If I’m not sore after a workout, does that mean I didn’t work hard enough?
It may mean many things as those above me have answered
Personally I like to push myself and I like being sore, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you haven’t worked hard enough
Possibly you need a change in your routine, shake things up a bit if you’re feeling complacent but don’t base that on not being sore!
I completely agree with what everyone is saying. Being sore is not a good indicator of whether or not you had a good workout. A good workout should be based how you feel when you are done, which is more energized and invigorated. It is also as others have said based on progression and overload. So if you are pushing yourself to your personal limit then that would be considered a good workout! While soreness may occur as a result of increasing your intensity it should not be used as a way to measure the success of your workout!
Absolutely not! Post workout pain should not be used as the indicator or whether you had a “good workout!”
LaRue, CSCS
www.lefitness.com
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Karin did a good job answering this question.
The key to success and continuing to see improvements in physique, specifically, is muscle confusion. That’s just my opinion, but as a general rule your body will eventually get used to a certain training modality, and it may not respond as well (you won’t be sore and you won’t lose ability, but you won’t see any improvement either). It’s always good to change it up. Keep it interesting. Keep it fun. As long as you’re having fun doing different and challenging physical activities, you’ll be happy AND fit!
Don’t overdo it. Don’t be a victim of overtraining syndrome. Think of your body like a bucket with a hole in the bottom. Think of exercise recovery like water in the bucket. You put exercise in, and you have to recover. The rate at which the water leaks out of the bucket can be thought of as the time it takes to recover from a bout of exercise. If you keep putting water in the bucket (you exercise too often without proper rest and recovery), then the bucket will overflow and your body won’t respond to any training because it can’t keep up. Make sense?
The soreness (when you get sore) should be just that, soreness. NOT PAIN. You can minimize delayed onset muscle soreness by doing a proper warm up, stretching before exercise, and doing a proper cool down and stretching after exercise. In my book, a good stretch is one that puts a welcome amount of “stretch” in the muscles you’ve worked out. The stretch should be held for a good 10-15 seconds. Repeat that stretch at least once, and stretch for all areas that you worked out. Stretching your warm body (you got your blood flowing before the stretching, never stretch a cold muscle) for just 10 minutes per day can lead to permanent tissue elongation, which is generally a good thing because it can decrease the risk of injury when exercising.
In the future, when and if you change your routine and start to get sore again, consider myofascial release with a foam roller or something simliar. It’s usually used as therapy for certain ailments, but athletes have been known to use it as well. Karin can tell you all about this. She knows things that I know not of!
Hope that helps a little. Karin was on the money with her answer.
No, it does not, but it means that your body is accustomed to the intensity and nature of the exercises that you are doing.
I am not an advocate for workouts that leave you so sore the next day (or the days after that) that you are in substantial pain. But small changes in a workout can elicit new adaptations from your body, and you may experience this as a certain degree of soreness. Look at your workouts and assess the variety with which you challenge yourself. Try something new; a different type of class, use a ball instead of a bench.
You may well be such a well-rounded athlete that none of those things will bring on any amount of soreness. In that case I would pat you on the back and recommend that you keep doing what you are doing.