is it okay to NOT feel sore after lifting?

Are you lifting heavy? You should be lifting enough to where it is pretty hard to do more than 3 reps.

It's normal for soreness to become very short lived and/or absent after consistently training the same exercises for long periods of time. As a newbie though, I would think you'd be sore for at least several days after just starting a new regime. Next time you go, try upping the weights slowly.

Also as a side note, you didn't mention when you started lifting. If it was just today then that makes more sense. Usually you get DOMS and you'll be sore the next day or more after working out. Not immediately after.

I have been having the same problem even though I dont think that I could handle more weight,
so instead of adding more weight I intensified my lifting and did new things to get that soreness that made me feel accomplished.

Are you lifting heavy? You should be lifting enough to where it is pretty hard to do more than 3 reps.

Sorry but you are totally wrong here, the amount of reps and weight depends on what you are trying to get out of that session.

If you're not sore, then you just went through the motions. Increase the weights and "work" next time. Lifting should make you breathe heavy and sweat.

Just because you're not sore, it doesn't mean you didn't do any damage. There are body parts I can ALWAYS make sore, but some body parts I can rarely make sore. I always feel better when I wake up the next morning sore, but regardless, I know if I lift heavy I've done damage!

This, no need to add anything.

It may take a day or two to feel the pain.

I did 3 sets of 10 at 10lbs and then 2 sets of 10 at 25 on the chest press, 20 on leg press 3 of 10, and a few other much lighter ones of 5 or 10. I guess I feel like I should be sore after all that. I don't really know what weight is proper to do.

Did you feel like you were getting to 'failure' at the end of each set?

Are you lifting heavy? You should be lifting enough to where it is pretty hard to do more than 3 reps.

This is not only incorrect, but irresponsible and potentially dangerous.

People who are new to lifting should never be using weights anywhere near their 3RM.

I have no idea what a 3RM is and I could be using the wrong terminology which doesn't mean you have to say im irresponsible. I follow the program on bodybuilding.com and use free weights of 20lbs which is heavy for ME and I'm told to do 3 sets of 10-12 and by the last set I am struggling and definitely feel the burn. I see nothing irresponsible or dangerous about that...especially because I am alive and well and definitely seeing results. Thanks though

Are you lifting heavy? You should be lifting enough to where it is pretty hard to do more than 3 reps.

This is not only incorrect, but irresponsible and potentially dangerous.

People who are new to lifting should never be using weights anywhere near their 3RM.

I have no idea what a 3RM is and I could be using the wrong terminology which doesn't mean you have to say im irresponsible. I follow the program on bodybuilding.com and use free weights of 20lbs which is heavy for ME and I'm told to do 3 sets of 10-12 and by the last set I am struggling and definitely feel the burn. I see nothing irresponsible or dangerous about that...especially because I am alive and well and definitely seeing results. Thanks though

You mentioned that you should be lifting where it's hard to do more than 3-reps, that's near a 3-rep max (3RM). But you say you do sets of 10-12 reps?

I don't think that it's necessarily irresponsible because there are beginner programs that you have working in sets of 3 to 5 reps. Although not all exercises should be performed in such a manner.

I did 3 sets of 10 at 10lbs and then 2 sets of 10 at 25 on the chest press, 20 on leg press 3 of 10, and a few other much lighter ones of 5 or 10. I guess I feel like I should be sore after all that. I don't really know what weight is proper to do.

You should, at the very least, be working with your bodyweight on the leg press (to start). Bear in mind your legs are used to lifting your body weight. Thinking you can do 20 lbs to give them any sort of workout at all is a joke.

First of all, weight lifting is not hard. It's just confusing for many people.

These are your problems: You're doing full body workouts. You aren't going to failure. You're probably lifting too light. You're not doing enough sets. You may be resting too much.

Here's some advice about lifting: Don't go into the gym and randomly pick exercises. You should try to know what you're doing, and it should be part of your split. Many people do the following 3 day split (Chest & Triceps, Back & Biceps, Legs). For example:

Monday: Chest & Triceps
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: Back & Biceps
Thursday: Rest
Friday: Legs

As you can see, you're mixing legs (leg press) and chest (chest press). Most people don't mix legs with anything, because leg exercises generally don't hit other muscle groups that well (except for lower back and core). If you mix chest and triceps, you will likely still be hitting chest with any tricep exercise and vice versa. Especially if you're doing compound movements, which means you're hitting more than one muscle group (chest press hits chest and arms). As opposed to isolation movements where you only hit one muscle group (curls only hit arms).

Here are some things you are (or may) be doing wrong, and how you can correct them.

1. Poor Form: Lift the weight in a controlled fashion, at a medium pace. Focus on the muscles being used, and stick to proper form. If you can't get another rep, don't sacrifice form; simply put the weight down.

2. Lifting too Light / Not Going to Failure: The beginner advice is to stay in the 8-12 rep range. If you can do more than 12 reps in a set you should slightly increase the weight. Every time you can do more than 12, increase it again. Eventually you won't be able to do 12, which is a good weight for you. Stick with that until you can do more than 12 again. Also, you should always go to failure, or close to it (with upper body exercises). Don't do a preset number of reps and then stop, keep going until you can't do another rep with proper form (or almost can't). Of course, if you do more than 12 you need to increase the weight.

3. Too much rest. Generally you should rest 60 seconds between upper body sets. Don't rest more than that (as a rule of thumb).

4. Doing Full Body Workouts: Beginners (and most people) should not do full body workouts. A common 3 day split is Chest & Triceps, Back & Biceps, and Legs. An example of a chest/triceps day is: (Bench Press (3 sets), Tricep pulldown (3 sets), Incline Bench Press (3 sets), Dips (3 sets)).

Using this advice, you should do about 12-15 sets of 3-5 different exercises, and then you're done. So a gym session should only last ~20 minutes (25-45 seconds per set with 1 minute of rest in between).

It may seem a little overwhelming. Many people just want to go to the gym randomly, pick some random exercises and do an arbitrary number of sets with an arbitrary number of reps. That doesn't work. You don't need a personal trainer or anything (be your own trainer), but just do what I do, which is spend 10 minutes finding 4-5 exercises for each of your splits and write them down on a sticky note. Bring the note with you to the gym. Do those exercises, no big deal. Do the same workouts for a while (maybe 3 months), adjusting the weight as needed. Here's a great website for finding exercises categorized by muscle group: http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html

Just a final note: With legs you should do a higher rep range and not necessarily go to failure (although still get close). Higher means about 15-25 reps per set. And as someone (not so nicely) mentioned before, you should definitely be lifting heavier on the leg press. But you'll figure that out in no time. Weight lifting is more confusing than it is difficult, just try not to underestimate yourself. Good luck in your endeavors.