In the last training newsletter, we discussed muscle soreness, damage, and how it can prolong recovery and even stall growth.
My first training partner Bill from way back emailed me after he saw it. He mentioned high-level athletes, like NFL players, who do a lot of damage in their training and sport, yet still attain success. How is that possible?
With all the money on the line, there’s no doubt that they have the best recovery available, such as massage, ice baths, electrical stimulation—not to mention special “supplements.”
They are also genetically gifted—the best of the best. And young.
Youth is a big one. That’s when you can train with damage and still make decent progress—even without supplements and all the other recovery modalities.
So what causes muscle soreness? You may have noticed that it’s mostly the negative, or eccentric, stroke that causes it. There are a few theories:
1) A muscle’s actin and myosin filaments drag across one another causing traumatic friction
2) The fascia, or fiber encasements, swell from stretch damage
3) Calcium ion-related fatigue causes myofibrillar damage
4) An unfamiliar stretch causes damage and inflammation at the muscle’s origin and/or insertion points
Which one is correct? It could be a combination. Introducing a stretch-position exercise, like overhead extensions, will make your triceps sore at the insertion, which points to #4…
What about going down stairs? That triggers much more soreness than going up, which could be the dragging friction (#1) or maybe fascia trauma (#2)…
Hard to imagine that the easier stair descent is fatigue related, as the workload is not excessive; however, if fewer fibers engage on an eccentric action, that could produce unique fatigue and calcium-ion-related damage.
Bottom line: It doesn’t really matter which of the four above is correct—it’s all damage that can derail your recovery and growth…
So if you’re an old man looking for young muscle, you probably don’t want to train a muscle when it’s sore…
If you’re young and reading this, we old farts hate you.
Your Efficient Mass-Building Handbook: For complete mass workouts that include Speed Sets, the ideal exercise for each muscle, and the best stretch and contracted add-on moves, get your copy of Old Man, Young Muscle.
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