Last week I told you how my buddy John Romaniello royally kicked my butt with an insane full body workout last weekend.
I woke up the next day sore as @#$%^&*.
Translation: quite sore. Thanks, John.
So naturally, I did as a good boy should and worked out the very next day.
Huh?
Now, I’m sure you’ve been told that you should wait until all that soreness subsides before stepping in the gym again.
How can I be sure? Easy, I’ve been told that same crap more times than I can count.
Fortunately, I don’t adhere to that silliness anymore, and as a result, I’ve got more muscle and less body fat to thank for it.
You see, it’s not uncommon for delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) to last four or even five days after the completion of an intense weight training session; however, many studies have concluded that complete metabolic recovery (what you care about) occurs within 48 hours of exercise.
In other words, you ARE recovered, yet there is still some residual soreness.
Plain and simple, if metabolic recovery has taken place, a muscle can be worked again via the same training method, even if the muscle is still sore from a previous session.
Having said that, the point is altogether moot anyway as plenty of studies have shown that training a muscle while it is still recovering does NOT adversely affect recovery.
Here are just a few:
Nosaka K, Clarkson P.M. Muscle damage following repeated bouts of high force eccentric exercise. Med. Sci. Sports Exrc., 27(9):1263-1269,1995.
Smith LL., Fuylmer MG., Holbert D., McCammon MR., Houmard JA., Frazer DD., Nsien E., Isreal RG. The impact of repeated bout of eccentric exercise on muscular strength, muscle soreness and creatine kinase. Br J Sp Med 28(4):267-271, 1994.
Chen, TC and S.S. Hsieh. The effects of a seven-day repeated eccentric training on recovery from muscle damage. Med. Sci. Sports Exrc. 31(5 Supp) pp. S71, 1999.
Nosaka K and M Newton. Repeated eccentric exercise bouts do not exacerbate muscle damage and repair. J Strength Cond Res. 2002 Feb;16(1):117-22.
Conclusion: even if complete metabolic recovery has not yet occurred, the muscle can be trained again.
Now, you technically could do the same exact workout again, but frankly, there are better ways to approach working a muscle for a second time within 48 hours of a previous session:
Option #1 – Conduct an “active recovery” session. With this approach you’d conduct a light, less taxing training session after a heavy, demanding session in order to facilitate recovery, decrease DOMS, and actually maximize strength gains.
Simply put, as long as you continue to stimulate the nervous system, even if your body is not totally recovered (metabolically speaking), you’re going to see much better overall results.
An example of this “continued stimulation” would be to do half the number of reps that you normally could do with a given weight, for say, 3 sets.
To illustrate, let’s say you did a killer squat workout on Monday. And let’s say you used a weight of 185 lbs for 12 grueling reps. With the active recovery method, on Tuesday, you’d only do 6 repetitions per set with the same 185 lb load.
This type of workout both stimulates the nervous system and increases the flow of nutrient rich blood to the recoverying muscles, leading to increased strength and recovery.
Option #2 – Change the stimulus and go all out again. If a muscle is still recovering, it wouldn’t be profitable to train it again via the same training method prior to recovery taking place.
Yes, the above studies do show that doing so will not substantially, adversely affect metabolic recovery, but at the same time, it ain’t gonna be of benefit either.
So what to do?
Answer: use a different rep range.
By utilizing a different repetition range, you’ll stimulate different muscle fibers and in turn yield a different overall physiological response.
For example, if you conducted 5 sets of 10 in the bench press on Monday, you may want to shoot for 10 sets of 5, or 4 sets of 15 come Wednesday.
Obviously, you cannot use the above approach for every muscle group, but rather it should be utilized to bring up a lagging body part or to accelerate growth in an area you are highly motivated to train.
Lastly, I’ll quote my good friend and uber strength coach Chad Waterbury on the subject:
“Your body will only increase recovery if you force it to work more frequently. Initially, you may still have residual soreness from the previous workout, but don’t worry. Instead, work through it and the body will improve its recovery rate to the point where soreness will subside.”
Want to increase your recovery capacity, gain more muscle, increase strength, and lose more fat? Then forget about “sitting the bench” because of a little soreness.
Instead, get yourself back in the game quickly with one of the above two methods. In return, you can expect a heck of a lot more progress with a heck of a lot less soreness.
So what about you? Do you ever train a sore muscle? Do you guage the effectiveness of your workouts by how sore you feel the next day?
Talk to you in the comments section!
Joel
Joel
P.S. Check out the below video from my buddy Kyle explaining one of the NEWEST methods we’re using to lose fat and gain muscle at the SAME time:
I think the best way for me to get relief from DOMS is to stick to my training program! My lifting schedule seems to serve me really well.
If I feel sore on a rest day, I will do something just to get the blood flowing. I usually like to make this as close to pure recreation as I can: take a moderate yoga class, go for a bike ride, or pick-up sports in the park.
Does this mean that you can train heavy on consequtive days i.e not follow a split routine for instance where you work a body part hard once or twice per week?
Thanks,
Greg
@Joel Marion –
Does Lee Hayward agree with this concept?
Thanks,
Greg
When I’m training pretty hard I’m sore every day so I just learn to live with it. Typically I work out the same muscles in subsequent days but with different stimuli…for instance interval training/sprints one day, heavy weights next day, low-weight conditioning routine next day.
Way to go! Many lifters are unaware of this notion.
I have been lifting for some time and I have only known of this for about a year.
Doesn’t hurt once you get into your session and fill your muscles with blood.
Wow good thing to know.. This would def influence my routine
I always train no matter how sore I am. I live with the philosophy of “Pain is weakness leaving the body”. About 90% of the time I feel much better after training.
Hi Joel,
Thanks for this. For a while I thought I was insane to hit the gym the very next day working with the same weight but half the rep. l have to agree with you that with this method works, because I actually see better results on me.
I used to be a ballet dancer and I’ll definitely vouch for working sore muscles. You have to push your body and let it know “who’s boss” to a certain extent.
This would happen to us all the time when we started a new work with different movements in it – and we’d just have to do it all again the next day. It only made us stronger and better able to cope with anything.
In my experience, soreness seems to come mostly from executing a movement that my body is not used to doing. The old specificity of training principle seems to apply here. The only thing that DOMS tells me is that I haven’t done that exercise in a while. In fact, I usually take it easy on a new exercise the first few times before I go heavy/hard so I can still walk, brush my hair, etc for the next few days afterward.
When I do have soreness, I will absolutely hit that muscle group the next day, usually with less weight and more reps to increase bloodflow, remove scar tissue and regain some flexibility. Resting seems to be the worst way for me to deal with it. The longer I rest it the more stiff and sore it becomes.
Joel, this is yet again another great post. And I find it interesting that you advocate greater frequency with regards to lifting. Any cursory glance at a world class gymnast should dispel the widely promulgated notion that 2 or 3 days training is the be-all/end-all for gaining strength and muscularity. Such athletes are stimulating the same muscle groups repeatedly throughout the week; and yet many have far greater muscle densities and body fat percentages than their bodybuilding and powerlifting counterparts.
I usuaully get right back on schedule sore or not unless its that kind of tears in your eyes can barely walk sore. I will give myself one more day after that just to ease it up a tad. Still sore just not so much. lol
Ive just come off a higher rep, full body fat loss kind of workout for the last 3 months and am getting ready to start the heavy stuff again, so Im expecting to have a few of those days in the near future.
Thanks, Joel. I’m an almost-60 year old female, but I really enjoy my workouts. I’m finding that when I do my weight training every other day, even while I’m still sore, the soreness goes away. Of course, I have the advantage of changing up my workouts, which probably helps too.
How do you feel about recovery drinks? (i.e. something like 1/2 scoop whey protein powder, 1 tsp Creatin, 1 cup grape or apple juice)
Originally Posted By Joel Marion@Sean –
Thanks for the quality contribution, Sean.
-Joel
Thank you Joel. I would also challenge others to tell us the results they get from both strategies, because that is what we are all after, right? For me, I have done all kinds of training methods, read all sorts of material and found that infrequent intense routines work the best for me. However, my goals are muscle mass, so I work out very heavy and always less than an hour–usually 4 minute workouts or less. If your goals are less than that or not as intense, then Joel’s method stated here works.
I read Vince Delmonte’s blog, Jone Benson’s blog and Lee Haney’s blog as well as their YouTube videos, so everyone needs to stick with one trainers strategy and see it through for a whole year, then decide to switch (or not) based on results. I am using Sean Sean Nalewanyj’s program right now and it works great for me, so give Joel’s training advice a chance to work and then make up your mind.
I suggest that you buy Joel’s full coaching support so you can get the entire “package”, that way you can really test his strategies out. I found that only small snippets of advice only works when you have a good foundation of knowlege and experience to compare it to.
Personally, I train muscle groups twice a week now. I followed several different routines for a few years that worked groups three times a week, but since I’ve gone to twice a week (since restarting in January after a broken collar bone recovery), I’ve made bigger strides than at any time in my workout life.
I go on an 8 day schedule now, 3 days on, 1 day off. 8×8’s with only 20 seconds rest on the first three days. On the second set of days, I do 2 cycles of power/stretch sets (3 exercises of each muscle) with only 20 seconds rest each.
In the seven weeks after I began this, I lost an inch at my waist while gaining 1/2 inch on my chest and arms (didn’t measure my legs, but I’m sure they grew as well).
Sure training a sore muscle is fine, as long as there has been proper recovery time (that approximate 48 hours you mentioned), but I’ve found 3 days rest rather than 2 has giv en me the most benefits.
A word of warning: Don’t train a muscle every day because eventually it will break down and you’ll only be building scar tissue instead of muscle.
Hi Joel
Yep I agree with you working the same muscle groups again, but one should be aware that the soresnes felt in the muscles is the body telling us that yes we have ripped and torn the myosin and actin fibers and they are not rebuilt stronger yet. I still am a believer that 2 days rest after a monster session is best before I do it again. But yes the next workout is light duty.
Marty T
Hi Joel,
I just wanted to drop you a line to say thanx 4 all the great content and training tips. As for today post, I would have to totally agree with you. I hear all the time from people that one should not work out a sore muscle and I think it’s B.S. Actually, I believe that you get the best results this way.
However, I do have one question that I would love to get a solid answer to. What is your view on an individual taking a nap after a light snack or a small meal. I hear all the time that it’s a bad idea because it makes you gain weight. Is that really the case? What about if you take a 30 min nap and then hit the gym for a solid work-out?
What is your take on this???
Thanx,
Paul
Hi, I used too train everyday but as my body ages, 46 its not so much the muscle soreness as the sorness of my joints. I think its more tendon, ligament damage which can be a week to subside. Is this normal? What can I do. My body packing up? I am trying far less volumn and frequency but heavier wieghts. It sucks as I like to be able to train hard out every day.
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Hey, it’s Joel! So you want to know a little more about me, huh? Well, I’d be happy to oblige :-)
I guess it all started back in 2001 (my freshman year of college) when I was just a “skinny fat” 19-year old kid. At the time, I was spending close to 2 hours a day in the gym (now my workouts last about 30 minutes), and despite my efforts, you’d probably never guess I worked out a day in my life by looking at me...read more