SORENESS !

[TheDoctor]

DOMS=Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness
I do the workout of Arnolds encyclopediia each muscle group 3 times a week with sunday off, i used to feel sorness but due to the enormous amount of sets and reps i go medium in weight to failure with no DOMS.
But if i only train 2 or 3 days a week and take a rest fom my routine and concentrate on going Heavy with minium sets i feel the Doms immediatly after the workout though doing this has not added any muscle i enjoy serving my Ego.

[Vince B]

If you can get your biceps sore you will make them grow. Triceps need special isolation exercises to grow past a certain level. I came to the conclusion that doing many, many sets with the max weight for 15 reps is ideal for hypertrophy. Doing less reps works but you end up cheating and the rep number diminishes with the sets. When you start with 15 reps you get a pump. Then after about 3 max sets you do about 10 to 12 reps. You can keep doing 15 reps but need more rest between sets. I superset biceps and triceps. Triceps get sore every time but not biceps. It is possible to grow at any age. I usually do between 5 and 10 max weight sets.

What I advocate is quite different from Milos.

[chris2489]

Don't worry about soreness, focus on getting stronger every workout and you should get a some degree of soreness. However if you don't, don't worry about it.

[Stavios]

If you can get your biceps sore you will make them grow. Triceps need special isolation exercises to grow past a certain level. I came to the conclusion that doing many, many sets with the max weight for 15 reps is ideal for hypertrophy. Doing less reps works but you end up cheating and the rep number diminishes with the sets. When you start with 15 reps you get a pump. Then after about 3 max sets you do about 10 to 12 reps. You can keep doing 15 reps but need more rest between sets. I superset biceps and triceps. Triceps get sore every time but not biceps. It is possible to grow at any age. I usually do between 5 and 10 max weight sets.

What I advocate is quite different from Milos.

I tried supersetting bicep and tricep but I hated it

I get a massive bump doing biceps by themself, then triceps by themself

[Van_Bilderass]

Don't worry about soreness, focus on getting stronger every workout and you should get a some degree of soreness. However if you don't, don't worry about it.

Amen.

There seems to be no direct correlation between soreness and growth. Many big bodybuilders never get sore. Some always get sore. If you are the type that gets sore easily, like me, you can probably make yourself sore with bodyweight exercises quite easily doing high reps. Despite the soreness it does jack-shit for growth.

Progressive overload, some metabolic fatigue, good nutrition = growth. Forget about inducing soreness, and forget about the lack of soreness.

[Stavios]

Amen.

There seems to be no direct correlation between soreness and growth. Many big bodybuilders never get sore. Some always get sore. If you are the type that gets sore easily, like me, you can probably make yourself sore with bodyweight exercises quite easily doing high reps. Despite the soreness it does jack-shit for growth.

Progressive overload, some metabolic fatigue, good nutrition = growth. Forget about inducing soreness, and forget about the lack of soreness.

my best friend is very very thick and he never gets sore

but he trains more like a powerlifter, he is just lucky to have good genetics

everyday he goes to the gym, do 4 or 5 sets of heavy bench press, do a couple of sets of curls, talk 30 minutes to everyone, do another sets of curl and go home

the fucker has a very complete physiques and have bigger legs than me and he doesn't train them 

[Get Rowdy]

If you can get your biceps sore you will make them grow. Triceps need special isolation exercises to grow past a certain level. I came to the conclusion that doing many, many sets with the max weight for 15 reps is ideal for hypertrophy. Doing less reps works but you end up cheating and the rep number diminishes with the sets. When you start with 15 reps you get a pump. Then after about 3 max sets you do about 10 to 12 reps. You can keep doing 15 reps but need more rest between sets. I superset biceps and triceps. Triceps get sore every time but not biceps. It is possible to grow at any age. I usually do between 5 and 10 max weight sets.

What I advocate is quite different from Milos.

Yep it takes a heap of sets to get my biceps sore, and sometimes really slow negatives at the end of the set.  I sometimes superset biceps and triceps but only with exercises like overhead dumbbell extensions and concentration curls.

[MAXX]

a couple sample workouts are:

BB rows(overhand)
Lat pulldowns(wide grip)
Low cable rows(underhand)
Hyperextensions

or

Rev Incline DB Rows
Pullups(close grip)
T-bar rows
Deads(off floor)

i always pull from the elbows and focus on form and squeeze....it is just one of my areas that rarely
gets sore

you should do more exercises. four is not enough. aim for 20-25 sets of about 7-8 different exercises.

[Vince B]

Don't worry about soreness, focus on getting stronger every workout and you should get a some degree of soreness. However if you don't, don't worry about it.

You don't grasp what I am saying. If you don't get sore it is unlikely that you are growing rapidly. Therefore you use the degree of soreness as feedback about the effectiveness of the workout. Those who seldom get sore will grow even faster if they always do. This is not just a tip but a physiological phenomenon. You are not training for the DOMS itself but use the soreness as feedback to see if you are growing. You are focussing on targetting muscles, exhausting them, etc. You don't do just anything to make muscles sore but use your experience to train them. Always strive for progression.

You can combine triceps with lat work. If you select an effective exercise you don't need more than one. On the next day you can combine biceps with chest. It is unlikely you can make all bodyparts grow at the same time. Target a few and forget about the others. They will get some benefit just being attached to sites that the working muscles are attached to. You really have to discard the notion that you need to train all bodyparts every week to keep them big.

[peteK]

You don't grasp what I am saying. If you don't get sore it is unlikely that you are growing rapidly. Therefore you use the degree of soreness as feedback about the effectiveness of the workout. Those who seldom get sore will grow even faster if they always do. This is not just a tip but a physiological phenomenon. You are not training for the DOMS itself but use the soreness as feedback to see if you are growing. You are focussing on targetting muscles, exhausting them, etc. You don't do just anything to make muscles sore but use your experience to train them. Always strive for progression.

You can combine triceps with lat work. If you select an effective exercise you don't need more than one. On the next day you can combine biceps with chest. It is unlikely you can make all bodyparts grow at the same time. Target a few and forget about the others. They will get some benefit just being attached to sites that the working muscles are attached to. You really have to discard the notion that you need to train all bodyparts every week to keep them big.

Just to see if I understand correctly. You should strive to make the muscle as sore as possible, and not focus on all muscle group. From what I gather then, it would be a good strategy to focus on triceps and lats for a few weeks and really make them sore. For the other muscle groups you would do maintenance work then. Or am I missing something?
Also, I personally always get way more sore after performing isolation exercises, like leg extensions en flyes. Compounds don't make me that sore at all. Does that mean that someone like me should focus more on isolation exercises?

[SquatAss]

Soreness has nothing to do with hypertrophy whatsoever. You get sore from doing things you aren't used to. For muscles to grow they need to be stressed by a load that's high enough.

Run a quarter marathon when you're not used to it and I'll guarantee you, you'll be sore as hell but will it make your legs grow? Hell no.

[Vince B]

The goal of DOMS training is to make the muscles grow. We all have so many beliefs about training that we cannot discard any of them for fear we will be missing out on something. If you target arms for a month you don't have to train any other muscles in the upper body. You don't waste your time doing maintenance training because the other muscles in the upper body will be stimulated enough when you train arms. You have to give this a go and see for yourself. Bodybuilders do way too many exercises and do too many bodyparts each week. That is the main reason most stop growing.

Doing some exercises will not generate growth. That is disappointing. So you can use the DOMS effect to get feedback about which exercises are effective and which are not. Make sure you actually contract the target muscle and not cheat by recruiting other muscles to do the exercise. Again, if the target muscle isn't sore you didn't train it properly. In a very short time you will learn what to do. The main thing is you will discard what NOT to do. That is a big thing to learn re bodybuilding. It probably helps to have the muscle in a stretch position when you train it. Triceps and calves, especially, benefit from a stretched position.

There is no need to remain on a plateau. If you are not growing rapidly you are doing something wrong. You should eat enough to cause a weight gain. Those on a diet cannot expect to grow muscles rapidly.

Whether it is beneficial to feed the muscle before, during and after training is unknown but Milos and some others swear this is really helpful.

[Vince B]

Soreness has nothing to do with hypertrophy whatsoever. You get sore from doing things you aren't used to. For muscles to grow they need to be stressed by a load that's high enough.

Run a quarter marathon when you're not used to it and I'll guarantee you, you'll be sore as hell but will it make your legs grow? Hell no.

Many people think this way. I think they are mistaken. There is some evidence from the science that suggests the DOMS is related to growth in the muscle. When the scientists try to do more hypertrophy research we will find out this is true.

Ask yourself why the muscle gets sore and then after a couple of weeks it no longer gets sore? What if you keep it sore all the time? Well, I asked those questions and found the muscle grows rapidly if you keep them sore with heavy, hard training. Your strength leaps ahead with the size gains.