Bulking and Muscle Soreness

dpr73
dpr73 Posts: 495 Member
in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
I have seemed to achieve a pretty good rate of weight gain since starting my bulk. However, when i go to the gym, I don't really sweat or get muscle soreness. I have been doing weight training for nearly 5 years (first real bulk) and i have a good muscular base (not skinny fat). So, i have always chalked up the lack of sweating and soreness to my consistency at the gym. However, someone i spoke to has said that I need to feel soreness or I can't be gaining muscle. Is this really true? It does make some sense, but i work pretty hard everyday at the gym and dont want ti push so hard that i get hurt.

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    soreness isn't an indication of a good work out
  • dragonghost
    dragonghost Posts: 68 Member
    I can not speak for every one though for myself i enjoy pushing myself to new limits once i find something that is to easy.

    I will increase the reps or the weight or find a way to make things more of a challenge though that of course is personal choice.
  • pinggolfer96
    pinggolfer96 Posts: 2,248 Member
    If anything, it’s good cause it allows you to train optimally the following days. The goal shouldn’t be muscle soreness. Now, if your program lacks overload or isn’t optimal, then that’s something you need to address. Also to note, when I’m bulking I don’t get as sore as I do when cutting. Def a nutrition and recovery thing, but def not as sore when bulking
  • dpr73
    dpr73 Posts: 495 Member
    I challenge myself fairly hard and go pretty close to failure. I am going to start doing PHAT so overloading my muscles shouldn't be an issue. But my routine wasnt extremelt different so i just may not get sore so easily
  • dragonghost
    dragonghost Posts: 68 Member
    The longer you been doing something the more your body has been conditioned an the higher your endurance an stamina is so it is much more difficult to reach your limit.
  • dpr73
    dpr73 Posts: 495 Member
    dragonghost wrote: »
    The longer you been doing something the more your body has been conditioned an the higher your endurance an stamina is so it is much more difficult to reach your limit.

    So if im understanding right, as long as im challenging myself each day...soreness is really just irrelevant
  • jseams1234
    jseams1234 Posts: 1,219 Member
    dpr73 wrote: »
    dragonghost wrote: »
    The longer you been doing something the more your body has been conditioned an the higher your endurance an stamina is so it is much more difficult to reach your limit.

    So if im understanding right, as long as im challenging myself each day...soreness is really just irrelevant

    If you have enough frequency DOM's usually aren't going to be an issue. When I was doing a PPL on a 3 day heavy volume rotation a couple of years ago the DOM's were pretty bad. This was after I found out that the 2x week PPL split was a bit too much for me to recover from. When I went to a 4 day split they were very minor to negligible. When I hit things 3x a week the only pain I have is from my stupid joints.

    Yesterday I set PR's on bench, rows, pullups and OHP. No soreness today (except my blasted elbows, lol). However, my wife missed all last week because of a business trip and she is definitely feeling it today, tomorrow will probably be worse for her. ;)

    Here is something from L. McDonald

    Four things to think about.

    DOMS is usually the worst at the beginning of the training cycle, especially with new movements but visible and increased growth usually occurs at the end of the cycle when DOMS no longer happens.

    Some muscles, the deltoids are one example, very rarely get sore for some reason, but they grow just fine. DOMS is not required.

    People who train very infrequently such as a bodypart once/week often report amazing DOMS. But many of them don’t grow well.

    People who train somewhat more frequently (i.e. 2-3 times/week per muscle group) always report LESS DOMS but MORE growth.

    Basically, the above seems to indicate that not only is DOMS not associated with growth but in most cases you get better growth with less DOMS. Yes, these are purely anecdotal observations but they are very very common. DOMS seems to have no relationship to growth on most levels.

    https://bodyrecomposition.com/training/doms-muscle-growth.html/

    dragonghost wrote: »
    I can not speak for every one though for myself i enjoy pushing myself to new limits once i find something that is to easy.

    I will increase the reps or the weight or find a way to make things more of a challenge though that of course is personal choice.

    Um, yes. Progression is always an integral part of any lifting program.

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