How do you know?

[KennyJ]

Just wondering how long y'all stay sore after tearing down a muscle group?
How do you know if you're doing more damage than good?

[EDCG19]

Just wondering how long y'all stay sore after tearing down a muscle group?
How do you know if you're doing more damage than good?

It depends on various things
Now I have to be honest on something just because there's pain doesn't mean I stop training. Trust me when I say this again and again training through the pain (depending on the injury or if its just DOMS deal with it) is probably more benefical than sitting around and waiting to recover, I strongly believe in active recovery and if you end up hitting that sore muscle again a few days later I'm telling you! you're pushing more blood, and the good stuff like aminos into the sore muscle which will help recover faster,. Active recovery is legit and its basically when you workout even though you're sore a little bit. What I have found from my personal experience for the past 10 years has been to take breaks/deload when you need to but if you don't throw in an active recovery day where you focus on whatever you want and of course you're not lifting any PR %s but you're still getting some blood into the muscle to help with recovery. I have no science on this but its what I have noticed

Now to answer your question
Arms, chest, back, will take 1.5-3 days depending on what I was doing. Chest/arms recovery is really good
Now for legs and calves, in all of my time training the fucking legs have trouble recovering as fast as the other body parts

The worst one actually being the calves, if i hit calves hard, heavy and pump them full of blood where i feel like the skin is going to explode, im telling you i can barely walk for a week later
Something about calve workouts my body just doesnt like

Hamstring/quad/thigh DOMS i love and enjoy the pain
It lets me know you're still alive... btw leg day was today so a little doms coming on tomorrow i already feel it
to make matters worse, i hit legs a few hours ago earlier today and im waiting for the night to hit before heading back to the gym, i have some shit to do tonight, the gym and me have unfinished business
trying to get amped up right now listening to some music..

[Obs]

Just wondering how long y'all stay sore after tearing down a muscle group?
How do you know if you're doing more damage than good?

If I dont feel pretty good and not sore by day five I know my diet isnt good enough.

[KennyJ]

Thanks for all the responses. I'm currently staying really sore for 2 days when I really go hard. The Fred Sanford comment is perfect lol. That's how I walked around at work today.

Legs and chest sometimes 3 days

[EDCG19]

So just throwing this out there am I the only one who trains sore and through the pain? Does that stop gains in any way to continue training this way or you should take it easy and just take a rest day before returning to the gym?