reFORM Studios

What's the deal with getting sore from workout? Should you be sore from a workout? Should you skip a workout if you are sore? We see a lot of our clients a little bit confused about this whole situation. Especially for women once they finally start strength training. I have news for you: you should be a little bit sore from your workout! And that's a good thing! And that is certainly no reason to not do the next workout! So here are the top 5 most common myths about soreness, busted:

Myth #1: You should never be sore

First, when I say sore I don't mean debilitated so that you can't function or move. That’s just pushing it too far and that's not what we're after every time we train. When I refer to soreness, I’m referring to that little bit of tension or a little bit of a “can” your muscles feel when you do a little something different.

It may be uncomfortable for you the first time. You may not be used to feeling muscles sore from exercise. But it's a really good sign that you did something right in your workout! Because truly, what's the goal of our workouts? To make our bodies healthier, better, stronger, leaner, and achieve our goals, right? Soreness is just the residual effect of working a muscle to the point where it needs to rebuild itself. And that's exactly how you get stronger!

Myth #2: If you're sore you can't workout again

Yes, it's true getting stronger happens during a recovery or rest days, but that doesn't mean that every single time you feel store you shouldn't work out again. Oftentimes a little bit of movement will loosen up those sore muscles and help the blood flow, which leads to recovery anyway, and will make you feel better, too! So don't think that just because you were sore from your first workout that you should cancel your next session! That’s not how this works.

Myth #3: You can make progress without being sore

For the women out there who don't want to feel sore, who think that they should be able to go through workouts day in and day out, month in a month out without feeling any residual soreness, here’s a News Flash: you're not challenging yourself. And because you're not challenging yourself, you're not going to see the change you hope to see in your body.

If your workouts start to become a breeze, decide to take it up a notch. If your workouts are challenging your cardiovascular system, but you're not feeling any muscle soreness, it probably means we need to change up our resistance or change up our training patterns. You've heard the old saying doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity, right? Well that goes for your workouts, too. If we do the same thing that your body has adjusted to over and over and over again without ever increasing the challenge, you're never going to see different results.

Myth #4: Your trainer likes inflicting pain

For those of you training with us, you know that we're not the kind of place that likes to push you until you can't walk or have to crawl on your way home. But we do want to give you a challenge. When we ask if you're sore at all from a previous workout, it's not out of some sick satisfaction in giving you pain. It's actually to test whether we're giving you enough of a challenge in your session, or if we need to kick it up a notch. We need to know if we're encouraging your body to push itself. 

Even for those ladies that are hoping to lose weight, and not necessarily worried about gaining strength for building muscle, you still have to challenge your body! The only way to increase your metabolism and burn energy as a challenge those muscles! And I promise you want them to be nice, lean and firm once you reach your weight loss goals, right? To do this you're going to have to lift something more than 5 pounds. It is what it is.

Myth #5: You should be broken after a workout

Please refer to Myths #1-4. Yes, you should be sore, but not to the limit that your body hurts just to breathe or blink. Your workouts should be challenging but not THAT bad. Our trainers are not going to throw an extreme weight at you without gradually challenging your body to accommodate that weight.


So the next time we ask you to pick up a heavier weight, or give you a new exercise that looks a little difficult, just give it a shot! Don't be afraid of failing, because we will never give you something you can't do. And don't be afraid of being sore, because that's probably what we're trying to achieve. We're trying to make you challenge yourself so that we can make that body change! That's what it's all about. You heard us say it before, you can't spell challenge without change. So let's go for it! Let's pick up a heavier weight, let's try a new more difficult exercises, and let's embrace that new soreness that comes from giving your body a challenge like the badge of honor it is. It says “hey you, good job, you did something new and pushed yourself! Way to go.”

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