I was talking to Shannon the other day about soreness and what being sore really means.

Because currently SORENESS is the measure of whether or not your workout was tough enough. It’s like soreness has become the GOAL of the workout…not deadlifting more or doing more push ups.

While these are funny…And yes occasionally being sore is not only ok but good, this shouldn’t be your goal after every leg workout!

If people don’t get sore after a workout, they all too often think it wasn’t hard enough. That they needed to work harder or do more.

But that just isn’t true.

Honestly, you SHOULD NOT be sore after every single workout.

Because soreness doesn’t truly measure how TOUGH the workout was or even how beneficial it was. (And every workout SHOULD NOT be the toughest thing you’ve ever done anyway!)

I believe that soreness has become a measure for how good our workout is because we don’t track or progress our workouts.

When we don’t have a clear progression and track our results, we don’t have any idea of whether or not our workouts are working.

So we figure that, if we aren’t sore, we didn’t push hard enough that day because we don’t truly know what HARD ENOUGH is.

HARD ENOUGH is getting results.

Are we constantly moving forward?

Soreness doesn’t mean we are moving forward, but in many cases it is the only measurement we have.

And the problem with that is, soreness doesn’t equal growth. It doesn’t mean we are getting closer to our goals.

It just means we did something that broke our body down.

It could mean the workout was super hard. Or it could simply mean that the workout was different. It could also mean that your recovery (nutrition, sleep and such) aren’t on point making you more sore for longer.

So while it could mean we are moving forward, it doesn’t have to mean that.

Soreness isn’t progress. Recovering from the breakdown is what leads to results.

Hard workouts without recovery mean you are constantly breaking your body down without ever letting it grow and repair so it can become stronger.

STRENGTH COMES FROM RECOVERY NOT FROM SORENESS.

SORENESS DOES NOT EQUAL PROGRESS.

It just means you did something to break your body down.

It isn’t a measure of success. It doesn’t mean you are gnarly. It doesn’t even mean your workouts are WORKING.

It just means you did something to make yourself sore.

And if you don’t recover, if you don’t have a clear program, all that hard work that made you “sore” will be for nothing more than to feel sore.

So stop thinking of soreness as a sign of success. Stop focusing on making yourself sore from every single workout.

Stop freaking out the next day that you didn’t work hard enough because you aren’t sore!

SORENESS IS NOT A GOAL!

Track actual results and seek to grow better with each workout NOT just simply get sore.

If you want to get sore, just go out and do the hardest moves you can every day in random order, never repeating the same workout twice. Then you can always be sore and never get anywhere!