Why Post-Workout Soreness Doesn’t Mean You’re Making Progress

TRANSCRIPT

Hey, everyone, what’s up? Nikkiey here with WarriorBabe, and in today’s video, I’m going to explain why feeling sore after a workout doesn’t always mean you’re making progress. It doesn’t always mean that you’re tearing down the muscle in the right way in order to build it up. If you are somebody who currently feels like you aren’t pushing yourself enough in the gym if you’re not sore the next day after performing your workout previously, and you’re like spinning your wheels as to why you aren’t seeing the results that you would expect with how hard you’re pushing yourself, by the end of this video, you’re gonna gain a whole new perspective on how being sore after a workout isn’t the best indicator of your progress. You’ll learn what you need to focus on that will put you on the right path towards building up that muscle and changing your body composition. Now, before we dive into this, please, please, please, smash that like button, I seriously appreciate all of you who do that right now. I get asked this a lot. “Nikkiey, I’m not sore this week, is that a good thing or a bad thing?” “I was really sore at the beginning of my new workouts, but I’m not really that sore anymore.” “This month, I’m not as sore as I was last month with my workouts.” Understand this, that soreness is not an indicator of your progress. Making progress is an indicator of your progress. You can never get sore, but you could consistently be building muscle and burning away body fat. You can progressively overload just a tiny bit to the point where you don’t get sore, but more importantly and most importantly, is that your body is adapting and it’s getting stronger because you are overloading. What I mean by progressive overload is that your sets, your reps, and your weights increase over time. And if you continually do that progressive overloading, but you don’t get sore, your body is still adapting and it’s still getting stronger. So many people say this, “This week, I increased my weight a little bit in some of my workouts.” And I want you to know, that is the exact thing that you should be focusing on. That is some amazing feedback. It’s way more important than focusing on if you are or are not sore after your workouts. And as a pro tip, every four to six weeks, you should play around with your set count, your rep counts. Because that’s going to help you progress. That is progress. That is your best indicator that you are doing well with the workout program that you are following, not so much your level of soreness. If you never get sore, but your strength is going up, guess what? You’re doing great. Chasing the feeling of soreness after every single workout as an indicator that your workout program is solid, that it’s freaking amazing, is a terrible indicator and a terrible focus to have. Actually, soreness can be an indicator that you have maybe done too much. If you are really, really sore and it lasts more than two to three days, then you probably went way too hard or did way too much in that workout. And guess what? I am so guilty of this sometimes. And I bet you are too and that’s why I’m sharing this information with you today. This is probably what happens to all of us, to you and me. We get so freaking excited about the workout that we have programmed that day, you hit up some pre-workout, which makes you maximize your intensity during that workout, to where you can’t walk three days after leg day. You probably don’t feel like that in the workout. You probably feel amazing, but the damage you did makes you not be able to walk. That, my friends, is not optimal. At that point, your body isn’t adapting, which adapting is building muscle and getting you stronger. It’s healing the damage that was caused in that workout. You can heal, but you’re never going to adapt. So, the best indicator of your progress is progress. If you’re getting stronger, therefore, at that point, you’re building more muscle, which means that you are progressing forward and you will get the results that you want. But look, the reality is sometimes, you will be sore. Each workout that you go into depends on so many other variables. Did you have a good night’s sleep the night before? Are you hydrated? Are you giving yourself proper fuel with your nutrition? Are you under a lotta stress? All those play a factor in that specific workout and your ability to recover. So, sometimes you may be sore, depending. But the moral of this topic today is that if you are not getting sore and you have the ability to do another set, or you have the ability to add more reps, or you have the ability to add five more pounds than you did in the previous week with your workouts, then you are progressing. It is okay to not be sore. Don’t look at that as your primary indicator that you’re having a successful workout, your workout programing is successful. Progress is your primary indicator. If you’re getting stronger, therefore, at that point, you are building muscle, which means that you are making progress. You are progressing. So, that’s all I got for today. I hope that you guys learned something, especially when it comes to being sore in your workout programming, and you can apply this mentality towards your current journey right now. And hey, let me know what else you wanna learn about in the comments below this video. I’ll make some more videos around topics that you guys are all interested in. And if you wanna make sure that you are getting sustainable nutrition, macro and workout information for your individual needs and the goals that you want to accomplish, head over to wp.warriorbabe.com, where you can find so many more resources around this topic, around nutrition, around mindset, that are gonna help you build that lean toned body you want and most importantly, help you keep the results forever. And please make sure to subscribe to this channel. I’ll see you guys next time.