Not feeling as sore the day after workout, time to change it up?
 

Hi everyone!! I have been on a regular exercise program for just over a month now. I work out 6 days a week for about 90mins a day, a little less on cardio days. I started with a trainer about my second week in to this program and found that I would be quite sore for a day or 2 after. I notice now, that apart from the burn during training and maybe right after, I am not sore the next day. Does this mean it is not working anymore and it's time to change the exercises to more challenging ones or is it just me adjusting to it? I had to change trainers a little over a week ago and she is a higher level so I fully expected more of a challenge but so far I am not feeling it. We work with a lot of bands, wall sits, medicine balls, some machines and a lot of lower body exercises with steps etc. I am doing what she calls foundation training which strenghtens my core before I get in to heavy lifting. She rarely does the same exercises 2 sessions in a row.

Your body is definitely adapting, your trainer should change it up for sure... Rule of thumb is to change things up every 4-6 weeks... Speak to your trainer...

Just an FYI: soreness (DOMS) is not an indicator of very much. It doesn't mean that your workouts aren't working or that they are working.

Change up your routine if you feel like it; otherwise, make sure you are continually striving to increase your weights on your exercises. Increasing the weights is what prevents your body from adapting.

(Think for example, about squats and deadlifts: serious lifters do squats and deadlifts for years and years and years and would never think of stopping. They might do slight variations of each to keep things interesting, but as long as they are always increasing your weights and changing up the rep scheme, they continue to make progress.)

What I don't get about the increasing weights; if you have being lifting long term, surely there comes a point when you can't physically increase anymore! Maybe once your train feels your core is strong enough then the real work will start.

But that point is far, far, far away in the future. People can eventually lift hundreds and hundreds of pounds. Maxing out is not really something that most of us will have to worry about.

Variety is good: slightly different forms of your favorite exercises are a way of keeping your body on its toes (eg, front squats rather than back squats, deadlifts from a platform, etc).

The other thing is that you can mix up your rep scheme at different times or on different days--this is another way to avoid plateauing. So you might do a program for a while that does 3 sets of 10 reps. Then after a while you might do 5 sets of 5. Then 2 sets of 12. You'd have to change the weights you use for each of those rep schemes, so your body would constantly be adapting and gaining strength. (You can also mix up the rep scheme on a regular basis: so the same group of exercises, but make Monday 4x4 day, Weds 3x10 day, and Fri 4x8 day. That's fun.)

The point isn't to become sore, it's to improve your abilities. If you're finding you can do the exercises easier than you could before, that's when you switch it up and challenge yourself.

Thanks for all the replies!!