If DOMS is not the gold standard of recovery time...what is?

Fithealthyforlife
Fithealthyforlife Posts: 866 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Was reading another thread, and multiple people replied and said DOMS isn't a good indication of whether a workout was effective, or whether you're recovered or not.

Ok, so if that's true, how do you tell if you've had a good workout? And how do you tell when you're recovered enough to do it again?


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Replies

  • jalloggio
    jalloggio Posts: 141
    I look at soreness like this. If it hurts just to touch the muscle or (sore to the touch) I'm not recovered. If i'm just slightly sore or tight I will workout.

    As far as DOMS goes the theory that "you didn't get a good enough workout unless you have doms is total bro science" I know bodybuilders who have not gotten sore in years. Likewise DOMS can be cause by negative and positive contractions, therefore because you do not experience DOMS does not mean you did not break down muscle fiber. Also almost every study ever done does not know the exact reason why DOMS can occur even after 24 hours after exercise (legs day lol)

    Some muscle groups (like my chest) will almost never get sore same thing for my biceps, triceps. But my back will almost always be sore after back day as well as my legs after legs day :/

    I NEVER judge a workout by how sore I am!
  • Fithealthyforlife
    Fithealthyforlife Posts: 866 Member
    Makes sense. DOMS may be correlated with, but isn't a great indicator of the workout intensity.

    But then, how do you personally judge how effective a workout was for you? I was going by DOMS in the past, but then started rethinking it when I went through a period of time where had a female workout partner who was using a lot of the same dumbbell weights and reps I was along side me, and she never experienced DOMS...when I did! She was a lot more flexible than me, but I wonder if that was the full story. Also, she was a total newbie, whereas I had done some of this stuff on and off over the years.

    I feel like if I'm going to be really successful from this point on, I need a better indicator of workout effectiveness!
  • koing
    koing Posts: 179 Member
    How much weight you lift should indicate how good your session was.

    Did you hit a heavier weight than a few weeks ago? You usually BS 150, you hit 155 today, you did a great job.

    Koing
  • Fithealthyforlife
    Fithealthyforlife Posts: 866 Member
    In the past, I always went by "listen to your body" for everything, including how good my sessions were, and when I was ready to work out again. I would always wait until all soreness was gone from an area, and sometimes that took 6 days!

    I'm starting to see where I went wrong in the past. Doing a body part overy 6 days doesn't produce much in results!

    I need a new strategy. But, I'm so afraid of overtraining! (and I've read the studies that say light workouts on the same area in a day or two can decrease DOMS).
  • jalloggio
    jalloggio Posts: 141
    How much weight you lift should indicate how good your session was.

    Did you hit a heavier weight than a few weeks ago? You usually BS 150, you hit 155 today, you did a great job.

    Koing

    THIS

    Are you tracking your weights and reps?? IF not you should be
  • jalloggio
    jalloggio Posts: 141
    In the past, I always went by "listen to your body" for everything, including how good my sessions were, and when I was ready to work out again. I would always wait until all soreness was gone from an area, and sometimes that took 6 days!

    I'm starting to see where I went wrong in the past. Doing a body part overy 6 days doesn't produce much in results!

    I need a new strategy.

    Try looking into a 5 day push pull program. The program I do and many like the ones I offer my clients who are looking to gain mass revolve around many compound lifts and working the same muscle group twice a week. if you not seeing gains anymore from working a single group once a week it is time to up the frequency, This is EXACTLTY why I stopped doing P90x it was no longer yielding results.
  • Fithealthyforlife
    Fithealthyforlife Posts: 866 Member
    How much weight you lift should indicate how good your session was.

    Did you hit a heavier weight than a few weeks ago? You usually BS 150, you hit 155 today, you did a great job.

    Koing

    THIS

    Are you tracking your weights and reps?? IF not you should be

    I did in the past, but this time I have not been. I used to keep a log book. During that time, I went from benching sets of 20 lbs to 180 lbs. But, I was also in high school and growing. I'm now back near where I started, benching more like 80 lbs. for reps.

    I thought that the reason I stopped working out was because I found logging a chore that got in the way. Lately, I've gotten really into the whole "listen to your body" thing...to an extreme. I can't believe I thought DOMS was the gold standard of workout effectiveness. Well, at least now I know what I've been doing wrong!

    You've convinced me to resume logging again.
  • Fithealthyforlife
    Fithealthyforlife Posts: 866 Member
    In the past, I always went by "listen to your body" for everything, including how good my sessions were, and when I was ready to work out again. I would always wait until all soreness was gone from an area, and sometimes that took 6 days!

    I'm starting to see where I went wrong in the past. Doing a body part overy 6 days doesn't produce much in results!

    I need a new strategy.

    Try looking into a 5 day push pull program. The program I do and many like the ones I offer my clients who are looking to gain mass revolve around many compound lifts and working the same muscle group twice a week. if you not seeing gains anymore from working a single group once a week it is time to up the frequency, This is EXACTLTY why I stopped doing P90x it was no longer yielding results.

    Sounds good in theory. Now the big question: did you and your clients, when you made such workout transitions, see an increase in DOMS intensity/duration initially? I need to get past the "lingering soreness=not recovered therfore I souldn't work out again" mindset.
  • bumblebums
    bumblebums Posts: 2,181 Member
    I am slightly sore all the time. It's never debilitating, but it's always there. When you are doing a progressive resistance training program, I think it's to be expected.

    For me, a good training session is one in which (a) my performance was at least as good as the last one (easy to check as I write everything down) and (b) I didn't hurt myself.
  • MagicalLeopleurodon
    MagicalLeopleurodon Posts: 623 Member
    If my DOMS makes me feel like puking, ill rest. Otherwise, i hit a different body part and plug along.

    But really? Log! There are weeks that i feel like death-others i feel like i can throw a car. If i dont log, i dont see if im progressing
  • GetSoda
    GetSoda Posts: 1,267 Member
    Knowing if you had a good workout is easy, really.
    Did you lift more / run farther / do it faster than last time? Then yes.
  • jalloggio
    jalloggio Posts: 141
    In the past, I always went by "listen to your body" for everything, including how good my sessions were, and when I was ready to work out again. I would always wait until all soreness was gone from an area, and sometimes that took 6 days!

    I'm starting to see where I went wrong in the past. Doing a body part overy 6 days doesn't produce much in results!

    I need a new strategy.

    Try looking into a 5 day push pull program. The program I do and many like the ones I offer my clients who are looking to gain mass revolve around many compound lifts and working the same muscle group twice a week. if you not seeing gains anymore from working a single group once a week it is time to up the frequency, This is EXACTLTY why I stopped doing P90x it was no longer yielding results.

    Sounds good in theory. Now the big question: did you and your clients, when you made such workout transitions, see an increase in DOMS intensity/duration initially? I need to get past the "lingering soreness=not recovered therfore I souldn't work out again" mindset.

    Whenever you make progressive changes you may feel it in new places. For example I started lifting heavy again and will keep at it for about 3 more weeks. Like one of the posters said there is always sort of a lingering soreness but nothing debilitating.
  • Fithealthyforlife
    Fithealthyforlife Posts: 866 Member
    In the past, I always went by "listen to your body" for everything, including how good my sessions were, and when I was ready to work out again. I would always wait until all soreness was gone from an area, and sometimes that took 6 days!

    I'm starting to see where I went wrong in the past. Doing a body part overy 6 days doesn't produce much in results!

    I need a new strategy.

    Try looking into a 5 day push pull program. The program I do and many like the ones I offer my clients who are looking to gain mass revolve around many compound lifts and working the same muscle group twice a week. if you not seeing gains anymore from working a single group once a week it is time to up the frequency, This is EXACTLTY why I stopped doing P90x it was no longer yielding results.

    Sounds good in theory. Now the big question: did you and your clients, when you made such workout transitions, see an increase in DOMS intensity/duration initially? I need to get past the "lingering soreness=not recovered therfore I souldn't work out again" mindset.

    Whenever you make progressive changes you may feel it in new places. For example I started lifting heavy again and will keep at it for about 3 more weeks. Like one of the posters said there is always sort of a lingering soreness but nothing debilitating.

    It's all making sense now...

    Why I had gains at one time in the past when I logged...why I quit for a while...why I failed to make gains once resuming more recently...why a female workout partner who was a newb made great gains in a short time even if she didn't experience DOMS.

    Thanks to Jon for leading the responses, and for input from everyone else, too.

    Turns out the answers are:

    I had gains in my past life because I progressively increased what I did, and I logged.

    I quit because I stopped making gains. This happened when I took to heart advice about how it wasn't necessary to use much weight and you could still get just as good a workout by "listening to your body", "going slow", and "feeling the contraction". Every time I resumed working out, I was just doing that same old thing again.

    The female partner made great gains on the same program as me because the weights were challenging her. I thought they were challenging me, but it turns out I should have been going 50% heavier on a lot of exercises...and logging!

    I had DOMS and the partner didn't. Other than flexibility, I'm still not sure why this was. But it's nice to know it has almost nothing to do with progress/gains in reality. That was the false belief I always assumed to be true...that I had to wait until my soreness went away totally after every single workout before doing it again...and that DOMS was a good indicator of ensuing progress. It's not!
  • phjorg1
    phjorg1 Posts: 642 Member
    Look at the bar.. If there is more weight on it than last time you worked out, then you had a good workout...
  • Fithealthyforlife
    Fithealthyforlife Posts: 866 Member
    Look at the bar.. If there is more weight on it than last time you worked out, then you had a good workout...

    Yup! As has been said a zillion times!

    Before, I believed that the fact that I was sore the day after meant I had done enough intensity. I was listening to my body so carefully that I failed to push more weight...I was always waiting for the DOMS to be less after a certain magical workout (that never happened) before increasing it the next time.

    Ok, that's not strictly true. I was bouncing around a bit in terms of weight used from workout-to-workout. But I convinced myself I was doing mini-cycles (periodization). And I would always go back to the lower weight again. I wasn't giving my body time to adapt!

    The mind plays cruel tricks sometimes! I'm starting to think this is what causes to people to have "plateaus" for the most part.

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