Soreness, While Not Necessary, is Inevitable

After talking with Anthony about whether being sore after a workout, I decided to post the question to the Crossfit message boards for a definitive answer from a trainer.

Let me explain: I've been wondering if I've been working hard enough lately. My weight went up a half pound when I weighed myself last week. However, my pants are looser than they have been and in general, things seem firmer than usual. Tony even said that my arms were in decent shape last night when we were joking around. Still, I worry that I'm not doing enough, especially given the weight situation and the fact that although I've been expending a ton of energy at the gym, I haven't been waking up sore lately, and I'm disappointed that the results are taking so long.

So, I asked the forum for input on how I was doing. I said I've been giving it my all (I have), but since the first week I haven't noticed any soreness that was debilitating. Here are the answers I received:

"I"m almost always sore, but usually not so stiff I can’t move. You probably did plenty, but just note what you did and how long it took and next time bump it up a bit . . ."

"From what I’ve heard, there’s no correlation between soreness and amount of cell damage you’ve caused/effort you’ve exerted in your workout. From what I hear, that’s a myth propagated by the bodybuilding community. I also heard that the slow ‘negative’ part of a rep is what mostly causes the soreness, hence in bodybuilding the ‘count 2 up, count 4 down’ timing for a rep.

I think the Crossfit way is to just do things until you are totally depleted (barring sudden injury or worse)"

"There is more muscle soreness caused by the eccentric portion of the movement. The eccentric component is stretching the muscle under load, which causes more damage. High rep RDL’s will cause more soreness than high rep deadlifts. Jumping pull ups accentuating the negative causes more soreness than pull ups. An ancillary topic of concern is heavy eccentric movements have been linked to Rhabdo, but that is probably for another thread. We don’t pursue being sore the way a bodybuilder does, it generally has no bearing on the amount of power produced in a workout.

Oh and GOOD JOB today Laura!"

(This last post is from the top trainer and moderator of the site. I'm not sure if he thinks I'm Laura or if he's referring to someone else.)

Of course, today fate paid me back for my question... in pain. I decided to try out doing back squats with 55lbs. It was quite enjoyable to see that I am now able to squat below parallel and keep my back straight. I don't rock forward onto my toes as much either anymore. However, the weight made my legs shake, and somewhere around squat no. 35, I realized I had very little strength left in my legs. I forced myself to finish it anyway and topped out at 40 squats. That means that I moved 2,200 lbs yesterday.

Wait, did I do my math right? That would mean that I moved over one ton of weight. That can't be right. Calculator says... yes. I am right. That's insane. I can't even begin to comprehend that. I feel much like Superman must have after he picked up a car for the first time. I am invincible!

Anyway, returning to the topic at hand-- I am sore. My butt is sore, my quads are killing me, my hamstrings are tight... and, like the idiot I am, I decided to wear heels to work today. Ladies, if you've ever been out dancing and spent some time "dropping it like it's hot", you know that the next day, the last thing you want to do is put on a pair of heels. It's as if your muscles bind up in resistance, making you look more awkward than a cowboy when you walk. My excuse was that my pants need to be hemmed, and I needed to wear heels or they would pool on the ground.

Today was rest day, and I was grateful. I doubt that my legs will have fully recovered by tomorrow, but I'm about to get some rest so they can heal overnight.