Is Muscle Soreness A Reliable Indicator of Muscle Growth?
December 28 2010
Is muscle soreness a reliable indicator of muscle growth? Most people think it is. If they get sore, they think they had a great workout and in turn will grow muscle. If they don’t get sore, they feel they didn’t do enough to cause muscle growth.
What is muscle soreness?
Discomfort or pain in the muscle caused by unfamiliar physical activity. It shows within the first day and peaks within 2 days, and then disappears within 5-7 days. Hence it is called DOMS or Delayed onset of Muscle Soreness.
What causes muscle soreness?
There are so many theories proposed, but none has conclusively be proven to cause soreness. The current theory tries to explain soreness through a combination of theories.
1. Muscle and connective tissue damage due to high forces, especially eccentric contractions (means lowering the weight).
2. Increased ca leakage from the muscle and inflammations worsen the damage
3. Sensitizes and activates the pain receptors to cause pain and discomfort.
So why Is muscle soreness NOT indicative of muscle growth?
Muscle damage not required: Muscle can grow with just tension and no damage. Most people think that damage is required for muscle growth.
Receptors called integrins can sense mechanical load and activate pathways which are required for protein synthesis and thereby muscle growth (Integrin Mediated signaling). So even if you are not sore, you might be very well growing.
Soreness not indicative of the level of damage: You could have done the same muscle damage, but the pain receptors get less and less sensitive with damage . So you don’t feel the soreness, though the damage is still present and maybe even more than when you had soreness. So soreness is not a reliable indicator of the magnitude of muscle damage either.
More soreness do not mean more growth: It doesn’t matter how hard you hit the muscle or how many sets you do, the protein synthesis levels can only go up so far. So more soreness do not mean more damage and more protein synthesis and hence more growth
More Soreness may mean less muscle growth: Unlike synthesis, protein breakdown on the other hand, will go up with greater damage. So when you are really sore, it could also mean that you are breaking down more muscle and in turn growing less!
No soreness results in muscle growth: People have experienced muscle growth without soreness. Low reps hardly ever cause soreness, but powerlifters who does low reps all the time are as big as bodybuilders.
Major soreness results in little muscle growth: People get really sore from endurance training like cycling and running or playing ping pong. But they don’t grow any appreciable muscle compared to lifting.
Practical Applications
- Soreness is not a reliable indicator of muscle growth and soreness is clearly not required for muscle growth.
- Soreness only means you have caused muscle damage which may or may not result in muscle growth.
Reference 1
Related Articles
| Wed December 29, 2010
Hey Anoop,
Great blog. I am glad we have fitness professionals putting out empirical information instead of anecdotal bullsh**.
I was especially intrigued by this post and was looking for some further explanation on your thoughts about muscle soreness and growth.
Would you agree the most effective way for muscle growth via strength training would be to create as much muscle fatigue as possible within a workout last no longer than 60 minutes. And do you also feel that typical muscle sorness is by product of muscle fatigue?
| Wed December 29, 2010
Mike, why you think that workout shouldn’t last longer then 60 min?
And most of DOMS observed on eccentric training then the fatigue is low
| Wed December 29, 2010
Hey Anoop,
I don’t think a workout should last longer than 30 minutes. Other than safety the second most important factor to producing muscular growth is intensity. So by putting duration and intensity into the equation will give us an inverse relationship, resulting in minimal progress.
Just so I fully understand; during a strength training bouts where muscular fatigue was low but involved eccentric training still resulted in DOMS?
I know this is a little off topic, but what are you thoughts on High Intensity Training or single set exercises to momentary muscular fatigue?
| Thu December 30, 2010
It is interesting to read that the pain receptors get less and less sensitive with damage, which I guess is a good thing. I makes me think. Are there other processes/reactions that become insensitive by repeated training? Do you know any that are not so possitive?
Ps:
“It doesn’t matter how hard you hit the muscle or how many sets you do, the protein synthesis levels can only go up so far.” Sounding a bit like HIT there. 😉
Anoop | Thu December 30, 2010
Hi Mike,
I think it all goes back getting your Type 2 fiber recruited and keeping it recruited for enough time.
And it has been shown now that multiple sets shows greater protein synthesis and greater muscle growth. The number of sets depend on your stress levels, recovery, nutrition, lifestyle, and genetics.
And thanks for the comments. I do appreciate it, Mike. did you read the other articles on the site. you will get a better perspective of what I am saying.
Anoop | Thu December 30, 2010
Hi Full Deplex,
It is just the concept of hypolgesia.
I think it is similar to any receptor specific system. The HST is based on this concept of laying off for a week or two. But this is yet to be shown and is based on a hypothesis.
| Sat January 01, 2011
Thanks Anoop that was a very interesting article muscle soreness does not mean you will grow bigger. Like I teach all my clients its all ways your first workout back that causes the most pain. But I do have a question I was doing deadlifts with someone we did 4 sets of 20 to 30 reps because I did not know how strong they were but for the next week she could’nt walk hows that work.
Anoop | Sat January 01, 2011
Hi Bj,
Thanks for the comment.
Could it be she hasn’t done the deadlift? It also could be due to all the free radicals with high rep work. It is another theory on DOMS.
But I am not so sure.
Happy New Year!
| Tue January 18, 2011
Great review, Anoop.
Anyone interested in related topics should read Skeletal Muscle Damage And Repair: Mechanisms & Interventions by Peter M. Tiidus.
| Sun February 02, 2014
Very helpful and informative. Because I am so weak, my muscles are quickly fatigued and I am never sore. I was afraid my workouts were useless so I always gave up too soon. This article will help to inspire me to stick with the program. Thank you.
>
