Does muscle soreness during fitness mean muscle growth?

Symptoms of muscle soreness often occur during the fitness process. This is more common in normal fitness activities. Because the exercise intensity is relatively high and the amount of exercise is relatively large, the feeling of muscle soreness will be more obvious at this time. The process of muscle soreness is also the process of muscle building. Of course, the causes of muscle soreness are mainly divided into two categories, one is normal soreness and the other is abnormal soreness. You should pay attention to this during the fitness process.

There are two main causes of muscle soreness:

The first type is caused by the accumulation of metabolic products such as lactic acid in the training area.

This type of soreness is often seen in moderate-intensity, high-repetition, and high-set strength training. This soreness can be noticed immediately after fitness, and generally speaking, this soreness will disappear about 2-3 hours after training, because our body takes about 2.5 hours to metabolize lactic acid.

The second type of soreness occurs 24-48 hours after exercise

It's called "delayed onset muscle soreness," or "DOMS." I mentioned in previous articles that the principle of fitness, especially strength/resistance training, is to tear part of the muscle by resisting resistance, and then the body achieves the purpose of muscle growth by repairing and strengthening the torn muscle. This kind of soreness is caused by the fact that after the muscle is torn, a lot of protein is broken down, causing the body to mistakenly think that foreign substances have invaded and produce inflammation to fight against these substances. In short, the muscles in this area become inflamed, causing soreness.

Generally speaking, the soreness that friends feel after fitness is the first type. Therefore, many people regard the soreness caused by metabolic waste such as lactic acid as a sign of effective fitness. Combined with the feeling of expansion caused by temporary congestion of muscles in this area after training, it gives people the illusion that "the training is done today."

But can we say that heavy weight and few repetitions will not be effective? In fact, in many cases, the training method of heavy weight and small number of repetitions is unparalleled in the effect of increasing muscle strength, and its stimulation on overall muscle growth should not be underestimated.

As for the second type of soreness, this type of soreness is more closely related to the degree of stimulation to the muscles, but it cannot be completely considered a sign of effective fitness. Because this kind of soreness is more of an indication that your body was not originally adapted to such intense training and is now in the process of adapting.

So can you still exercise if you have sore muscles?

You can still exercise if your muscles are sore, but you must let the sore area rest. For example, if your chest muscles are already sore, you can train your back, legs, waist and abdomen, but it is not recommended to train your shoulders the next day, because training your shoulders requires the use of your triceps, and chest muscle training also stimulates the triceps to a great extent.

Regardless of whether you feel sore or not, you must give the muscles you exercise enough time to recover after exercise (generally at least 48 hours of rest). This will achieve better muscle-building effects. If you continue to exercise the sore area when it is sore, the risk of injury will greatly increase.