A moment on my soapbox...

[cranny]

I've noticed an overwhelming majority of people I come in contact with at the gym associate a good, productive workout only if they notice DOMS. Why you reckon? If if not mistaken DOMS is a good indicator of hitting a muscle group with great intensity or maybe a particular area not usually hit but it's not the only indicator of a good workout. Most always the attitude is the workout wasn't a good one unless they experience DOMS. It's almost as if they're disappointed and consider their training a waste unless DOMS is felt.
I lump this logic in the same group as all the obese people wearing out my ab equipment in hopes to see their abs. OK, I'll get off my soapbox for now.

[Voltekker]

those people are sore, they dont know what bad doms is like if they did they wouldn't look forward to it.

[swabe]

I second that, there is a big difference in being sore and not being able to move. Usually when i switch up a workout for the first time within two days im in bad walking shape for sure. I don't brag or bitch about it

[sassy69]

Hey I got some of the hardest DOMS this morning after one of the highest rep, lightest weigth workouts I've done in a long time. Every position I rolled into while sleeping was to try to stretch SOMETHING!

[cranny]

Hey I got some of the hardest DOMS this morning after one of the highest rep, lightest weigth workouts I've done in a long time. Every position I rolled into while sleeping was to try to stretch SOMETHING!

Well then you must have had a good workout, lol.

[BiggT]

Cranny, I agree with you and I have been saying this for years. All being sore means is that you forced your body to do something it is not conditioned to do. It may mean you had a great workout, it may mean you had a terrible one. In any event, I always felt that abstract, intangible ways of measuring progress are useless. Things such as how sore you got, how loud you yell, how much the workout burned, how full your muscles look after just pumping them full of blood, etc. are just a poor way to measure progress because they're not quantifiable and you really have no idea if you're meeting goals or not.

I'm a huge believer in quantifiable, tangible, concrete ways of measuring progress. Keep something constant, like exercises, for a period of time, and use weight/sets/reps/rest time or some combination to measure progress and the numbers don't lie and the results always line up with the progress if you're eating the way you need to be eating.

My advice to anyone who asked would be train to get better, not to get sore.

[booey]

I only get sore now if I miss a week or two of lifting weights, or during the start of a completely new program.

[Test-Daddy]

I only get sore after event training.....every week.

[usmc8892]

I think soreness is relative to how you train, and how you're conditioned to the type of training you're doing. It is a very good indicator of conditioning, and fitness- based on the training. Man.... that almost sounded like a politician.... LOL I crack me up :D