When Muscle Soreness Promotes Muscle Growth (and When Not)
After a hard workout, there is a certain sense of pride that comes along with sore muscles – as if you were pushing your body so hard that you still feel like this exercise is working wonders. This is normal, but the pain can be not the best indicator of muscle growth. This is what we mean.
Terrible DOMS (or delayed muscle soreness ) is the stiffness and local pain you feel a few days after a fairly new workout. (For the record, we’re talking specifically about the soreness that comes with lifting weights.) When it comes down to it, it hits hard, but most people enjoy it, thinking there has been serious muscle growth and progress.
But this is not always the case, according to Body Recomposition :
Four things to think about:
1. DOMS is usually worst at the beginning of a training cycle, especially with new movements, but visible and increased growth usually occurs at the end of the cycle when DOMS no longer occurs.
2. Some muscles, for example, the deltoid muscles, for some reason very rarely hurt, but they grow normally. DOMS is not required.
3. People who exercise very rarely, such as a body part once a week, often report amazing DOMS. But many of them grow poorly.
4. People who exercise a little more often (ie, two to three times a week for each muscle group), always report LESS PASS, but MORE height.
In essence, the above indicates that not only is DOMS not about growth, but in most cases you get better growth with less cost.
In addition, there was a 2012 study titled Leukocytes, Cytokines and Satellite Cells: What Role Do They Play in Muscle Damage and Regeneration After Eccentric Exercise? and published in the journal Exercise Immunology Review , discusses how satellite cell activation in muscle “is not directly related to markers of muscle damage.” However, the researchers also note that the initial muscle damage creates the stimulus required for satellite cells to – in most repair terms – regenerate and build muscle.
It is useful to note here that DOMS is also not the best indicator of muscle damage.
However, remember that biology is not so bad. The above may look different just depending on whether you are looking at short term or long term training adaptations. In addition, all bodies are individual and may respond differently to exercise.
So what does this mean to you? Strength trainer Greg Knuckles believes that in the short term, too much muscle damage should be avoided so that you can train more often; your muscles will grow normally without permanent significant damage in the short term.
For the most part, severe muscle damage from time to time is really very beneficial, but don’t waste every workout jerking until you limp out of the gym. This can compromise your ability to adequately perform the following workouts, not to mention that it can negatively affect your joints in the long run. As always, listen to your body.
This story was originally published on 7/28/15 and updated on 12/9/19 to provide more complete and up-to-date information.