Weight Lifting Soreness Cause And Effect

Mild discomfort from weight lifting soreness is normal, as the body begins to condition itself against the internal effects of external resistance training, this article looks at the effects of intramuscular soreness.

If intensity is matched by training seriousness, you have already or will undoubtedly feel these effects. So let's look closer at some of the causes, effects and different ways to alleviate, post stress soreness.

All of us love to see progress of any kind especially; in our weight training, weight lifting soreness can hinder progress sometimes even severely!

• This intramuscular soreness can come from change in your training routine, not hydrating properly, increasing volume, resistance or changing training angles.

• Inadequate rest between workouts can also affect the healing process.

• If you are training seriously, 60 to 70 minutes is usually enough time to produce the results you want, within one or two different muscle groups.

Over time, the medical and scientific community has passed some of the blame for extreme muscle soreness...

to excess calcium leakage into muscle fiber consequently deeming this responsible for the sensation of DOMS.

DOMS. What Are They?

This is a a direct result from the training-especially in the early years; also better known as ‘DOMS’, (delayed onset of muscle soreness).

Depending on your level of fitness and natural healing ability this vary's from person to person. In the beginning most have their hands full just understanding the nervous system and preforming the exercises properly.  

As you advance the muscles and nervous system will begin to be able to handle a heavier work load.

as you advance you will begin to except some or most of the weight lifting soreness you're experiencing easier, even relish this soreness. I can hear some of you now “ya right”!

Honestly though - this is actually the feedback telling you for the most part, YOU are training these specific muscles with an honest effort.

The biggest mistake often made is doing too much; take it one step at a time until the muscles become conditioned. Try to be patient with your training - I assure you, it does get easier!

Here are some of the different levels of weight lifting soreness: this is only a rough guide for you to follow, as everyone’s ability to handle soreness/stress with different pain thresh holds does vary.

The difference between Pain and Soreness: 

Sharp pain is debilitating and generally ends the workout immediately. Weight lifting soreness is:

• If you are mildly sore is generally confirming that you are doing it right. If the soreness lasts for 1 to 2 days this is normal especially for beginners, even early intermediates.

• If you’re sore for 3 to 4 days you have more than likely went at it too hard. I’m not laughing, as I too have experienced this sensation often.

But this is counterproductive if done too often, refrain from training that area again until it is fully healed, more than likely if you keep this up for a pro-longed-period your body may enter an overtrained state, or even worse, sustain an injury. 

Alleviating Aggressive Soreness

You can do some light stretching for these effected areas.

Some light cardio even very light weights with no intensity as you are just trying at this point; to simply put some blood into the area affected:

this will warm it up, flush and transport nutrients to the affected area.

Drink plenty of water, always stay hydrated during and after workouts throughout your day.

I honestly can’t stress this enough, water helps with all forms of recovery flushing toxins and waste from your system hence...”faster recovery time”.

The reason some soreness is greater in certain muscle groups?

• 1st:  because most of the lower body's muscles are bigger it often takes more training to stimulate them, resulting in more connective tissue and intramuscular stimulation/soreness.

• 2nd: just as obvious but sometimes gets over looked; you have to walk on the leg muscles all day, whereas arms, chest and back you don’t, the bodies trunk supports these so they don’t have near the daily stress like that of the legs.

I Have felt the affects of weight lifting soreness; sometimes severely, as some mornings on getting up from bed, walking became hardly doable because my calves were so sore...

Calf training takes a fair bit of intensity to make them develop, so there were times I would experience this soreness at a fairly intense level; again, these times were rare...

We just naturally feel this discomfort more on the legs, as we stand and walk on them all day.

      What Actually Causes Weight Lifting Soreness?

This soreness is generally inflicted by angle, (pushing or pulling) and resistance used, often this soreness originates from contraction intensity in the workout: affecting tendon and connective tissue the most intensely.

When you feel the burn within the set, this is a buildup of “lactic acid”, which is a buy or waste product that naturally happens in weight lifting, but is not always indicative to training soreness.

Muscle cells are commonly broke down at a microscopic level, a natural occurrence in resistance training, this is what increases strength and new growth.

The body makes major repairs to torn or damaged cells when it is at rest or more precise, when you're sleeping.

The muscle fatigue/soreness you feel the next day is usually small in comparison to the second day, (if your going at it hard), this is the bodies way of rebuilding damaged tissue from the work out of the previous day.

So if even one of you ask the question, ‘just how important is sleep to this whole weight training and soreness thing’...?

This is without a doubt one of the most over looked truths of heavy anaerobic training, you simply can’t grow unless you are getting enough rest/sleep at least 8 hrs. 

Ok.... that was a mouthful on the whole soreness issue, wasn’t it?

I try to keep things in my training and the understanding of it simple and non-technical. Throughout the years I've spent weight lifting I do find surprisingly; simple works and works well.

I hope the information on weight lifting soreness, its causes and how to alleviate some of it has helped.

It is hard to tell, as each persons age and level of fitness does vary on the soreness issue.

build up to your intensity slowly, while adding some fun to your training and enjoy your rest as much as your workouts.

                                                              DWT

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