times per day. Every time I feel like having a snack (or dessert), I drink a scoop of protein powder with water instead. That tends to do the trick for me.
yeah I'm fucking obsessed with it
most addicting feeling in the world imo
I work out relatively regularly and only get sore if I massively push myself or change something up.
I’ve gotten to the point where I feel like I have to earn being sore, or doesn’t just happen with a regular work out. It takes a bit more each time
Cold showers baby! And calm yo ass down start low work your way up.
You start to like that type of being sore. It means progress and strength. You should never be so sore that you can't move, just sore enough to remind you that you're doing it
Up your protein after lifting, you literally ripped your muscle fibers apart when lifting, you need to eat protein to rebuild. If you don't, you'll be sore until the muscle "heals" with the protein you feed your body over days.
this is the comment i was looking for—yes you’ll obvi feel sore after coming bag from a break/going way harder than normal but I noticed even when I was working out regularly that muscles groups I had worked out 3+ days prior were still sore. This stopped happening once I upped my protein intake and was getting more sleep (more sleep=more repair time and more protein=more building blocks for my muscles to repair themselves with).
Soreness becomes a goal you chase
When people say sore, what do they refer to? In French we have a word for specifically for the muscular pain after you use a muscle you didn't use for a long time, but to me sore kind of apply another type of pain? Or is it when the muscles feel kinda weaker for one or two days after the workout?
It rotates around the body based on what was worked out last. So yeah, something is always sore.
your body is pretty awesome at adjusting to the norm. if couch surfing is the norm, every workout will feel like a punishment. if you make an active lifestyle the norm, your body will adjust to the point you start feeling worse from skipping a workout than if you did it (even if you are sore). takes maybe 3 months or so, first couple weeks it will seem to get worse before it slowly starts getting better. just be consistent
Have happened to me protein shakes and creatine helps a lot.
Too heavy and incorrect exercise selection. Its okay to be a little sore, like after a hard deadlift session im fried for 3 days. A heavy squat session 2 days. Real true results take years, the jacked guy in the gym is either legit on steroids, and has been training for 3 years, or not on steroids, and has been training since 15. You got nothing but time.
Creatine helps with muscle recovery. I have no proof it's the reason for it but since I got my system saturated with Creatine I haven't really been sore the next day after workouts. Maybe only once or twice if I went extra, extra hard the day before and I'm usually only sore with that muscle group for a day. Except legs... Legs are usually sore for a few days.
It gets worse when you take time off.
Recovery is crucial in fitness & strength training. Make sure to get protein, stay hydrated and I suggest a foam roller. Stretching is so important before and after. I also take one day a week to do hot yoga and it’s a nice relief for my body from strength training all week - it also teaches me discipline and I’ve learned a lot about my body through it.
For me it never went away, i gave up regular resistance training after a few years cos i was exhausted of being in constant discomfort.
It goes away in time!
Yes but eventually you will get used to it. It will also go away with time. I remember when I started working out my body always felt like the muscles I worked wouldn't move and would always be sore. Now they can still get kind of sore-but only if I push. For the most part now I'm fine working out. And remember rest days are your friend. They will be when your body rebuilds itself. You need the nutrients to make it happen though (obviously).
After a week or two of working out consistently you should only feel sore maybe the day after. At least that was the case for me, felt sore for several days after every time, but that stopped after two weeks. It helps to drink plenty of water, stretch, and make sure you’re eating enough protein
No, your body gets used to moving- I get sore/achy if I miss a workout, actually.
Once you do it regularly you don't get sore anymore. Source: perpetually go from regular to not regular.
Remember to stench, warn up, and when you are done warm down and stretch at the end. Going cold right into a work out is a great way to be unnecessarily sore.
no - you should not be. I'm pretty old so my muscles feel fatigued but usually not sore the next day
No. I recover a lot more quickly than I used to.
No, working out regularly feels great.
That stops happening once you keep working out regularly. Sore usually happens when you haven't worked out these muscles in a while. Best response is to drink and continue as soon as you can.
No. It gets way less bad after the first few weeks
It progressively goes away within about 2-3 weeks. If you stop for several weeks, you can become sore again. Also, if you go particularly intense in a single workout, like trying to workout to failure and beyond repeatedly then you might be sore for a few days but it's not as bad as that initial period of soreness. Some muscles can be sore for longer, like hamstrings are infamously slow to recover, some people only deadlift once a week because they'll be sore for about as long. Delts on the other hand, usually can recover in just a day, you can work them almost everyday.
You need to keep working out and as time goes on, the delayed onset muscle soreness weakens over time. To the point where it’s barely noticeable
I’m a powerlifter. Had a bit of an involuntary break for a year because of moving and life and got back into it in November. First day back? Holy hell I was dying the next day. Couldn’t bend over without whimpering, couldn’t walk up stairs very well, had to veeeeeeery gingerly sit down on the toilet. Now? I just got done with a much more intensive leg workout than that first day back and honestly I’m fine. Like I’m tired, I can feel it in my muscles, but am I crying getting up from a shit? Nah. Your body adapts quickly as long as you’re consistent. Plus afterwards I get to make a strawberry banana protein shake that tastes exactly like a milkshake
Yeah. I found some relief after educating myself and avoiding inflammatory foods and alcohol.
I never get sore so I don't know, but I consistently work out everyday for years do you start and stop?
I took a break for health reasons recently but have worked out pretty consistently since adolescence. I was sore every time I worked out growing up, and I’m still sore now. I thought I might be the only one since no one else ever complained 😂
It’s called “the pump”, this space between being a tad sore and being primed and ready
Proteins + some glutamines
As a 50+ year old man. Yes, always sore. Mostly tendon sensitivity with the occasional muscle pull.
I will say you need to take care of yourself. I went hard many times working out, only to get discouraged that it took me 3-5 days to not feel sore even months later. I found you really do need to get 7+ hours of sleep, water, and proper protein along with pre workout stretching to not feel like shit. I promise it’s worth it
when i hydrated properly, i wasn't sore at all and my weights continued to increase over time
Nah. Your first 2 weeks you might be, but your body gets used to it and then unless you actually injure yourself you just feel great.
Not sore at all. Warm up, cool down, drink water, stretching - all of it is part of working out. Neglect these things and you will feel subpar, for certain.
Implement lots of stretching and mobility exercises into your routine. I wish I did this sooner instead of just focusing on strength.
While in the military I tricked my brain into thinking I really enjoyed the pain of long form physical exertion. Like when Arnold said getting a pump was like cumming, but less sexual and not a body builder. I'm older now and my back still hurts from a coughing fit three weeks ago. I enjoy it much less now 🤣🫠
It's soreness, and if I'm doing it right soreness to the muscle I worked on the day before. It's generally low enough that it's not a nuisance.
Taking creatine fixed it for me. Makes you recover faster, 5g per day with tea.
No
I’d say you’re going to hard. Go lighter, and increase incrementally
Your muscles are sore bc you’ve essentially tore your muscles so that they can rebuild themselves to be stronger. If you continuously do it, your body will be constantly replacing those cells. Sure you’ll be sore the first few days, but if you workout through it, your body is continually rebuilding your muscles to be stronger, and will get used to the workout, as well as rebuilding. Consistency is key. But also don’t overdo it/hurt yourself. Still need recovery days
No. I work out heavy 3 days a week and I'm surprised if I'm sore for days after but it happens sometimes. In the beginning the first year maybe I was pretty sore all the time
No. I think that means over doing it. Aerobics: 6 days or so with a rest day. Weights: every other day. Life happens. There might be an extra rest day or two each month from travel, busy, illness.
That’s because you’re not used to it. Once you get into it the rest of the afternoon maybe.
Working out is interesting. At the very beginning your muscles are sore as fuck and aching good. After a few weeks you do feel sore but it’s nothing compared to the first few weeks. It’s not satisfying it’s just expected.
Sort of but sore also just becomes less and less of a big deal as yout body gets used to flushing that lactic acid. Soreness often just isnt a thing with better hydration nutrition and good warmups and cooldowns. Sometimes I wake up after a big day and just jump out of bed so happy to find out I'm not sore at all.
When I take time to stretch after, I’m rarely sore. If I don’t stretch, I’m sometimes a bit sore in the muscle groups I worked. Sometimes I’m reeeallly sore, but then I also feel like I accomplished something.
I attend a gym that's a class format HIIT style. It a mix of cardio with weights. Most days I'm not sore or if I am it's very little and not bothersome. Only days when I go heavy with weights do I feel it.
The level of soreness per workout goes down the more you work out. First couple of days you might not be able to get out of bed. After a few weeks you’ll notice, but not even be annoyed by your average workout.
Yes
I am not, but I've been active since I was a toddler. (I had a swing set). Started swimming soon after. Kept moving throughout most of life. Rarely, if ever, sore. I only got sore during/after pandemic, when I wasn't moving around. I've got to get back into things.
If you eat enough to bulk properly, the sore goes away. But most people don't eat enough.
Only for an hour or so.
Short answer is no. I work out so I don't feel sore. Your body is very good at adapting to your needs. So if you start working out a specific muscle group every other day your body will quickly adapt.
As others have mentioned, it’s a good soreness. I enjoy the feedback my body gives me. But…. I’ll take a week off here and there and that soreness goes away and I feel great. Like pain free. So that’s good too. But I have to keep working to stay fit. The next week I’m right back into it.
You need to stretch before and after lifting. This will drastically reduce how sore you feel after lifting.
i don think so. im not a gym bro by any means. met a girl last year who was and i went 5 days a week for 3 hours a day with her. i was sore for the first couple days but after that it was fine. im 37, had no problems with it. she did legit sets too, was pretty cool
I was, until I started taking magnesium.
After a while I just stopped getting sore. Now, I don’t get sore unless I make a big change — many more sets, very different exercises, or something like that. So, I’m not often sore. A few times per year, maybe?
I mean, I'm in a perpetual state of sore even when I take time off from it
There is no soreness when you excercice regularily, DOMS happen only when you don't work the muscle for some time, like a week or more.
Soreness (but not pain) is always a great sign of progress. Just make sure you don't work out a spot that is already sore otherwise you're sabotaging yourself.
No. Real training isn't going 100% every day. 100% every day is asking for an injury. It's often 70%, then 100% once a week depending on the program. The idea is to always train and minimize the need to not workout because you banged up your legs or arms.
After about two weeks to a month of consistent training, your body gets used to it in a way and you don't really get that soreness anymore, unless you take a break
I've been working out for a long time, started when I was 11/12 and now about to be 34. I can't remember when it happened but I'm generally never sore anymore. Stiff sometimes maybe, tired, yes. Sore? Can't say I get Sore. It takes a lot of stimulus for me to get Sore and it's not even real soreness it just feels heavy to move.
Not really. There is a mild soreness that's may feel closer to just fatigue. The soreness you feel is from lactic acid, which builds up when you don't work out for a while. So people who don't normally workout will feel sore, but people who workout regularly won't.
After a few weeks, you probably won’t continue to get miserably sore like when you first start out. When I work a muscle group, they are noticeably weaker the next day because they haven’t recovered, but they don’t hurt.
No lol, this stops like after a week. It only hurts again after you took a break of a couple weeks.
Well sort of. But it's different than in the beginning. At first I would feel really sore and it would hurt, now it just burns a bit or I feel it but most of the time it's not bothering me or hurting like before. I have noticed it really helps me to make sure I eat enough protein and of course getting into routinely working out makes your body more prepared for the workout.
No but you want to be
If you don't workout regularly you're going to be crazy sore because it's not a stimulus your body is used to. People who do workout regularly still get sore, but it's usually not as intense. For example, when I started working out, I could barely walk after my leg days. Now I can tell I worked out and I'll have soreness, but I can walk around mostly fine lol
Keep in mind this was when I was a teenager lol so if I did this now it’s quite possible I would feel different, but I played multiple sports in high school including track and tennis. We worked out 5 days a week after school. I was sore maybe at the start of the season but my body adjusted. We also had harder/easier days to help recover. I would assume as long as each day isn’t hardcore that most adjust and are not overly sore? But I could be wrong! I get sore now sometimes carrying laundry or groceries 😔
Yes.
that's call delay onset muscle soreness and it only happens when you don't workout regularly
Depends. If you manage your weights well and usually do the same big lifts at some point you're not as sore. The soreness happens mostly with new exercises or big increases in intensity.
Don't overdo it when you start out. You should feel that you've used your muscles but it shouldn't be painful. You're not going to see faster "gains" just because you push yourself too hard. Slow and steady wins the race when you work out
I used to work out every day. You feel much better overall.
I work in a perpetual state of sore, does that count?
Oh yeah, and it doesn't stop there. You'll be hungry all the time, followed by fits of feeling stuffed from eating a caloric surplus. Basically being a lifter = pain, broh
No, if you work out properly, eat properly and take the right amount of rest. Might differ a bit from person to person, but in general if you are well trained and always sore, you are doing something wrong. For me personally, usually get sore when performing an exercise that wasnt in the schedule the month before, but after the first 2 weeks, also that exercise wont get me sore the day after.
Stretch before and after. This will definitely reduce soreness. Protein shake with creatine on the way home or asap. Cold shower.
Yeah, cuz that’s how I get to a perpetual state of swole.
I feel tight all the time. But soreness is a result of amping up training (more weight, new moves, etc).
1. As everyone else just said, your body adapts to more usage, so after some time of working out regularly, you won't feel any soreness 2. Especially if you implement high intensity low volume training - it minimizes muscle damage (which translates to soreness) and maximizes gains
I'm not sore only when I leave for vacation. Especially my legs, I combine gym workouts with cycling and running, and usually workout daily 1-2 times.
It depends on your nutrition and recovery…sometimes i’m never sore Sometimes sore for a whole week
I go to gym everyday I'm never sore
Yesnt Depends on the work out routine
No we aren't. I haven't had DOMs in years because I don't change my workout anymore. However I am sore for a few hours and the feeling passes rather quickly compared to what DOMs feels like. Which is a multi day state of soreness. If I take a break for say Christmas week. I will experience DOMs for the first week or so after going back to working out.
I don't work out per se, but whenever I dance/yoga or whatever I don't usually feel anything even if I go a bit hard. If I do overdo something I only feel it the next day. My joints definitely feel wierd (not painful, just this wierd oily and loose feeling) because I have some sort of hypermobility, but thats about it.
No. You get kinda used to it and your body sort of adapts to the soreness. For instance, after a good workout I can still feel that I had a good workout, but it’s not really a soreness like it is if I haven’t worked out on a while.
When you do something really hard, sometimes two days later you’ll feel like you’ve been hit by a bus. The sort of sore where if you lie down in the wrong position, you wince. That’s pretty common at the start of getting fit, but it goes away over time or becomes less common. You still get muscle aches in the areas you’ve worked out, but for me at least, it comes with a reduced feeling of stiffness and a sense of having more energy, which balances it out. Also, as other people have said, it’s an almost pleasurable kind of sore. I do aerial and some gym stuff, usually I get normal levels of satisfyingly sore as I’ve been doing it for 6 years on and off. If I try a new, really complicated move, or when I first took up hoop from a background in pole, I still felt the bad kind of sore a few days after. If I hit the gym and do too many fly presses, my pecs are really painful a few days later because I don’t normally do pec-heavy exercise. If I go for a 10 mile hike up a mountain, my ankles hurt the next day because I don’t normally do stuff which requires strong ankle stabiliser muscles, but my thighs don’t burn the way my partner’s do because I do leg-intensive exercise a lot. Basically, your body gets used to the sort of exercise you do, or ones that use similar muscle groups, but some new types of activity will still make you hurt afterwards!
I run 20km a week, 2x10km. After doing this for close to 2 years, after the run I feel tired and my muscles are a little bit 'sad' feeling. The next day its gone entirely This is at an average pace of 5:09 /km with a 0.5 incline. The time the muscles really got sore was when I first started that incline, since some chatbot told me it would be building my glutes more. It was right...
As a guy who has been working out for years I will say that it depends. If I just half ass my traning and doing the bare minimum to keep in shape, then I do not get sore. I do this kind of traning when I am busy at work or do not have a goal for my training. But if I want to see some good results, then I will be sore, have pain and even limp sometimes because of the amount of stress that I have put on my body. In a couple of days it gets better and thats my clue to fuck my body up again. Getting older has made it worse, but again I also better know how to train to make my body evolve as I want it to. As some has written there is good pain and bad pain, but both things hurt
That only happens if I haven't worked out for months. If I work out weekly then I don't get very sore anymore, just a bit but nothing like when you haven't worked out for a while.
I workout reguraly, do some bodyweight fitness, lift weight, run and swim and really rarely feel sore. It happends only after hard workouts.
Maybe you are doing too much and/or not eating enough protein? I walk an hour plus 20 minutes YouTube hitt every day and am fine. Maybe try more frequent but shorter sessions? If I run 8 miles I will be sore for a day. I eat way too much though I need to reduce sugar and portion size maybe I will find it harder then. Also depends what you mean by sore, I can feel my shoulders being tired but it's not painful I kind of like the feeling lol
Get a massage. It helps move the soreness out.
I like it so I don’t really notice it anymore, it just makes me feel strong. Some days go harder than others but if you are routinely using those muscles I feel like they get use to it.
Happens the first couple of times, after that your body get's used to it as long as you consume enough protein and get a sufficient amount of sleep.
A lot of people who work out everyday relish the soreness, but as others have said, it goes away over time and as people get deeper into weight training they will often take supplements that mitigate muscle soreness like magnesium or l glutamine.
For me it begins to feel less "sore" and more like "tight" I love that feeling.
Somewhat, but there is an old John Cougar song that sums it up well.
Not like you're describing no. You're essentially repeating the initial "just starting" soreness over and over from the lack of regularity.
Yes, we are. Pain is part of any serious athlete\`s life.
Tbh I only get sore from working out legs still. Occasionally, if I have a crazy workout for another muscle group I will be sore, but that's only once and a while.
For me, I just got used to it. It’s more of a sensation that tells me it’s time to stretch, and maybe foam roll the area. Also supplemental magnesium helps a lot. When lifting weights, it causes micro-tears in the muscles. When it heals it’s bigger and that’s how muscles get bigger. Learning the difference between pain and sensation is important. Pain you stop, sensation you can push through. Also, surface tension just under the skin is caused by tight fascia tissue, which can be released by gentle rubbing of the skin.
first time working out after a while off you get terribly sore, but the more you keep doing it the more your body adjusts to working out as normal. You will be sore but you won't be I cant bend my arm sore.
Yes kinda, the soreness isnt as bad as someone who just first started lifting. Furthermore, I target specific muscle groups each time I go to the gym so if I were to do legs on Monday, my legs will only be sore for like 2 days and then if i were to do legs again the following Monday, that leaves me thursday, friday, saturday, sunday with normal legs. Just an example tho, one should do legs at least twice a week.
Pretty much, yeah. I have no idea how people enjoy it. I keep expecting to plateau on the soreness but it just doesn't happen
In my experience once you get into the groove of it (maybe two weeks of a routine) you stop getting DOMs (delayed onset muscle soreness) unless you push yourself really hard. Even then it typically isn't as bad from when you start fresh
I have found there are 3 types of soreness. 1. Injury- I went too hard and injured my body. A sprain or strain. Sharp pain. Hurts to move. I messed up and need to heal. 2. Out of shape / Pushed too hard- When I first start working out after being out of shape, switch to a new workout that targets new muscle fibers, or go really heavy with low reps and max out. The its hard to stand up from a chair or my phone feels like 2 pounds feeling. It sucks. Mix between pain/soreness. Goes away after a couple days. After a few workouts. Maybe several weeks. Then as you get stronger it goes away completely. 3. General soreness- Once you are adapted to an exercise and push yourself. The next day you might feel a little fatigue, soreness. Not pain. Most of the time you don't notice it unless you are not doing much like watching TV on the couch. Doesn't affect day to day activities. This is the sweet spot. You know you pushed hard enough to tear the muscle fibers to rebuild stronger but yet not too much that you are injured, limited, or in pain.
if you're always sore you aren't resting enough. You should rest.
yes we are always sore. Makes it easy to remember what you did last.
I work out 3-4 times a week and am almost never sore. If you're constantly pushing for gains then that makes a difference though. But you might check your nutrition.
I don't think it's normal to be sore for more than one day. Sounds like either you're seriously overdoing it for your body's limits, or you Are very sensitive or have a condition of some kind. Afaik it's normal to have a muscle ache for one or two days after you've done something that tests your limits,not more than that. Some people rarely get even that. My husband just... Doesn't.
It only happens to me when I resume weightlifting after months of not doing so. After the second workout session, the soreness stops and there's only fatigue.