Do Your Muscles Have To Be Sore After A Workout To Grow

Now the first question on a lot of people’s minds is does soreness equal muscle growth.

The answer is no it is not, the soreness just means you put your muscles through hell and this is their way of letting you know that.

With that being said this is good news because this indicates you did the first thing that is needed to gain muscle which is break those muscle fibers down.

Once your body is use to working out you can still break down those muscle fibers but it won’t be as noticeable aka no soreness.

I’m Not Getting Sore Anymore!

When you first start lifting soreness is going to be very apparent but as time goes on your muscles will be use to being worked and it will be a lot harder to break them down.

For example two sets of chest presses could be enough to make you sore for days when you first start out but as time goes on in a few months and you continue lifting 4 – 5 sets of the same exercise won’t be able to make you as sore as those first two sets from when you first started lifting.

This is all because your body is adapting and getting stronger, whether you can see it in the mirror or not it is happening continue to push yourself every day, every week and eventually results will start to show.

Basically don’t overthink the soreness, if you leave a workout and you don’t feel sore the next day don’t think you didn’t make any progress. You’ve most likely gotten stronger and your muscles are more equipped to handle workouts because of that reason.

The Funny Thing About Muscle Soreness

The soreness is a real bitter sweet feeling, you hate the fact you can’t lift your arms but it feels good to know you put in work at the end of the day.

This is something a lot of experienced lifters miss because after awhile you just won’t get sore anymore unless you take some time off and start back up.

If I really had to describe the soreness it’s like a badge that you you earned and no one can take it from you, sounds corny I know but you’ll see what I’m talking about.

So if you’re just starting out and thinking of throwing in the towel because you hate being sore just give it a few more weeks, trust me it goes away pretty quickly.

On the flip side for those who miss the soreness think about the memories the two of you had and move on and quit thinking you’re not gaining muscle because you’re no longer sore because this definitely not the case.

Final Thoughts

This article will not be long because my answer is fairly straight forward but there are some articles out their that try to literally dissect every single detail in this area to really get a thorough answer.

My answer is based off of my years of training and talking with possible hundreds of people through casual convos in the gym about stuff like this.

Here is a good read about this topic from Josh Henkin if you’re interested in doing some more reading on this.