Now, you don’t need me to tell you the benefits exercise can have on your health. If you’re reading this, then I’m guessing there’s a high chance you’re already aware of the health benefits we can reap through exercising however, are you aware that these benefits can either be enhanced or dumbed down depending on the way we are exercising?

 

What if I were to tell you you could structure your training (sets, reps, tempos and load) so it’s more geared towards building muscle or burning body fat; easy right?

 

But what if we could fine-tune this further, to let’s say designing a workout that would be more bias towards improving cardiovascular health to help lower blood pressure, or to encourage ossification (the formation of new bone) and the release of osteoblasts to help improve bone density and collagen production. Or, you may be training to help prevent cognitive decline and reduce the chances of Alzheimer’s – things now become more complex.

 

Believe it or not, the body is an amazing, organic piece of machinery that adapts to whatever (give or take) we throw at it, and if you know the right stimulus needed to elicit a response then we can indeed train to produce a truly specific outcome.

 

Take Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) for example, some people love waking up the following morning feeling sore and aware they trained hard the previous day, while others hate how sore you can get, begrudging having to go into work or be on their feet all day.

 

But, what if we could choose whether our workouts left us sore or not? If so, we could then specifically design workouts around people’s routines and preferences. After all, if you’re an athlete you don’t want to go into a competition or a game with severe DOMS. Like-wise, if you’re someone whose job it is to be on your feet all day, or spend time running up and down stairs then it’s probably not going to be too comfortable having to do it with DOMS in the legs.

 

Well guess what,  you can adapt your workouts in such a way that the exercises and their execution can bring about varying degrees of muscle soreness to suit your personal ‘pain tolerance’ - a little like choosing how spicy you like you curry, and here’s how:

 

Sports and Exercise scientist Professor Ken Nosaka, is the leading researcher in the field of muscle damage. He's conducted numerous studies and found muscle damage to be at its greatest when a muscle is trained eccentrically for repeated bouts of effort and intensity. Prof. Nosaka found DOMS to be at its greatest when a muscle is trained in the last third of its lengthened range and trained to the point where there’s a forty percent drop in intensity (load).

 

So what does that look like in the real world?

 

If we take the hamstrings, and compare the seated leg curl to the lying leg curl you’ll find a greater amount of DOMS when using the seated leg curl as compared to the lying leg curl. This is because the seated leg curl works more of the lengthened portion of the range for the hamstrings placing it more into a stretch. The same would also apply when comparing a Romanian deadlift to the lying leg curl. Again, the like a seated leg curl, the Romanian deadlift places the hamstrings into more of a stretch/lengthened position – this is one way to ensure DOMS (Nosaka & Sakamoto, 2001).
 

The second factor is looking at weight drop off i.e. how hard you push yourself. Let’s say you start off with a weight of 100kgs for your first set and decide to perform five sets. If across those five sets you’ve had to drop the weight by 40 percent (a 40kgs reduction) this reduction in ‘drop-off’ would be enough to cause DOMS (Nosaka K. 2008).

 

Finally, if the above isn’t enough and you’re left wanting more, then adding an isometric contraction pause at the bottom of the lengthened position of the lift will guarantee to induce some serous muscle damage and with it, DOMS.
 

Now, this is all well and good if you’re wanting to induce muscle soreness but, what if you’re someone who really doesn’t like being left sore, how can we train to prevent it?
 

Well, the diagram I’ve put together below gives you a sliding scale ranked from minor to most severe based on the type of training you perform relative to inducing muscle soreness.

Factors Influencing Muscle Damage and Soreness

(image based around prof. Nosaka's research over the last decade)

 

As you can see, if you're wanting to limit the amount of DOMS in a muscle then focusing on the concentric part of the lift and keeping the weight relatively low (>60% of 1RM) will limit muscle damage and subsquently muscle soreness. However, age, gender and training experience also have a contrubiting factor towards muscle soreness; with females and younger trainees experiencing lower levels of pain (Lavender AP, Nosaka K, 2006).

 

Knowing what we now we can truely tailor our workouts around the way we are feeling and wish to feel after the gym. If you're someone who loves to feel pain for several days after a workout then you can now train towards that however, please don't go away mistakenly thinking just beascue you've induced muscle soreness that it's a sign of a good workout or for growth - as we already know from one of our previous blogs it's not always the case.