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EricT · 06-05-2007, 03:06 PM

Sorry but that's not how this kind of soreness always works. You body can adapt to soreness. That is, as you repeat the same stimulus over time you stop being as sore from it and after awhile you may not be sore at all. The DOMS is as much a result of the NOVELTY of a stimulus, i.e. a new exercies, more volume than you're used to, etc. The body has mechanisms in place that adapts to this.

If I haven't done bicep curls in a year and then all of a sudden I do three heavy sets of 10 chances are I'm going to get some DOMS. Maybe fairly severe depending on what type of curl. So my response should be that I've overworked my biceps. Doubtful. I've introduced a lot of trauma but I guarantee I can repeat it next time and get a lot less sore and then another time and no soreness. All this after increasing the load and/or reps.

Or maybe my bi's are sore and in between bicep workouts (not that I'm one to dwell on bicep curls it's just an example) I do some very light low intensity work and the soreness goes away and doesn't come back. Whoa! What is that? Just another reason why DOMS is misleading. All this come from my own experience many times it's not just something I'm regurgitating although you can read about this stuff.

Or maybe I do something new that makes my glutes very sore. So sore that the next time I do squats they are still sore. But I do the squats with no problem and my ass doesn't get any more sore. In fact it's less sore now. Hmmm...

On the other hand if I do something that makes my glutes and/or hams so traumatized I can't walk or sit properly for a week afterward that is just me being stupid. A trainee should know better than that in the first place and should not need external cues to tell him. Of course I recognize that something can sneak up on you and I also know that some people get severe and unreasonable DOMS all the time. But I'd venture a guess that a lack of continuity is a culprit there.

When people SEEK to become sore they are simply upping the anty each time in a way that represents enought new novel stimulus to cause DOMS whether this be constantly increasing the volume or changing up exercises. Whereas if they were to progress slowly and systematically with one protocol the soreness would eventually subside even though at first they were VERY sore. And we are not even getting into training age.

On the other hand to stop doing something every time you get a lot of DOMS...that's not a good response either. I understand what you are saying about having severe debilitating DOMS that would actually prevent you from working out but that is extreme and would usually stem from trainees who have an overblown sense of what is necessary in the gym in the first place.

I would NOT use soreness or lack of soreness as a gauge of what I should or should not be doing in the gym. It is not reliable in that sense. You are not going to overwork from one workout, for instance. You may get overly sore but growth comes from recovery and adaptation. Just because you are really sore doesn't mean you can't adapt. What would kill growth would be the continual exposure to a workload that you couldn't recover from and LACK of PROGRESS is going to be a primary symptom long after soreness has gone away.

That's right. Even if you are continually overtraining your body is still continuing to recover to some degree. DOMS is not a symptoom of chronic overtraining. Aches and pains, strains and sprains, they are symptoms.

Soreness is just not a good gauge of what to do. I put it right up there with people who gauge their workouts by whether they puked or not or their level/lack of fatigue.