Skip to main content

Workout Tip: You Should NEVER be Sore

Matthew Sloan trains very high-frequency and is rarely sore!

 


Your workouts should not make you very sore.  It sounds odd, I know, especially when someone first hears it.  But it's true.


I'm rarely, if ever, truly "sore" after any of my workouts nowadays.  I sometimes have a small soreness the next day, but it's more a feeling of tightness, a "good soreness", if there is such a thing, that is usually from a new exercise the day before, or doing an old exercise in a new way.


I shouldn't be sore, but you shouldn't be sore, either.  If you are, you are doing it wrong.  Don't worry if you're now angry with me, since it could be that you have been doing workouts wrong your whole life, especially if you're now trying to remember a time when you were not sore from a workout.


Let's say that your max squat for 10 repetitions is 225 lbs.  And let's say you do those 10-all out reps in a workout on Monday.  Even with one set, you are going to be sore until Thursday - assuming it was a true "max" set.  But if you do 5 reps with 225 on Monday, you can come right back in the next day and do 5 more reps on Tuesday, and then, guess what?  You can come in Wednesday and do another 5 reps, and same thing for Thursday - another super easy set of 5.  You could keep doing this until 5 reps gets just too easy, then you could do 6 reps using the same philosophy, then 7 reps eventually, and so on.  At some point, you would be doing 10 reps every day, and you would never be sore.  Oh, and you would have probably built quite a lot of leg muscle - not to mention overall size or bulk - by this point, as well.


I'm not saying the above method is what you should use, or that it's even the most efficient way to workout, but it's an example to show that you've probably been doing it wrong.  Most people are in the same boat.  And, unfortunately, most will continue to be in this very same boat of thinking "good" workouts mean workouts that make you "sweat" or make you "exhausted" by the end of it.


But the majority are always wrong on every subject you could think of - and that's just the way that it is.  And if you think that's hyperbole, or that it simply can't be true, then pick any subject that you know a lot about, and see if the majority understands that subject?  The majority of people will always know "general" information.  They will know that working out is good for you, helps to build muscle, staves off the effects of aging, and helps to keep you trim.  But knowing how to go about achieving those goals?  That's something else entirely.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Classic Bodybuilding: Don Howorth's Massive Delt Training

Before we get started on this "Classic Bodybuilding" piece, one word of note:  If you really  pay attention to this blog, then you will notice that in the "sub-header" at the top of the page, I have added "Ageless Bodybuilding" as one of the subjects that will be discussed.  This is for a decided reason... I have been developing a system of training that I have been using on myself and a few "older" lifters that occasionally train with me, but still follow my training program that I have them using even when they are training at a commercial gym instead of my "garage gym".  This system is for those of you who are 40+ such as myself, but it may be even more effective for those of you 50 and older.  In fact, of my two occasional training partners, one of them is 51, and the other is 55. I wouldn't be so arrogant as to call this ageless bodybuilding system  revolutionary, but I can say that it is radically different from most syste

Old School Arm Training Secrets: John McWilliams's Arm Training Routine

Old-School Arm Training Secrets: John McWilliams’s Arm Routine      My most popular posts here at Integral Strength typically fall into two categories: old-school bodybuilding programs or serious strength and power routines.      With that in mind, I thought I would do a series of articles on various old-school lifters and bodybuilders (the two overlapped once-upon-a-time), and on various old-school methods for training different bodyparts or lifts.   Thus, this first entry is on old-school arm training, but others will be on old-school chest, shoulders, back, legs, squats, bench presses, overhead presses, power cleans, etc.   And for this first entry, I decided upon an old-school bodybuilder cum powerlifter that many of you may never have heard of: John McWilliams. McWilliams's back double-biceps pose.  He was impressive even in his 40s.      When I first came across an article about McWilliams (written by Gene Mozee) in the early ‘90s, I had certainly neve

Old Time Mass Tactics: One-Exercise-Per-Bodypart Training

     Starting with the current post, I thought I would do a mini-series on how the "old-time" bodybuilders used to train.  In doing so, I also thought I would start with what I consider the greatest of the old-time mass tactics:  one-exercise-per-bodypart training.      When I first began to lift weights seriously (which was sometime in my high-school years; I'm 35 now, so you do the math), the bodybuilders that I loved were the ones that—even then—were considered the "old-timers."  I remember seeing pictures of Freddy Ortiz, Don Howorth (above), and Marvin Eder; I was amazed by their look.  For one, they definitely looked strong (which they were), but they also had excellent size, shape, and symmetry—small waists, large calves, boulder-sized shoulders; the whole "x-frame" look.  But—and I think this is what I still love about them—they didn't appear to be cardboard cutouts of one another.  They all had different "looks."  They were