Stealth Muscle Soreness

Recovery Can’t Be Rushed and Can Be Tricky

Recovery can’t be rushed and can be tricky.

Can anyone logically disagree with the premise that engaging in a strength training session before fully recovered from the previous strength training session will, necessarily, generate subpar results, compared to the identical session done in the identical way when fully rested?

A 102% training effort undertaken when 100% rested is the surefire way to improve strength. Conversely, a 102% effort when 79% recovered will necessarily generate subpar results compared to the identical session taken when fully rested and fully recovered.

How long does it take to fully recover from an effective, hypertrophy-inducing resistance training session? How do you know when recovery is complete? Are there telltale signs that betray incomplete recovery or lingering fatigue? Are there methods and modes, substances or nutrients that can help support recovery? The length of time needed to recover from a result-producing resistance training session varies, depending on a multiplicity of factors.

The Variables That Change Recovery Time

• Type and kind of resistance training
• Fitness or unfitness of the trainee
• Workout frequency
• Types and degrees of intensity undertaken and experienced
• Session duration
• Outside factors

Outside factors could include working overtime, sickness, excellent or horrible interpersonal relationships, life stress, negative, or lack of stress, positive. Outside factors are not necessarily always negative; outside factors can be positive or neutral.

Recovering from a truly effective training session is subtle and requires careful attention. If a strength training session is successful, the trainee self-induces a degree of physical stress, microtrauma, sufficient to shock the body. Unless there is stress of a sufficient intensity, sufficient to shock the body, there is no need to worry about recovery. Without the training stress, there is nothing to recover from. Recovery criteria include the following.

Recovery Is the Red-Headed Stepchild

Recovery is the red-headed stepchild of modern resistance training. Coaches, personal trainers, and resistance training experts all differentiate themselves, one from one another, based on the complexities and newness of their training approach.

Very little attention is paid to the empty gaps, the time elapsed between sessions. The secret sauce is what they, the experts, do within the session. For most, more sessions mean more opportunity to showcase their content expertise — recovery be damned.

An athlete can only obtain optimal strength training results by commencing a strength training session fully rested. Anything less than fully rested dilutes results. How is a trainee to ever become fully rested weight training five times a week? Where does the rest come from?

You shock-blast the legs on Sunday and expect this to have zero impact on the bench press workout on Tuesday “because benching uses arms, chest and shoulders while leg work uses quads, hams and calves... completely different muscles.” Indeed, attached to the same body. The same body desperately seeking homeostasis after being slaughtered on Sunday.

Supercompensation Needs the Whole Body

If allowed, the human body is a remarkable self-healing machine. After a body-shattering, result-producing, hardcore resistance training session, and given enough time, assuming the body is fed and rested, supercompensation occurs: the trained, fed and rested body skyrockets past homeostasis and onward into the creation of new muscle tissue and a concurrent increase in raw power and strength.

Muscle building is a defensive tactic, a bodily reaction to the pounding the body experiences during a proper training session. The body tells itself, “Look, these stresses are past our capacities: we need more muscular firepower to deal with this overload, this continual pounding.” The bodily solution is to build bigger muscles, thereby creating additional strength, this to deal with these recurring and past-capacity physical stresses.

DOMS Gone Stealth

In my own experience, I recently discovered that I was inadvertently undercutting my recovery. There is a phenomenon in resistance training called delayed onset muscle soreness, DOMS. In my case, I had forgotten about DOMS.

I had been training hard every Sunday, waking up the next morning feeling great with zero telltale soreness. Because of a lack of telltale soreness denoting fatigue, because I was fired-up psychologically, I would train hard again Monday morning, attacking different body parts.

I had recently shifted my training strategy, dramatically, from a low-volume, high-intensity, power-training approach into a high-volume, moderate-intensity, broader, lighter approach. I was seeking to invoke some neuroplasticity in my training by doing different things. I noted that some of my minor muscles, specific triceps heads, specific quadriceps heads, were not firing, not contracting during my squats, bench presses, deadlifts, overhead presses or their acceptable variants.

Like sucker fish attached to sharks, these portions of muscles figured out that they didn’t have to fire during a squat or bench press. They would tag along for the ride.

The rear head of my left triceps refused to fire and had become deflated. It had “forgotten” how to contract. The solution? Lots of triceps isolation exercises where I forced the laggard tri-head to contract. Ditto the inner teardrop of my right quadriceps: I forcibly contract it using slo-mo precision leg extensions. Overall, I shifted my focus: I began using more exercises, more sessions. I shifted the emphasis from poundage and technique to contraction, feel, isolation.

How I Was Digging a Recovery Hole

After heavy squats and deadlifts, switching to Smith machine squats and leg extensions, triceps pushdowns and lat pulldowns seemed like a walk in the park. I had fallen into a predictable pattern: I would have an excellent training session on Sunday when I trained with my training partners. Predictably, I would feel great Monday morning.

Psychologically fired up, I would tear into another session on Monday, attacking entirely different muscles. I would post a good, not excellent, session on Monday and attribute the falloff to training alone as opposed to the psychological boost I get working out with my training partners.

After a killer session on Sunday, a good session on Monday, I would hit a light arm workout on Wednesday. I would wake up Thursday sore and tired. It would take Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to get back into the “I feel fresh and ready” headspace needed for Sunday when I trained with the boys and the whole cycle commenced again.

I was new to the pee-wee poundage / high-volume game and was feeling my way along. Suddenly I was doing lots of exercises, going to failure with light poundage and using a lot of isolation movements. I also began using resistance machines. A few weeks ago, after having had another excellent Sunday session, I was forced to skip the Monday training session on account of some deadlines and pressing life situations. Again, I awoke that Monday morning feeling fabulous. I felt fully rested, ready and looking forward to my Monday session. I was distraught at having to cancel training.

The Monday Afternoon Revelation

Around 1 p.m. I began to experience some serious soreness in my traps, erectors, rear delts, triceps, biceps, and hamstrings. Gee, on Sunday I had done eight sets of five reps in the overhead barbell press. Then five sets of 2-rep power cleans, setting a recent personal best. Followed by four sets of slo-mo-to-failure lying leg curls. Five supersets of 6 to 10 reps in the steep incline curls were alternated with single-dumbbell overhead triceps extensions, lots of sets taken to failure.

By 4 p.m. on Monday my soreness had increased exponentially: I was really sore in my shoulders, upper back, hamstrings, and arms. Really sore. The revelation hit me: if I had felt this degree of soreness and fatigue when I woke up Monday morning, there was no way I would have even considered working out.

Further, by layering another workout, a good one, Monday, atop a great workout, Sunday, and then throwing a “light workout” in on Wednesday, I was digging myself a massive recovery hole to climb out of. This was DOMS, delayed onset muscle soreness, gone stealth.

What I Changed

The solution? I could not correct what I was unaware of: I made it a point to abstain from resistance training Monday, no matter how good I felt Monday morning. That was a month ago. I would not consider weight training again until Wednesday or Thursday. I might or might not slip in a “light” session on Friday, or skip it. Two to three weekly lifting sessions are interspersed with four weekly cardio sessions: sprint, bike, swim.

I try and walk right up to the cusp of too much; that is where the gains lie. There is an old cliché about love and loss, “Time heals all.” This catchphrase could also be the motto for resistance training recovery: time away from resistance training allows the human body the rest needed to repair, rebuild, strengthen, and grow. Training hard enough to trigger hypertrophy is only one third of the growth equation.

The muscles traumatized in the training session need post-workout nutrients to replenish and revitalize. The shocked and fed muscles must then be rested, i.e., left alone until a full and complete recovery occurs. Further, decimated muscles in one sector of the body should serve as fair warning to not train differing muscles: the entire body needs to be recovered, not just certain sectors.

There is no such thing as a partial full recovery. Be aware of the DOMS phenomenon: there can be a 36- or 48-hour lag time before the full fury of the soreness reveals itself. The best advice I can give is err on the side of too much recovery time versus too little. On the other hand, don’t use recovery as an excuse to undertrain: train hard, replenish, rest, regain homeostasis, repeat ad infinitum.

Safety Note for DOMS, Recovery, and Hard Training

This article preserves Marty Gallagher’s RAW first-person recovery lesson. It is not individualized medical, rehabilitation, nutrition, or programming advice.

Delayed soreness after hard or unfamiliar training can be normal, but soreness is not the same thing as progress, and the absence of soreness does not prove full recovery. Training to failure, high-volume isolation work, heavy barbell work, sprinting and frequent sessions should be scaled to the lifter’s body, training age, sleep, food intake, stress, injury history, and recovery capacity.

Stop or seek qualified guidance for sharp pain, sudden weakness, swelling that worsens, joint pain, numbness, chest pain, dizziness, unusual shortness of breath, dark urine, fever, pain that does not improve, or any symptom that feels different from normal training soreness.

Recovery tools can help around the edges. They do not replace time, food, sleep, and intelligent programming.

Equipment Notes for Recovery-Support Work

Recovery is not purchased. It is earned by training hard enough, then eating, sleeping, and waiting long enough for the body to adapt. Still, a few recovery-support tools can help lifters organize the quiet work between hard sessions.

For cooldowns, mobility work, balance training, and self-myofascial release, readers and facilities can compare foam rollers and balance training products. A simple option such as the Aeromat 6-inch firm round foam roller may support basic self-massage, stretching and cooldown work when used appropriately.

For broader recovery-support tools, compare non-surgical pain management and recovery-support products and read current product documentation carefully. A product such as the Lumaflex Body Pro FDA-cleared wearable red light therapy device should be used only according to current product labeling, instructions, and professional guidance when needed. For targeted mobility or self-massage work, Aeromat therapeutic peanut stability balls may be relevant when they match the user and purpose.

The equipment does not create recovery. The lifter’s discipline outside the session creates recovery.

Related Recovery Reading

For more Marty Gallagher recovery context, read Sleep, Rest, and Recovery for Muscle and Strength Gains. For a companion article on replenishment after hard training, read Muscle Replenishment: Fact Versus Fiction.

RAW with Marty Gallagher, J.P. Brice, and Jim Steel Podcast.

About the Author: Marty Gallagher

As an athlete Marty Gallagher is a national and world champion in Olympic lifting and powerlifting. He was a world champion team coach in 1991 and coached Black's Gym to five national team titles. He's also coached some of the strongest men on the planet including Kirk Karwoski when he completed his world record 1,003 lb. squat. Today he teaches the US Secret Service and Tier 1 Spec Ops on how to maximize their strength in minimal time. As a writer since 1978 he’s written for Powerlifting USA, Milo, Flex Magazine, Muscle & Fitness, Prime Fitness, Washington Post, Dragon Door and now IRON COMPANY. He’s also the author of multiple books including Purposeful Primitive, Strong Medicine, Ed Coan’s book Coan: The Man, the Myth, the Method and numerous others. Read the Marty Gallagher biography here.