I would disagree, DOMS isn't really a measurement of a hard workout, moreso a measurement of a workout that your body wasn't adequately prepared for.
this is 100% true. if you keep getting doms, while doing the same amount of work you are not growing.
here is a post i made on the steroid board last week about this:
its a tough one as there hasn't been any definative scientific conclusions yet, for example this study explains the most logical theorys:
Mechanisms of exercise-induced delayed onset muscular soreness: a brief review.
Armstrong RB.
Delayed-onset muscular soreness (DOMS), the sensation of pain and stiffness in the muscles that occurs from 1 to 5 d following unaccustomed exercise, can adversely affect muscular performance, both from voluntary reduction of effort and from inherent loss of capacity of the muscles to produce force. This reduction in performance is temporary; permanent impairment does not occur. A number of clinical correlates are associated with DOMS, including elevations in plasma enzymes, myoglobinemia, and abnormal muscle histology and ultrastructure; exertional rhabdomyolysis appears to be the extreme form of DOMS. Presently, the best treatment for DOMS appears to be muscular activity, although the sensation again returns following the exercise. Training for the specific contractile activity that causes DOMS reduces the soreness response. The etiology and cellular mechanisms of DOMS are not known, but a number of hypotheses exist to explain the phenomenon. The following model may be proposed: 1) high tensions (particularly those associated with eccentric exercise) in the contractile/elastic system of the muscle result in structural damage; 2) cell membrane damage leads to disruption of Ca++ homeostasis in the injured fibers, resulting in necrosis that peaks about 2 d post-exercise; and 3) products of macrophage activity and intracellular contents accumulate in the interstitium, which in turn stimulate free nerve endings of group-IV sensory neurons in the muscles leading to the sensation of DOMS.
PMID: 6392811 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
however i feel this study rules out the necrosis (cell death) and macrophage activity ( inflamation and clearing of waste) theorys :
Eccentric contractions leading to DOMS do not cause loss of desmin nor fibre necrosis in human muscle.Yu JG, Malm C, Thornell LE.
Department of Integrative Medical Biology, Section for Anatomy, Umeå University, 901 87 Umeå, Sweden.
High force eccentric muscle contractions can result in delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), prolonged loss of muscle strength, decreased range of motion, muscle swelling and an increase of muscle proteins in the blood. At the ultrastructural level Z-line streaming and myofibrillar disruptions have been taken as evidence for muscle damage. In animal models of eccentric exercise-induced injury, disruption of the cytoskeleton and the sarcolemma of muscle fibres occurs within the first hour after the exercise, since a rapid loss of staining of desmin, a cytoskeletal protein, and the presence of fibronectin, a plasma and extracellular protein, are observed within the muscle fibres. In the present study, biopsies from subjects who had performed different eccentric exercises and had developed DOMS were examined. Our aim was to determine whether eccentric exercise leading to DOMS causes sarcolemmal disruption and loss of desmin in humans. Our study shows that even though the subjects had DOMS, muscle fibres had neither lost staining for desmin nor contained plasma fibronectin. This study therefore does not support previous conclusions that there is muscle fibre degeneration and necrosis in human skeletal muscle after eccentric exercise leading to DOMS. Our data are in agreement with the recent findings that there is no inflammatory response in skeletal muscle following eccentric exercise in humans. In combination, these findings should stimulate the search for other mechanisms explaining the functional and structural alterations in human skeletal muscle after eccentric exercise.
this only leaves us with the theory about high tension resulting in structural damage, or some other unhear/undiscovered process.
Personally i think the high tension theory makes the most sense, and that the pain is caused by excessive structural fibre damage as it is simply too much weight/damage for the body to handle ( a bit like sunburn ). This also holds true as everyone knows a light workout helps the pain go away - due to the blood ( carrying nutrients) being pumped into the damaged area ths helping healing/rebuilding.
the next workout there is usually no pain, or at least no where near after a long layoff.
So IMO i think you should not strive for DOMS. Yes you are growing, and yes you can recover, but i just feel its not optimal nor needed. Its certainly not comfortable when its excessive pain and you can barely walk, tand, sit etc
other thoughts: The body produces prostaglandins in response to injury. one of the effects of prostaglandins is to sensitise nerve endings, causing pain (presumably to prevent us from causing further harm to the area) but it also produces inflammation, but if that 2ns study is correct, it can't be that either.
