I woke up this morning with soreness in my glutes. I expected to wake up that way, and I was not disappointed. In fact, I would have been disappointed if I were not sore.
What is the physiological/biological cause of soreness in the muscles? I’ve searched for a definitive answer and haven’t found one. If you find the answer, please post it here or let me know.
But I do know what activity causes soreness in the muscles. Simple. All I have to do is work the muscles out in a way they have not been worked out in a while, either by doing a new exercise, or doing a usual exercise slightly differently or more intensely.
And that’s what happened yesterday.
I did “Back & Base” from Volume 3 of Tony Horton’s One on One, which was the precursor to the soon-to-be-released P90X2. It’s a good series of exercises that alternates between pullups and plyo lower body moves, and it’s one of those routines where I do every move to exhaustion, until I can’t do any more.
Going to exhaustion virtually ensures that I’ll be sore the next day. Think about it. If every move ends because you can’t do any more than you’ve done, that means that you are taking your muscles to their absolute limit, breaking them down, getting them ready to rebuild themselves even stronger.
And, therefore, they are sore the next day.
I’ve written about muscle soreness before, and how I enjoy it, because the soreness lets me know I didn’t dog it during the workout, and also that I’ll be stronger when the soreness subsides.
Soreness can be annoying, though. Like, for example, when earlier this week I did my “Steve’s Chest & Back” routine on Monday, and the next day tried to do jumping jacks along with a Shaun T Insanity cardio workout. I was barely able to make my hands meet above my head!
I suppose I could take some Advil or something, but I really don’t like to put that stuff into my body, so I’ll just live with it, and write the occasional article, when I’m particularly sore, to remind myself — and you — that muscle soreness is a good thing.