It’s a common misconception among people who workout that your muscles need to be sore in order for you to be making muscle gains.
However, this isn’t always the case.
Although muscle soreness is great because it makes us feel accomplished and like the work we’re doing is paying off.
However, we’ve all had those days where we have an intense workout but never end up getting sore afterwards.
You might have felt like you had a great workout and couldn’t wait for the soreness, then ended up discouraged when you ended up not being sore.
But does this really mean your workout was ineffective? No, not at all.
There are tons of reasons why you might not be sore after your workouts.
And they might not be because you’re making mistakes in the gym.
What causes muscle soreness?
When you lift weights, you’re really creating a bunch of tiny, little tears in your muscles.
These tears are what will heal and cause your muscles to grow back bigger and stronger than before.
However, just because you don’t have muscle soreness after a workout doesn’t mean you didn’t make any tears in your muscles.
And doesn’t mean your workout didn’t stimulate growth.
What does it mean if your muscles are never sore
If your muscles never get sore after working out, there’s a high chance you might not be training intensely enough.
There are a lot of ways to train intensely in the gym. Whether it be utilizing progressive overload, lifting heavy, or doing lots of reps.
Whatever it may be, you want to make sure what you’re doing is continually challenging your muscles.
If you’re muscles are never challenged and forced to work and adapt, your muscles will never grow.
Although training too lightly can be one of the reasons for a lack of soreness, if you know you’re continually training intensely in the gym, then this might not be the case.
Why might your muscles not be sore after a workout
There are plenty of reasons why your muscles might not feel sore after a workout.
These reasons might not be because you’re doing something wrong, but because you’ve been doing things consistently right for so long.
Whatever the case may be, if you’re consistently not getting sore after your workouts, this could be an indicator it’s time to switch up your routine or intensity of training.
Here are some of the reasons why you might no longer be getting sore after your workouts.
Your body has adapted to your routine
As you work out, your body is forced to adapt to the workouts you do.
Overtime, this means that your body becomes used to your routine. This is when it becomes important to change up your training split.
Not being sore after your workouts could be a sign that your body has adapted to your current workout routine.
This doesn’t mean you aren’t still making gains, it just means your body is familiar with the movements now.
Changing up your routine at this time is what allows you to continue challenging your muscles and forcing them to adapt to the routine.
If you start becoming bored with your routine and are continually not sore, that’s when it’s a good indicator it might be time to switch things up.
You’re eating right and hydrating enough
Especially as women who lift weights, it’s important we learn how to fuel ourselves correctly.
Learning how to eat as a weightlifting women can have a tremendous impact on our muscle gains.
If you’re eating enough and eating the right foods, you’re body can heal and recover much quicker than it otherwise would.
For example, nutrients like protein are extremely important for muscle growth and recovery. If you’re eating a sufficient amount of protein, you’ll likely recover much quicker.
A good way to know that you’re fueling your body correctly is if your soreness lasts for a short period of time after your workouts.
This means you’re healing quickly and your body is recovering faster to prepare itself for another intense workout.
You have good form during exercises
The importance of good form for muscle growth is tremendous. No matter what exercise you’re doing, you want to be doing it with good form.
Proper form allows your muscle to move in their natural range of motion.
Which then allows you to perform the exercise without causing any additional stress on surrounding regions. Such as your muscles or surrounding tendons and tissues.
Because of this, roper form is critical for preventing injuries while you work out.
By performing exercise with correct form, you may not get as sore as you otherwise would. Since you are not inducing any additional trauma to the area.
Because working out makes us more prone to weightlifting injuries, we don’t want to increase this risk by lifting incorrectly.
Because of that, if you have less soreness because your form is always on point, this is exactly where you want to be.
You exercise often
You might notice that if you take a few days off from the gym, when you come back you’re feeling extremely sore.
Or, you might feel the movement much better in your muscles. Meaning you have a better mind to muscle connection.
This is because when you exercise frequently and consistently, your body again gets used to working out.
The more often you work out, the more your body gets used to physical activity and doesn’t become as sore after a workout.
So, if you’re consistently hitting each muscle group 1 or 2 times a week, eventually your muscles will stop getting sore. Because they become familiar with the workouts.
This is a great sign of progress. Since your body is becoming familiar with your routine, it begins healing itself faster to keep up with the intensity.
However, once this happens, it might be a good time to switch up your routine a bit or consider taking a deload week.
It’s important you continue changing up your routine in order to keep challenging your muscles for maximum growth.
You stretch and do active recovery
Stretching before and after your workouts is a great way to warm up your muscles or cool them down.
This warming up or cooling down phase really just means you’re increasing your flexibility, mobility, and blood flow.
You might just do warm ups and cool downs out of habit, or because you’ve heard they’re good for your muscles.
The real purpose when doing these is to get more blood into your muscles to help you perform better and recover better.
So if you’re consistently warming up and cooling down, this could be the reason for a decrease in soreness after your workouts.
Additionally, rest days are extremely important for muscle growth. You may be someone who likes to incorporate active rest days into your routine.
You may do activities like walking, jogging, swimming, or yoga on your rest days. All of these are a great way to get your body moving and increase circulation.
These exercises will increase blood flow and unstiffen your muscles.
Therefore decreasing muscle soreness.
What you can do now
Just because you aren’t sore after your workouts doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong.
Soreness isn’t always an indicator of your effort or progress on your weightlifting journey.
So don’t let it discourage you!
Just take the time to evaluate your routine and how the things your doing may be contributing to your soreness or lack of soreness.
Sometimes simple adjustments to your routine can leave you feeling sore and like you’re making progress again.
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