What gives? I'm not sore!

It's funny.
Some people are deathly afraid of the soreness that comes from a good workout.
But others are constantly chasing it!

In fact, I have people often complain to me that a workout didn't make them sore... so they think it wasn't worth the effort.

Lemme explain a little something.
Soreness isn't necessarily the only marker of a good workout.
Soreness usually comes around when an exerciser is doing an movement they haven't done in a while. OR - it happens when an exerciser begins working out again after taking some time off.

It will also show it's ugly lil head after you've done some negative/eccentric work (meaning, you worked on slowly lowering the weight - or your bodyweight - against gravity). Or it'll sometimes come about after a particularly grueling training session.

However, lack of soreness does not signify wasted efforts!

AND - presence of soreness does not mean you worked TOO hard!

I want all you 'fraidy-cats to realize that soreness comes with the territory when you're trying to change your body and make it more fit. Keep putting up with that discomfort until you're working out consistently, then your muscles won't undergo so much damage each time you exercise strenuously!

I want all you complainers to realize that if you aren't sore from a particularly evil workout, don't fret! If you are certain that you put your all into that workout (and if you're certain that said workout was filled with compound movements and challenging loads), then it definitely had plenty of benefit toward stimulating your muscles and causing a big metabolic disturbance. Damage to the muscles and disturbances to the entire system don't always come in the form of physical soreness.

So, don't chase the soreness. It'll come around often enough!

Don't be afraid of having sore muscles - but don't worry if those painful spots are not there after a difficult session.

Instead, chase intensity. Always be striving to do better. Get to pantin', huffin', sweatin', and "feelin' the burn". Ha!