Muscle Soreness does NOT Equal Results

Feel the Burn…. 5 more…. 5 more….. okay okay. As a San Francisco Personal Trainer I have trained thousands of personal training sessions. I know that people come to personal trainers for many reasons but none top the motivation a personal trainer provides.

I don’t care who you are. You could be Mr. Olympia, UFC Champion, or a student athlete. Working with a personal trainer will motivate you to work out harder than if you worked out alone.

This is a good thing…… isn’t it?

To work out  hard is one thing, working out smart is another. If you know any hardcore weight lifters, power lifters, or bodybuilders they will attest to this. Most people who have been going to the gym for many years have gotten carried away before which lead to the inevitable.

Acute, chronic overuse injuries, training plateau, or overtraining has likely been the result of overdoing it.  This being working out hard, but not smart in the past. Again, this is hardcore weight lifter type people, some who haven’t taken a week off in years.

If hardcore weight lifters who are trained, can be negatively affected or injured from hard, but not smart training, what do you think is possible to a man or woman who has been sedentary for the last 1-20 years?

The most important job of any personal trainer is to train their clients smart, avoiding injury and creating a long lasting, positive affect on the client’s mind, body & spirit.

The problem with many personal trainers out there is they have the “hard” down, and are good motivators and are able to sustain an adequate level of intensity during their client’s workouts but do not train their clients “smart.”

Let’s get real here for a second. Personal fitness training, at least in the United States is all about weight loss. I would be willing to bet that over 80% of people who work with a trainer are looking for some type of weight loss. Not many people are looking to pack on 20 pounds of muscle or even build a single muscle.

Adding muscle mass and building muscle requires a caloric surplus. People trying to lose weight must have a caloric deficit.

Why is it that many personal trainers train their clients with weight loss goals as if they are a person with muscle building goals?

I see this every time I enter the gym. Eavesdropping on conversations from personal trainers in the gym is shocking to me. It seems many trainers associate muscle soreness with an effective workout.  Muscle soreness caused by using many isolation exercises.  These isolation exercises may be directed at target areas, but anybody with any exercise science knowledge knows this is a fitness myth.

This brings back to the smart vs. hard debate. Weight training for weight loss or toning is all about using the large muscle groups. In order to significantly increase metabolism it is necessary to work a significant portion of the muscle mass as often as possible.

Muscle soreness is associated with micro tears in muscle fibers. This is one of the reasons for post workout muscle soreness. When someone is eating for a caloric surplus and trying to gain muscle, this soreness could be positive because they will now eat excess calories because they want their muscles to grow stronger and larger.

With a person looking to lose weight on a diet with caloric deficit muscle soreness is not only not good, but counter productive. With a caloric deficit the body will most likely not take in enough calories to repair the muscle properly.

Excess Muscle Soreness along with a Hypo Caloric Diet Most Likely Means Excess Catabolism which most likely means slowed down Metabolism

Losing weight is all about metabolism, again. A workout with large muscle groups which does not isolate small muscle groups will leave a person looking to lose weight, energetic and fresh.  This will allow them to workout more often and more efficiently each time as they recover properly and maintain their lean body mass.

A personal trainer who trains a client who is trying to lose weight with isolation exercises may be training their client hard, which psychologically may benefit the client, but physically the personal trainer is failing in their job to train the client smart.

Whether it is due to a personality conflict with the trainer and the client, the trainer using the client as a paycheck and not caring, or the personal trainer simply just does not have the science down, muscle soreness will never equal results for anybody trying to tone up or lose weight.

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