Is muscle soreness a sign you had good workout?

The expression “no pain, no gain” is obviously a popular one among exercise enthusiasts.

But exactly how true is that when it comes to muscle soreness after a workout?

Feeling incredibly sore after exercising isn’t necessarily a good sign, according to an article in Men’s Health.

Here are three reasons why:

1. Being sore might mean you overtrained

Since your body can increase its threshold for soreness the more you workout, if you are exercising solely to get to the point of soreness, then injury could occur.

2. Feeling sore might lead you to alter form

If you are sore in one part of the body, you might alter form on certain exercises to compensate for the pain. This could lead to further injury.

3. You don’t feel as fresh for next workout if you’re sore

In order to continually improve and evolve your body, it’s important to be rested and fresh for workouts. If previous workouts lead to too much soreness, then it will be harder to get in better shape.

Ways to better measure progress of workouts

Here some better ways to gauge how much progress is made after workouts, according to the article.

• Check your numbers. Did you meet goals you set? Did your reps, time on a machine or weight lifted increase? Seeing if you are growing gradually over time is a great way to measure progress.
• Are you feeling fresh for next workout? As mentioned above, getting proper rest and recovery time and feeling 100% ready to go for your next workout is a sign you are doing it right.