No Pain, No Gain…or not?

So, you tried Pilates for the first time, and you are sore the next day. After consistent practice, you notice you no longer feel sore the next day. Have you ever wondered why this is? Have you ever wonder what that soreness means or if it's a useful metric for an effective workout?

Everyone has different preferences for how sore they are the next day after a workout. Some people LOVE being sore, and it feels validating. In contrast, others prefer not to feel sore at all.

I am never here to judge anyone's preferences, but I would like to share a few things I have learned along the way as a Pilates teacher.

Let's dive in.

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) is the soreness you feel 6-48 hours post-workout and usually lasts 1-4 days.

There was a point in time where I believed that DOMS meant I had an effective workout, and I know I am not alone. Using DOMS as a metric for the effectiveness of a workout is common.

Another common narrative is that muscle damage = getting stronger.

Let's review what we mean by muscle damage to be sure we are on the same page. Sometimes* when we work out, we cause damage to our muscle fibres which means we burst the muscle cells. After this burst, there will be bits of muscle cells floating around in our bloodstream. As the cells repair, the amount of muscle cells floating around goes down. Pretty wild.

I share this because I also had a long-standing belief that DOMS meant damage to my muscle fibres, i.e., "damage but in a good way," or soreness = muscle damage = getting stronger.

In today's blog, we are going to look at both of these common fitness narratives and more:

What does DOMS have to do with muscle damage?

DOMS tend to be present when there is muscle damage. However, your soreness doesn't indicate how much muscle damage there is. For instance, you can be super sore but have little to no damage to your muscle cells and vice versa. Whoa! Furthermore, the disappearance of said soreness doesn't indicate your muscles have been repaired (and vice versa.) The takeaway here is that we can't use our DOMS as a metric to measure how much muscle damage there is. We actually would need a blood test to do that.

Does the presence of DOMS mean your muscle is getting stronger?

Nope!

What is the best way to strengthen a muscle?

Improved muscle strength is achieved when you put the muscles' fibres under tension and then create force (OR you stretch your muscle fibres and create force). Muscle strength gains are not determined by how much you damage your muscles, therefore damaging your muscles in your workout might not be a good goal.

The takeaway here is that we don't need to cause muscle damage to get stronger.

Are DOMS good or bad?

I am undecided, and I think it's up to you to make a choice yourself. I try my best to avoid DOMS because it helps me create a positive association with my workouts, and that's important to me. However, I am guilty of feeling validated when there's a dull soreness in my body sometimes. However, I can't stand it if I can't tie my shoes or sit on the toilet.

I want to plant a seed that in some instances, DOMS could prevent strength gains because if you constantly work out to the point of feeling very sore, you might need to take more rest days, not produce the same amount of force with your muscles, or not execute the workout to your full potential.

To get stronger, do you have to push yourself to failure?

Let's say you're doing a push-up, and the max amount you can do before failure is 40. One strategy could be to do 40 push-ups back to back, and the other is to do four sets of ten with a one-minute break in-between each set.

Studies show that if you break up those 40 push-ups, you will have the same strength gains as you do doing them back to back. I celebrate this! It's like a permission slip to push yourself, but not torture yourself and still get the same result, woo!

This is so empowering. I am all about making my experience on my mat as positive and fun as possible.

Let's continue:

What causes DOMS?

DOMS is typically present by doing exercises you aren't accustomed to, like your very first Pilates class. On the flip side, this explains why your typical Pilates routine no longer makes you sore. These exercises are now movements you are accustomed to.

To sum it up...

If you like being sore, and that is encouraging, go for it and switch up your routine more often (so you practice moves your body is unaccustomed to). When using the QB Platform, do various workouts on the library instead of sticking to your favourite class style.

If you don't like to be sore, or perhaps you don't want to be sore the next day, choose a workout your body is accustomed to.

Reminder: Whether you're sore or not, it has little to do with the fact you are getting stronger! This is still blowing my mind.

Now, I know what you think because I felt the same way. How in the hell do I get stronger!?

Unroll your mat consistently and take the pressure off yourself. Simply doing the work is enough, in my opinion. When you feel bored or want to kick it up a notch, challenge yourself either with a more demanding class level, take fewer breaks, incorporate ankle weights/hand weights, increase the reps, close your eyes, play with the speed of your movement, do it on one leg ... you get the idea. For this reason, I follow a structure with our workouts at QB, but I consistently insert new elements to challenge you.

I believe consistency is key to strength gains.

I hope you found this information helpful and empowering. I want to give a shout-out to Breathe Education's Raphael Bender and Cloe Bunter, who are constantly challenging the Pilates narrative and inspired this blog post.

Want to learn more about another common narrative?

In my last blog, I mentioned that static stretching within 6 hours of your workout could lead to more muscle soreness the following day. And that was an interesting fact for me to learn because stretching after a workout to prevent soreness is a common narrative in the fitness world. Check it out here.