How sore should I be the next day?

[d74mr]

I've been training for aprox 1 year now. I've seen a lot of my lifts double in weight and have had pretty good gains in muscle. When I started, I would often be sore for days. Now, I find that no matter how hard I train, I'm barely sore the next day. I usually feel like I could replicate the workout the next day. I did that today just for sh*ts and giggles. I trained arms yesterday and just for the h*ll of it, I did triceps again today. I was almost able to replicate the workout rep for rep.

Again, it doesn't seem to matter how hard I train. For example, after training biceps, at the end of the workout, I might have trouble lifting the water bottle to my mouth, but the next day... nothing. Or when doing shoulders and I have a hard time putting the key in the ignition to drive home. Next day.... nothing. Or at the end of a chest workout, if I hold an empty water bottle between my hands with my arms outstretched, I won't be able to crush it, but the next day... nothing.

I am not on an AS of any kind.

I'm 31. I work out usually on a 5 day on, 1 day off, working 1 body part per day.

1. Back
Wide Grip Pulldowns
Seated Cable Rows
Shrugs

2.Chest
Flat Bench
Cable Flys
Machine Fly (the one where the pads are at your elbows)
(Chest workout needs revamping. I definitely need some incline work, though no more decline!)

3.Shoulders
Side Lat Raises
Front Raises
Upright Rows
(Pressing movement are missing... yeah, I know. They don't feel good on my shoulder joints though and frankly, I never feel it in my shoulders anyway.)

4. Arms
Preacher Curls
Barbell Curls
Reverse Curls
Cable Overhead Tricep Extensions
Tricep Pushdowns
Close Grip Bench
Wrist Curls
Reverse Wrist Curls
5. Legs
Leg X
Leg Curl
Leg Press 20-30 reps per set.
(I don't like to go heavy on this as I don't have a spotter.)
(I usually alternate between the press and squat between workouts, though I always keep the reps high
Calf Press
Seated Calf Press
6. Off

I usually do 4 sets per exercise. 1st set is warm up. 2nd is probably 75% of work weight. 3 and 4 are the work sets.

The exception is legs, where I might be kinda sore the day after, then more sore two days after. Legs days are bad days!!! I almost puked and passed out from the last one!

Futhermore, I find the only thing that really gets me the postworkout burn like I get in legs is lots of sets.

So, I guess another question is: how sore should I be at the end of a workout?

I feel like I'm not hitting the muscles often enough. I feel like I'm recovering quickly, for whatever reason, but at the same time don't want to overtrain. I also definitely feel like I've reached some sort of plateau. Should I increase the frequency of working out a bodypart, i.e. double up on some of the bodyparts so I hit them more often?

[Flexor]

I don't even know where to begin . It is no wonder you are not aching because your routine is severely lacking in almost every department, no offense. You haven't reached a plateau after one year, you have reached the limit of how far your knowledge will take you, its time to learn more and you can do that on here instead of reading mags.

You have no lat routine, your back routine is very limited. You have hardly any chest routine, and you are isolating your muscles far too much. Its no wonder you don't ache, you are not doing enough heavy compound lifts.

Forget working your front delts with raises. If you can't do overhead presses then you can do incline bench on chest day for them. Add your upright rowing and lateral raises on chest day!

For chest do something like this:

3 x Flat
3 x Incline
3 x Dips
3 x Flyes

For back do something like this:

3 x deadlifts
3 x underhand chinups
3 x overhand chinups
3 x bent over rows

Forget about anything to do with cables or machines, they don't build mass. They are for professional bodybuilders no longer training for mass, right before a show.

As for arms, why not put your tri routine with chest and shoulders?! You do so little for chest I'm surprised you haven't put tris with it already. Same for biceps, put them with back.

You need squats every week. Hit the sticky thread at the top of the forum called SwoleSquats - Look here for size and strength. Follow that for your leg routine!

HITTING YOUR BODYPARTS MORE OFTEN, would be the worst thing you could do. Its not about volume, its about quality.

Sorry if I appear to be flaming you, I'm actually trying to help you. It can be frustrating when someone posts such a disorganised routine. Most people will probably ignore this post, but I thought I would be kind and answer

[chest6]

This doesnt look like a very organized routine. You are missing heavy compound movements such as Deadlifts, Rows (tbar, bent over), squats, and some incline most likely. Your arm routine looks very out of whack. Less should be more to you, a routine should not be this difficult. I like what flexor pointed out..

I can add something to do for legs...besides swoles thread which of course is a killer

This is what I normally do for legs
Squats: 4 sets 15, 12, 12, 8
Leg press: 4 sets 20, 20, 15, 15
Stiff legged deadlifts: 4 sets of 10

Very simple, but very effective.

[Superballer]

Thanks, chest, will be using your leg routine for next week, to switch it up a little from SC's.

[Flexor]

SLDL are good for the hamstrings, but you ideally need ham curls otherwise you are not working the short head of the biceps femoris or semimembranosus, the other short hamstring muscle. These are involved purely in knee flexion, not hip extension, hence the need for ham curls. Still they aren't essential, I don't bother since I do sprints and hopefully that takes care of them enough.

[chest6]

yup, forgot to mention I usually do ham curls every leg workout as well. Hit the other head of the hamstring, as you said.

[d74mr]

I was afraid of this! Thanks for the blunt advice. Like I said, I made pretty good progress with this "routine," if you want to call it that, so I was reluctant to change it. It's something I feel comfortable with, but I guess it's time to go with the uncomfortable.

Another problem I have is with my workout partner, who is part of the reason that I've stuck with this. When we started working out together, his knowledge was vastly superior to mine, uh.. mine being nothing and his being more. I had also seen him drop like 20lbs of fat and fut on some good muscle in the course of the year that I knew him so I figured, hey, if it works for him.... you know. I've tried talking him into changing things but it ain't working so well. I guess I've out grown him.

I do appreciate the advice! Thanks a lot for posting.

[Superballer]

I keep seeing the title of this thread and brings up a question I've had:

How sore ARE you supposed to be after a workout?

If I'm not sore the next day, then I didn't work hard enough?

[TADOLFI]

Everyone is different - I don't think the absence of soreness means that you didn't work out hard enough or do the right things.
If you have changed the routine as far as order of exercises, added supersets or decreased rest time between sets - then you might be sore.

[Flexor]

I keep seeing the title of this thread and brings up a question I've had:

How sore ARE you supposed to be after a workout?

If I'm not sore the next day, then I didn't work hard enough?

Soreness is not an indicator of muscle growth. There is a debate still raging over what exactly causes DOMS, but the general theories are microtrauma of fibres, damaged muscle sac, free radical damage, pressure on nerves, general swelling and increased damaged caused by neutrophil white blood cell activity (removing old protein so that new can be formed, leading to more damage).

However, if you ache its a sign that your body is at least not adapting and that is a good thing. If you don't ache, you are still growing, but perhaps you will plateau soon. I like to make sure I always ache by keeping a nice varied and high intensity routine, so that way I know there is no chance of my body adapting and my strength and size increases being limited.

[Flexor]

Everyone is different - I don't think the absence of soreness means that you didn't work out hard enough or do the right things.
If you have changed the routine as far as order of exercises, added supersets or decreased rest time between sets - then you might be sore.

Agreed. Those HIT formats in particular are excellent at inducing soreness. Drop sets, supersets and increased eccentric are excellent ways to ache and with that, usually you will get more growth as it is a basic indicator for increased damage. See my previous post though, because whilst you may be causing more damage and hence more growth, there are other factors that may cause DOMS so its not as plain as b&w

[TADOLFI]

Yes Sir - Agreed.
I always try to air on the cautious side with info on stuff like this.
Just too many variables.

[Flexor]

Yes Sir - Agreed.
I always try to air on the cautious side with info on stuff like this.
Just too many variables.

Yes I agree. Although I love learning all the science as that it is one of my main interests and I'm studying it, sometimes I just have to forget about it and go and do what I'm going to do. It is possible to get bogged down with info when its better to just go and experiment and get the feel for something.