Is the aim to hurt after a work out?

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lemonsurprise
lemonsurprise Posts: 255 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've just joined the gym, from doing absolutely no excersise at all, ever. I'm doing an hour 3 times a week, but wanted to know if the aim was to ache the next day?

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  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    You may ache but it's not necessarily the goal. Muscle ache doesn't indicate a good or bad workout.
  • Chief_Rocka
    Chief_Rocka Posts: 4,710 Member
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    The measure of an effective workout is making consistent progress over time. Anything else is for people to brag on Facebook about.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    No its not the goal, the goal is to get stronger.
  • parkscs
    parkscs Posts: 1,639 Member
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    I've just joined the gym, from doing absolutely no excersise at all, ever. I'm doing an hour 3 times a week, but wanted to know if the aim was to ache the next day?

    Soreness is a poor indicator of how productive your workout was. Usually soreness just means you worked a muscle you haven't worked recently or worked a muscle in a different way than it's accustomed to. What's meaningful is progress over time, as Chief_Rocka already said.
  • lemonsurprise
    lemonsurprise Posts: 255 Member
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    So, say I work out for an hour and the next day I don't feel any ache whatsoever - it doesn't mean I didn't work hard enough?
  • Chief_Rocka
    Chief_Rocka Posts: 4,710 Member
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    So, say I work out for an hour and the next day I don't feel any ache whatsoever - it doesn't mean I didn't work hard enough?

    If you get hit in the arm with a baseball bat, does the resulting soreness mean you had a great workout?
  • jmc0806
    jmc0806 Posts: 1,444 Member
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    I went weeks without feeling sore and saw results
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    Nope.
  • dopeysmelly
    dopeysmelly Posts: 1,390 Member
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    Not for me, not at the moment.

    I would assume it depends on your fitness goals, but any time you ask your body to do something different I would expect it to take some time to adjust.

    If you ask your muscles to do things they haven't done before or for some time and aren't willing to go very slowly, then the process of breaking down and rebuilding muscle tissue so they can do what you ask it better in the future may cause some pain.
  • MyChocolateDiet
    MyChocolateDiet Posts: 22,281 Member
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    No.
  • xmichaelyx
    xmichaelyx Posts: 883 Member
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    The "ache" you're referring to is DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness), and everyone has different levels of susceptibility to it. Some people rarely get it, while others always do.

    I fall into the latter category. If I'm not sore the day after a workout, it means I accomplished nothing.

    People who get less DOMS may experience no soreness at all, or very mild muscle tightness.

    But for the most part, the only thing that means you "didn't work hard enough" is whether or not you progress over time.
  • AllOutof_Bubblegum
    AllOutof_Bubblegum Posts: 3,646 Member
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    It's not the AIM, but it is pretty normal. It'll stop after a while, even if you keep going hard. Just stick with it.
  • I_Will_End_You
    I_Will_End_You Posts: 4,397 Member
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    I rarely get sore after working out.


    Do you feel like you put in a good workout, or did it feel really easy or half-assed?
  • lemonsurprise
    lemonsurprise Posts: 255 Member
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    No, definitely feels like I had a good work out, but I ache today. But I'm an "achey" person. If I do 2,000 over my norm I feel it the next day. I just wondered if it was a good or bad thing but I guess it doesn't mean either.

    One more question, if I mildly ache am I still ok to work out whilst I feel like that? Or do I have to wait until I recover?
  • MyChocolateDiet
    MyChocolateDiet Posts: 22,281 Member
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    ^NO you don't have to wait until you recover. Actually doing some type of workout the following day usually helps alleviate the DOMS a little.

    The goal isn't to hurt or not hurt, the goal is to workout in a way that challenges you has some effect strengthening/buildingstamina/burning calories (whatever your goals are) but leaves you intact and healthy enough to have more workouts.

    As long as you are not injuring yourself or scheduling too frequently this should be a relatively easy thing to gauge.

    Good luck and happy exercising!:flowerforyou:
  • extra_medium
    extra_medium Posts: 1,525 Member
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    So, say I work out for an hour and the next day I don't feel any ache whatsoever - it doesn't mean I didn't work hard enough?

    If you get hit in the arm with a baseball bat, does the resulting soreness mean you had a great workout?

    To be fair that's not the same type of soreness the OP is talking about lol
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
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    No, the goal is to be so fit and strong that you can do it without being sore. :)

    I let it rest when something hurts, I've learned the hard way that pushing through can make it worse. :)
  • SXMEnrico
    SXMEnrico Posts: 89 Member
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    the soreness you feel is DOMS. I think another poster above mentioned it. The soreness will go away and the muscle(s) will adapt quickly (within a few workouts). You should not use DOMS as a reason to stop working out. In fact, in my experience, the way to make the soreness go away is to work the muscle again within 24-48 hrs.

    There's a saying that I hear sometimes which is that pain is weakness leaving the body. This is in direct reference to the process of DOMS/Muscle adaptation

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