It’s Wednesday morning and you’ve just rolled out of bed to start your day. By the time your feet touch the floor to stand up and move off the bed your muscles are hit with a deep soreness. Your mind has a flashback to Monday’s workout and all of those lunges, planks and pushups you did. For a brief moment you question your sanity for actually participating in this “exercise” thing. But then you come to your senses and realize that you are investing in getting results and living a healthy lifestyle.
Half of you reading this will say, “Yes, I love that feeling, it’s a sign of a good workout!” (And I’m just as twisted and sadistic as my coach)
While the other half will say “Oh no I must be so out of shape, I hate this feeling!” (My coach is insane!)
No matter what your “enjoyment” of the soreness also called DOMS (Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness) it shouldn’t really be the goal of your workout… unless you’re literally working out to for the soreness and for no other reason, then by all means try this workout:
100 Jump Squats, 100 Sit Ups, 100 Lunges… Put 4 “Mentos” candies in your mouth and wash it down with a liter of diet coke and drop a 10-pound dumbbell on your baby toe and call it a day. You’ll be sore right away and for days afterwards.
Ok, now that you’ve though about which of your friends is naïve enough to convince taking the Mentos & diet coke, it’s time to get back to reality.
Soreness is sometimes a by-product of your workouts due to various factors that are not entirely known. Science can say that one of those factors is micro-tears in the connective tissues caused by greater stimulus than it is used to. That’s why you get sore more often when you are just starting to workout… almost everything is a new stimulus to your body.
But guess what, regardless of if you get sore or not your workouts can produce amazing results if you are searching for the right clues.
Here are some tell tale signs your workout kicks butt:
- You are getting stronger week in, week out
- You have more endurance
- You are more mobile
- You are enjoying it
- You sleep better
- You are less stressed or handle stress better
- Your health is improving (cholesterol, more energy, less body fat)
Oh and if you are looking for a quick and effective workout for building strength, total body endurance and fat burning sign up for my workout of the month HERE