Sore good?

[scotty1]

Hi
I did some weights last night, a set each of curls, tri curls, hammers (?) and bench.

I could not do any more than 8 reps of each with the weight used, and I stretched off afterwards.

I am not sore today at all, but I was wondering if that neccessarily means that the exercise was ineffectual.

[BananaMan]

wait till the 2nd or third day.... if u just started working out again, it takes an extra day or too.

[Sharky]

ironfist is gonna LOVE you.

[scotty1]

I know, but i haven't been on the health forum for ages, and I suspect the answer is 'no', but I'd ike to know why.

Plus I think Iron needs constant practice on his basics.

Also, Iron, what exercises can I do to work the lower abs?

[TjD]

i hope that was sarcasm about the lower abs

peace
trav

[Kempo Guy]

I hope the lower abs comment was a joke as well.

Scotty1,
As Ironfist would say, "There isn't such a thing as lower abs"! But seriously, I would suggest reading the thread on Janda sit-ups. Iron wrote a really good description on how these are done.
Those are killer for your abs and will make you rock solid.


Not being sore after a weight workout does not mean it ain't effective. I'm wondering, what are you trying to do with your workout? Bodybuild, gain weight, lean out, endurance, functional strength, all of the above...?

[IronFist]

There's no link between soreness (or lack thereof) and an effective workout. In fact, no one really knows what causes DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness).

So, if you're getting stronger or bigger or accomplishing whatever your goals are, then your workout is effective.

Oh yeah, usually it takes about 24 hours after a workout to get sore. So if you work out at night and then wake up the next morning chances are you won't be sore anyway.

As for lower abs, there's hanging leg raises, hanging crunches, leg lifts...

Dude, seriously, I hope you were kidding with that question.

IronFist

[nospam]

The one nice thing about soreness, you know exactly what muscles you were working out. I've always used it as a great way to check if my exercises were hitting the spots I wanted.

nospam.

[scotty1]

Dude, dude, DUDE!!

Of course I was kidding. Man, did you start to shake when you read that question?

Sorry man, but after Sharky's post I thought everyone would see the humour.

Thanks for the info about DOMS BTW, I didn't know that.

[stoli]

As someone who obviously trains regularly (Martial Arts) then I would be shocked if doing 4 sets of weights made you sore Scotty!!

Though a lot of the books will tell you soreness is no indicator of a good or effective workout I think 99% of people who work out know that it generally is (as long as it's the right soreness in the right places !), many medical people seem to think that the soreness is due to micro-tears in muscle fibres post workout which allow the fibres to grow (similar in a way to how you can increase your stretching)

If you're just getting back into weights then set some goals and get back to your basics, it's just like training. You need a solid base.

[Cyborg]

You speak of tearing your muscles to stretch them like that's a good thing! That's a really bad idea. Read Pavel's book "Relax into Stretch" and he'll debunk that myth. Or you could just ask Ironfist for a detailed explanation since he doesn't mind typing. Basically tearing it with stretching will rebound on you later in life and you'll lose all your gains. Better to do the isometric stretching.

[hughes]

Originally posted by stoli
As someone who obviously trains regularly (Martial Arts) then I would be shocked if doing 4 sets of weights made you sore Scotty!!

That's one of the oddest statements I've ever heard. So if he did 4 setsof bench presses with 500lbs that would be sub par?

[IronFist]

hughes, soreness doesn't come from the weight used. 4 sets of 500lbs in bench probably wouldn't make you sore if you only did 2 reps. Soreness generally is a result of volume overload. In other words, say someone could bench 500lbs. A few low rep sets of bench probably wouldn't leave them sore at all, where as that same person benching only 300 or 350 x 10 for 4 sets might get sore.

Make sense?

IronFist

[hughes]

Yeah i get what you mean now, so thats why reps alter depending on if your looking for power strength or size?

[stoli]

Cyborg, read my post,micro tears in muscle fibres That's very different from tearing muscles and something everyone does every day. Haven't got time now but in future will try to post something going into more detail. I would suggest getting hold of something which covers exercise kiniseology and functional physiology rather than relying on one book (which I have read and doesn't convince me!!

Why is it that common sense seems to go out of the window when people read posts on these forums ???? Hughes - first of all it's very, very, very unlikely that Scotty1 was benching 500lbs (no offence to Scotty but....common sense, how many people with a 500lb Bench would ask the question he did), secondly I never mentioned 'sub par' in my post so don't go putting words in my mouth, thirdly I'm shocked that you didn't understand why you do different reps for size, strength or power and finally, if that's the oddest statement you've ever heard you've had a very odd and sheltered life !!!!!!!!!!