Bodybuilding – Muscle Soreness And Muscle Gains

If you’ve ever set foot in the weight lifting room or put yourself on a bodybuilding program, you already know that the next day, you may have a small amount of difficulty getting out of bed.

DOMS, otherwise known as delayed onset of muscle soreness, is something that plagues some more than others it seems. For some, they so much as lift a few dumbbells and they are sore the next day. Others, can go in, do a full blown workout and feel great without any pain afterwards whatsoever.

What does this mean?

Does the person who is experiencing the pain get better results from their training? How good of an indicator is muscular soreness when it comes to gaining weight?

The Cause Of DOMS

The most common cause of this muscle soreness that you may experience anywhere from a few hours later to two or three days after the workout is a difference in neuromuscular pattern that occurred during the exercise.

For example, let’s say you normally do squats for your legs but then decide to switch it up and do lunges one session instead. If you haven’t done lunges in quite some time, it is very likely you’ll be much sorer after that workout than the ones where you did the squats.

The reason? It’s because this is a new movement that you’re body hasn’t experienced recently and as such, all the nerves that integrate the muscle tissues have been worked to a larger extent than normal.

Therefore, any time you decide to switch up your usual exercises, expect some soreness.

Another reason soreness can also occur is because of improper technique. If you are doing an exercise in the wrong manner, your body may be placed under a stress that it’s not intended to experience and as such, you’ll experience pain.

Finally, those who are on low carb diets can also be slightly more prone to muscular soreness, just because of the way these diets are laid out.

Muscle Soreness and Progress

Does major workout pain afterwards lead to major results? Unfortunately, no.

Relying solely on muscular soreness as an indication of progress is a poor way to do things. As stated above, it is quite individual as well. Some people just tend to experience more soreness than others.

Further, lifestyle can come into play here. Those who are more flexible don’t usually experience as much pain either (especially if they performed a great deal of stretching before and after the said workout session). Also, if someone has a more active job and is moving around a bit more versus someone who is seated all day, that person may not get as sore either just because the blood is being constantly circulated throughout the muscle tissue – more so than someone sitting, and this helps to remove the build-up of byproducts that may be occurring.

Preventing Muscle Soreness

If you’re looking to prevent muscle soreness, there are a few things you can do.



As mentioned above, stretching will go a long way towards helping relieve the pain. Be sure not to do a thorough stretching session unless you are warmed up, however, as this could end up causing a pulled muscle or ligament.

Another thing you can do is lift more frequently. Very often those who are only periodically doing their weight training program experience more soreness than someone who is lifting more regularly. For this reason, a full body performed three days a week can actually be a good plan because then you’ll be hitting each muscle group with a higher frequency.

Finally, the last thing you can do is apply heat or sit in a nice hot bath later on in the day. This again will increase blood flow to the muscle tissues and help to remove build-up products which are often the cause of muscular soreness in the first place.

So, rather than using soreness as a guide to how much you accomplished in your last workout, use weight added to the bar. This is a much better indicator.

Source by Shannon Clark

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