Do You Need to Be Sore to Build Muscle After 40?

Nikkiey: Soreness is not an indicator of your progress. Progress is an indicator of your progress.

What's going on, you guys? Welcome to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkiey Stott, co-founder and brand personality of WarriorBabe, where we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. I am your host, Nikkiey Stott, and welcome to today's episode, episode number 18, where we're going to deep dive into how you don't need to be sore after a workout to build muscle. I'm going to take this myth that's swirling around the fitness industry, and I'm going to bust right on through it.

All right, so I've gotten asked this a lot recently, and I wanted to dive into this topic with you guys today on the podcast. Maybe some of you have asked this, or you've said this: I'm not sore this week, is that a bad thing? Or, I was really sore at the beginning of my new workout, but I'm not sore anymore. Why? Or, this month I'm just not as sore as last month.

Guys, understand this, please. Soreness is not an indicator of your progress. Progress is an indicator of your progress, okay? So you could never get sore, but you could consistently build muscle, and you could consistently burn body fat. You can progressive overload just a tiny bit week after week to the point where you don't get sore, but your body is adapting. It's getting stronger because you're overloading, right? Meaning sets, reps, and the weights are increasing over time. That is progressive overload, which I touched on in episode 16, so make sure you go give that a listen.

And you guys will hear me say this over and over and over again: the actual process of growth and building muscle takes place during recovery and rest, not during the workout itself. You are breaking down muscle during your workout. You are building it during rest and recovery. So while muscle soreness can indicate that the muscles are being challenged and they may be growing, it is not the direct cause of muscle growth. Muscle growth can occur without feeling sore after every single workout.

I hope that's just a boom, boom, boom, like, oh, thank you, cool. I'm not sore from my workout yesterday. This actually means that I'm still progressing. Yes, yes, my friends. You are still progressing, okay?

So this is what I want you guys to focus on: wins during your week. And you may experience this already, and this is freaking awesome. You go into your weeks, you go into your workouts, and at the end of the week you're like, man, I increased weight in some of my exercises this week. Dude, that is freaking awesome.

Look, if you have a good coach, if you follow a good program, that coach or that program should and will play around with your sets and your reps, and all those counts, to help you progress. They'll play around with your sets week to week, they'll play around with your reps week to week, they'll play around with your rest time, they'll play around with all of these different ways that you can progressive overload to help you progress. That is progress. That is progressive overload. That, my friends, is your best indicator that you are doing well with your workout program, not your level of soreness.

If you never get sore, but your strength is going up, you are doing great. Okay? You're doing great. You're doing great. But chasing the feeling of soreness as an indicator that your workout program is solid is a terrible indicator. If you're like, man, I loved last month's workout because I was so sore all of the time, that is a terrible indicator.

Actually, guys, soreness can be an indicator that you've done way too much. If you're really sore, and that lasts for two to four days, then you probably went too hard or you did too much. Okay? And I'm guilty of this sometimes, and maybe you are too, right? You get excited about the workout. You can't wait to go crush it. You hit some pre-workout. And then you maximize your intensity to where you can't walk for three or four days after. Been there, done that. I'm sure you have too.

Guys, that's not optimal. So hear me loud and clear. If you've experienced that, you've done that, you seek that, at that point your body isn't adapting, which is building muscle and helping you to get stronger. If that's you, when you've found yourself in that position one too many times, your body is actually healing. It's healing the damage that was caused during that workout. So you can heal, but you could never adapt. If your body is just constantly in the healing process, it's just healing the damage that was caused. It's not helping you adapt to that training, to build muscle, and to get stronger.

So the best indicator of progress is progress. If you're getting stronger, you're building muscle, you're progressing. Yes. Boom, bang, diggity, hot dog. That's all that matters.

Hey, hey, I just want to drop a huge appreciation to you guys listening to the show. It means a lot. I hope you're enjoying it, and there's so much more to come. If you are enjoying it, hit the subscribe button. I'd appreciate that tons. It would also help this podcast reach others who need to hear these messages too. Thanks so much, guys. Let's get back to the show.

And guys, if you want to follow a strategic workout program where a professional is putting this together for you, a coach who is programming your reps and your sets and helping you progress over time with progressive overload, check out warriorbabe.com. Check out the links below this podcast, get into the program, and eliminate all of the guesswork of building your own workout program. Just have our coaches do it for you. That's why they're professionals. That's why they're coaches on our team. They do it really well and they help women get results. Okay?

So if in your programming, you, your coach, whoever you're working with, are adding reps, adding sets, and adding weight over time, and you never get sore, dude, you are absolutely crushing it at that point. That is literally the perfect place to be. If within your programming, over time, you're adding reps, you're adding sets, you're increasing and adding weight, and you never get sore, that's the holy land. You're fucking crushing it. You are absolutely crushing it. That is the perfect place to be.

But understand the reality is that we won't always be there. Okay? You add sets, you add reps, you add weight, you will probably be sore. I've talked about this inside our community of WarriorBabes: each workout that you go into depends on so many variables. It depends on sleep. Did you get enough sleep the night before the workout? Did you drink enough water? Are you hydrated? Did you follow your macros the day before? Following your macros the day before can dramatically increase or decrease your output during your workout the next day, and your recovery for the days to follow. Are you on your monthly period? All of these things play a factor in the specific workout that you do day to day to day.

So there are many variables that play into it. Not every workout will leave you not sore. Sometimes you will be sore, and that is okay. But if the majority of the time you get to a level of not being totally sore, dude, that's a great state to be in. And that, my friends, could take years. Okay? So I just want to add that in there.

If you are adding sets, adding reps, playing around with sets, playing around with reps, increasing your weight, playing around with rest time, and most importantly increasing your weight, and you're not getting sore, dude, that's freaking awesome. If you're doing all these things, it's adding more stimulus to your body, and if you're not getting sore, that's huge. Your body's adapting here. You're building muscle. You're getting stronger. But to be realistic, you still will feel some type of soreness from time to time. And if the majority of the time you don't feel sore, it's okay. You're doing the right thing.

The moral of this whole thing today is: do not seek soreness as an indicator that your workout program is bomb and that you're making progress. Because what it comes down to is progress is progress. Are you increasing and playing around with the reps and sets? Are you playing around with your rest time? Are you doing progressive overload? Are you adding more weight over time? That is progress. That is your best indicator that you are doing things right. Okay? So that's the moral of the topic today.

If you're not getting sore and you have the ability to do another set, or you can add five more pounds than you did the previous week, please do it. Do it. Please freaking do it. Challenge yourself, my friends. That is progressive overload. You are progressing in that state. Okay?

So if you're doing a workout and you have the ability to challenge yourself a little bit more, let's say you did four sets one week, next week you can do five, and you do five for a couple of weeks, and then maybe in week, I don't know, eight, you do six, just to challenge yourself. Or you play around with reps in there. Maybe you don't go up to six, but you play around with reps, or you just play around with weight. Dude, if you have the ability to do that, and you have the ability to add five more pounds than you did the previous week, my God, please do it. Do it. Do it.

Look, seriously, though, some people need to be called out here really quick. I hear this a lot: people say they're just not feeling challenged by their workouts, or the variety of their workouts needs to change, or they need more things to do. Example, my wonderful WarriorBabes, I'm going to call you guys out in the Blueprint program. Some of you literally say our workouts aren't challenging enough, and then I go and do the workout that we have programmed for you, and I am dying. It feels so good. It's such a challenging workout.

So ladies, if you're experiencing wanting more of a challenge with your workouts, work the workout. You are in control. Challenge yourself. Pick up heavier weight. Don't just go through the motions. Don't just show up in the gym, do the workout half-assed, and then go, woohoo, I got my workout done for today, check mark, done. But did you have a good workout? Did you challenge yourself? Dude, you better have an ugly face at the end of all of your sets. The last three reps of every set better be freaking challenging, to where it's hard to push through, but you tap into your inner power and you make it happen.

Guys, listen. The mind will quit before your body does. It's inside all of you. You've got it. So find it and work the workout. Okay? Work the workout. You're in control. Challenge yourself. Pick up heavier weight.

Look, listen. If there's one person saying that workout's not challenging, and then I go and do the workout, and I am literally at a 150 heart rate the entire time, no joke, real-life story, and that's me doing the workout and experiencing it firsthand, then where's the fault here? Where is it breaking? It's you. This workout is challenging. Trust me. I'm doing it. So I ask you, how can you make it more challenging? First of all, it's picking up heavier weight. End of story. That's usually what it comes down to, for women sometimes, and men too. Men too.

So this can help you gauge what weight you should be using. Really, it comes down to making sure it's a challenging weight, that you have proper form, and that you feel a challenge coming from it. Okay? So in your first set of, let's say, four, you're just gauging the weight for that day, right? Because weight could fluctuate every single day, you guys. It could vary. Like I said, there are multiple variables that could affect your workout.

So you go into the first set and you're getting a feel for a heavy weight, or you tracked your weight from the week before, so you know this is what you started with. And then you're like, okay, this feels really good today. I banged out my 10 reps, easy, no problem. If you're banging out your 10 reps easy, no problem, please do not use that same weight going into your second set. Please don't.

This is great: you assessed your first set, and it was easy. If you did that weight last week, that's freaking awesome, because now you're about to increase. So then you go and pick up five pounds heavier. It's nothing drastic. You don't need to go pick up 20 pounds heavier, literally just five. Five. If you feel like five isn't enough, go to 10. If the 10 reps in the first set were way too easy, then go for 10. But please, for the love of God, do not pick up 20, 30, or 50 pounds heavier than what you just did. Okay? You're going to look like a monkey in the gym. You're going to be flailing around the weight, and your form's going to look horrible. All it needs to be is maybe five or 10 pounds, depending on the exercise. Okay?

So in the second set you do a five or 10 pound increase in weight, and at the last three reps you're like, whew, you're pulling, right? This is challenging, this is hard. Stay there. If the last three reps are challenging for you, or when you finish the set you feel like you could have done maybe two or three more reps, that's great. Gauge it by that, and then do that for the rest of your sets, you guys. That's how you gauge what weight you should be using. Okay?

So, the majority of all of this: please work the workout. These are challenging workouts. You just have to work the workout. You have to challenge yourself. Unless you're working with a personal trainer inside the gym, and the majority of the world now works with coaches online, it's up to you to go into the workout, give it your all, and challenge yourself. All right?

So, it is okay to not be sore. Don't look at soreness as your primary indicator. Progress is your primary indicator, you guys. Progress is your primary indicator. Looking to be sore, feeling sore after your workout, and chasing that soreness is not your primary indicator. Okay? If you are getting stronger, you are building muscle, you are progressing. Progress is your primary indicator. Boom, bang, diggity, hot dog. That's what you want to look for. Okay?

It's important to focus, you guys, on progressive overload. Focus on proper form. If you're picking up a little bit heavier weight, make sure you're not flailing the weight around. Make sure you're still engaging and putting solid resistance on the muscle. Focus on adequate recovery rather than relying solely on muscle soreness as an indicator of your progress. That's just a terrible thing to seek when you're doing a workout program. Okay?

Soreness is not an indicator of your progress. Progress is an indicator that you are making progress. Progressive overload: add sets, add weight, add reps, all that jazz. Over time, that's going to make you progress moving forward. If you don't get sore every once in a while and you still added weight, or you did something that was a little bit more challenging, cool. You're doing great. You're still progressing. You're still adapting.

All right, you guys. I hope this podcast helped you today in understanding the myth out there, where people seek soreness and judge their workout based on how sore they are. You don't need to be sore after a workout to build muscle. You can never get sore and you can consistently build muscle and consistently burn body fat. Okay? So I hope that helped you. I'll see you guys in the next podcast. Peace.

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