I'm sure with the surge of new people signing up at your gym over the last week or so, you've also seen a bunch of people limping around like they were shot in the back of the leg. Chances are these people are experiencing some DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). They've taken some time off over the last couple of weeks and decided to include 10 sets of walking lunges and four sets of single leg squats in their first leg workout. They should expect to be sore. They might even be sore after each of their first couple of workouts. But they shouldn't aim to create soreness with each and every workout. Creating soreness is not going to help them shed that 5lbs of flab they put on during the holiday season. Creating soreness is not going to get them any stronger. Creating soreness may not get them any results.
Soreness is not an indicator of getting results. Soreness is usually an indicator of a couple of things that happened over the course of a workout:
- a new exercise was introduced
- a heavier load was used
- the speed of movement was changed
But it should not be an indicator of whether you got a good workout in or whether you're getting results. Any one can create soreness. I could tell you to do jump squats for half an hour or tell you to run into a brick wall 25 times and I'm sure you'd be sore the next day. But did I work on getting you results? The only result I got was you not being able to get out of bed the next day. Who cares how sore you are if you're not dropping body fat or getting stronger?
Now I'm not saying you shouldn't be sore from time to time. As I said before, you may incur some soreness because of a couple of different factors. All I'm saying is do not judge the quality of your workouts by how sore you are the next day. Judge the quality of your workouts by the results that you're getting. And if you're not getting results, I know a great trainer who can help you out.
No comments:
Post a Comment