If you don't wake up sore the day after training, was the training useless?

Don't worry if you're not sore after a workout. Your goal shouldn't be to chase post-workout soreness, as NOT being sore doesn't necessarily mean you had a bad workout.

I am often asked why they are not always sore after a strength training session. Does this mean you didn't try hard enough? Should you be worried? Are you doing something wrong?

Delayed onset muscle soreness, DMOS or DOMS, is pain felt in the muscles hours and days after strenuous or unaccustomed exercise.

It occurs as a result of inflammation from microscopic tears in the connective tissue and usually peaks around 48 hours.

One of the biggest myths with exercise is that you NEED to be sore the next day to prove that you got a good workout; Otherwise, you're not making progress!

You may experience DOMS after doing a new exercise (or one you haven't done in a while), after focusing on the eccentric phase of an exercise, or after performing an exercise that stretches your muscles to long lengths (like Romanian deadlifts). .

And although muscle damage is a component of hypertrophy (muscle gain), along with mechanical tension and metabolic stress, it is unclear whether DOMS is the best evidence that muscle damage has occurred. And of the three mechanisms of hypertrophy, muscle damage is considered the least important behind mechanical tension and even metabolic stress.

Don't use pain as an indicator of effective training. Instead, track your sessions and record your gym performance over time.

Are you getting stronger? Are you doing more reps with the same weight? Are you seeing the changes you want in the mirror? Those are better indicators of progress.