The morning following an intense workout, you may have sore muscles that are painful yet satisfying. Even though you may have trouble walking down the stairs, you wear your soreness as a badge of honor. A different morning following another intense workout, you aren’t sore and that makes you feel discouraged. You may think that since you aren’t sore you didn’t work hard enough or your workout wasn’t good enough.
Muscle Soreness & Exercise
We think of soreness, technically known as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), as a fitness currency; the more sore we are the better. DOMS is most likely caused by micro tears in your muscle fibers (the truth behind muscle soreness). The muscle repairs these tears and builds the muscle up stronger than before (what makes your muscles grow). However, more tears does not mean more growth. Just because you aren’t sore the next day, does not mean your workout wasn’t effective.
Delayed onset muscle soreness is not the best way to track the effectiveness of your workout.
There are many reasons your body may not be sore. You may not be sore due to your muscles adapting to the exercises that you are doing, becoming stronger, and improving muscular endurance. You may have hydrated appropriately or your fitness is improving. This does not mean that your workout was not good enough. Muscle soreness does not equate to a good workout.
How To Track Effectiveness of Your Workout
You can track the effectiveness of your workout by looking at your heart rate. Your heart rate is a great measure of intensity and can be used to help measure the intensity of your workout. A good heart rate range is between 80%-90% of your max heart rate (this may be different for some people). 220 – your age is your estimated max heart rate.
Another way to track effectiveness is Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE).
0 – Rest
1 – Very Light
2 – Light
3 – Moderate
4 – Sort of Hard
5 – Hard
6
7 – Very Hard
8 – Very, Very Hard
9 – Very, Very Hard
10 – Max Effort
Keep your workouts around 5-9 RPE. Your RPE may be different than someone else’s.
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