Muscle fatigue vs. muscle soreness

[Rachael]

I can't remember if I have read anything about this or not, so please refer me to the relevant articles or threads if there are some you know about.

Prior to starting NROLW I was logging lots of gym time doing those Power Sculpt, 24LIFT, 24S.E.T. type classes that 24 Hour Fitness offers. I know that many of you have expressed your boos and hisses at those high-rep, low-weight classes, but I had a great teacher and was we had plenty of weights to work with, not just 5- and 7.5-pound dumbbells. I could frequently expect to have some mild muscle soreness a day or two after I pushed myself in one of these classes, but have never had muscle soreness with the NROLW, and I am just wrapping up stage 1. That is not to say that I do not have muscle fatigue, however. For example, in the days following a workout, if I do a deep bodyweight squat, I can feel that my legs are tired, but there is no pain of any kind.

Is the difference in recovery one of endurance versus strength work? Or is there something else going on? I am paying more attention to getting enough protein during recovery, but other than that I don't see any great difference in what I am doing in terms of warm-up/cool down/stretching/etc. I am confident that at least one of you will tell me to lift heavier, but I am confident that I am lifting as heavy as possible while maintaining good form and not cheating myself.

Thanks for your help everybody!

[missjane]

Sounds like you aren't lifting heavy enough. Are you using enough weight so that you can barely get out that last rep or are you easily completing all of your reps with more left in the gas tank?

[Rachael]

Originally Posted by Rachael

I am confident that at least one of you will tell me to lift heavier, but I am confident that I am lifting as heavy as possible while maintaining good form and not cheating myself.

Yes, I am confident (that's three uses of the word confident in one post--ACK!) that I am doing well in terms of lifting enough weight, as I indicated before. On the last couple of reps of each set, there is a real focused effort on keeping everything solid (glutes firing, core engaged, weight in the right place, all the usual checkpoints). My working theory here is that even if I am not loading up my dominant muscle groups as heavy as I could be, I am still working the stabilizers. But those are not giving me any post-workout pain either.

It's not that I am hoping to have muscle soreness, only that I am curious about what could be going on.

[Ruthie]

From what I have read there doesn't seem to be any direct relationship between muscle soreness and effectiveness of workout or how hard you have worked. I find that I tend to get muscle soreness after doing new moves for the first time, then after that it diminishes pretty quickly from those same moves. Because stage 1 is repeating the same lifts and they may already be moves that your body knows, you may not get soreness. I wonder if your teacher more often introduced variations in the moves or different moves causing you to work your muscles in a new way and consequently get soreness more often?

[foodfromafar]

I'm with Ruthie on this! I didn't get a lot of soreness from Stage 1, but it was doing a lot to my muscles! I had already been doing similar moves in real life and in previous exercise, so I think my muscles weren't too surprised to get sore. However, when I do a new move, like the woodchop in Stage 2, certain shoulder/upper back muscles were sore - telling me I used them when I don't usually. I really was surprised that I didn't get sore doing all the heavy lifting that I was doing...

[LisaL]

Hey Rachael
Re-read page 16 "THE BETTER HALF" in the book. Readers Digest version:
Women recover faster than men.
Women have less soreness than men.
Alwyn made the workouts more challenging than the book for men 'cause we can take it.

Like most everyone else has already said, I generally only get sore after doing a new movement/exercise for the first time. Fatigue frequently, soreness rarely. I lift heavy. I'm also thinking that those classes you took may have involved so much movement that there isn't a muscle in your body or a movement you have not already done in those classes and that's why you have not had any soreness.

[scstorm]

For what its worth, I didn't have a lot of soreness with Stage 1 either. Stage 2 has been much more challenging for me; I have varying degrees of soreness for a day or so after almost every workout.