Your Soreness Is Lying To You

By Coach/Owner Mehdi El-Amine

It is making you feel like you busted your a** off.

It is making you think that your training session was the bomb.

Worst of all, it is making you believe that you are making progress.

But soreness is a liar.

There is little evidence in the scientific literature that DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) is a useful indicator of muscular adaptation (increased growth, added strength, stamina, etc).

Soreness merely shows up upon novel stimulus. Read that as: when you try a new movement, you get sore.

But isn’t trying new movements good for you? The whole “keeping shocking the muscles” thing?

No, it is not.

The unequivocal best way to increase muscular adaptation (growth, strength, etc) is to PROGRESSIVELY OVERLOAD. That means: repeat the movement, add reps or weight or time under tension.

We know this because literally every published piece of research since the dawn of exercise physiology tells us this.

Constantly varying things does the exact opposite.

So why are novelty and soreness held in high regard in the industry? Because it’s an easy way for trainers and gyms to make their clients believe they’re making progress. You can feel it, so surely it must be effective.

Is there a place for variety in programming? You bet. At Brazen Fitness, we use a ton of variety in our workouts on a weekly basis. We know that new workouts are fun, and fun is motivating, and motivation is critical for consistency. But at our gym, variety is layered on top of a solid foundation of progressive overload, structured training waves, and repeat testing. It’s not variety for the sake of variety. It serves a purpose.

So if you’re constantly feeling sore, weeks & months into your training program, be warned: you may not be making the progress you think you’re making.