Hey EarthFIT fam! Today we have some myth busting to do. We’re gonna squash out the myth around muscle soreness. Let’s get right into it. So there is this kind myth about muscle soreness, and that it is a great indicator of how successful your workout is. In today’s video we’re gonna dissect specifically what muscle soreness is, what causes muscle soreness and is it a great indicator of the workout? All right, let’s get right into it. So, first thing, what is muscle soreness? What causes it? There is a myth around this that says muscle soreness is lactic acid that builds up in your muscles. And that’s why you get all sore. That is not true at all. What muscle soreness is, is it’s microtraumas to your muscle, small miniature tears to your muscles that cause inflammation. And then that’s why we feel the soreness. 

This is commonly referred to as DOMS or Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. If we were to pull up a fancy personal trainer book, that’s what they’ve referred to as, it’s the delay of onset muscle soreness. Now, this typically happens 24 to 48 hours after your workout. In some cases, you may not feel it until that second day of the workout. So a lot of people believe that this is, ‘man, I just pushed myself so hard. That must have been why I got sore.’ Why do we get sore? Usually a result of using your body in a way that’s not accustomed to a new exercise, for example, you can use very little weight on a brand new exercise and feel that soreness. 

You can also be due to an increased range of motion. Maybe you’ve been really working on your mobility, similar to a new exercise. When you get in a deeper range of motion, that’s new to your body. It’s never been there.

So it may have those microtraumas to it. Another thing that’s gonna, cause it is if we increase your volume, if you go from not training at all, and then all of a sudden you blast yourself with more volume, you’re gonna feel that or in cases on, strength days like here at EarthFIT, sometimes we’ll do supersets and you’re accustomed to going through three times through, or we go to four or five that day. You’re probably gonna feel a little bit more sore because of the increased overall volume on your body. Another thing would be if you increase your intensity, drastically, your body’s not used to it. You’re gonna get more soreness there. Now, all those things sound great and dandy, but we wanna know… is muscle soreness actually correlated to more muscle building? 

It does not. There is a lot of research around this muscle soreness is just muscle soreness. It doesn’t mean that you got a great workout. If you’re not sore, it doesn’t mean you’re not making progress. In fact, when I speak to most of my clients, I want them to feel a little bit sore when they’re stretching. So for example, if we took the chest, if I feel it, when I really stretch a couple days after we did a chest workout, then that’s usually a good ratio. If we’re feeling so sore, we can’t move. It’s gonna impede our progress. Another thing. There is another myth around soreness that says, if it’s sore, you can’t work it out, right? You’re just gonna cause damage to potentially hurt yourself. That is completely false. Actually working out a sore muscle, with an appropriate amount of intensity is gonna lead to more muscle building and it’ll actually make you recover quicker, make you feel better, relieve some of that soreness almost instantly. 

So to recap, some of the myths that we busted today, muscle soreness is not from a buildup of lactic acid. It’s actually microtraumas to your muscles. Myth number two, muscle soreness does not indicate how successful or unsuccessful your workout was. And then myth number three, you can train a sore muscle, and not cause injury. As long as you’re doing that appropriately with your right amount, intensity and volume, it’s actually gonna benefit you in the long run. So I hope this clears up some of the misconceptions around muscle soreness. If you found value in this video, gimme a thumbs up. If you loved it, gimme a heart and please as always stay strong.

-EarthFIT Coach Sam