What if everything you've believed about soreness is wrong? How surprised would you be if the best strength training left you feeling energized, not exhausted? In this episode, I shed light on muscle soreness. Most people think a workout is only good if you’re sore afterwards. Not true! You’ll learn why soreness isn't a sign of success but actually a big problem, especially if you have an autoimmune condition, and which exercises contribute more to soreness.Muscle soreness is one of three things. First, soreness could be from doing a new exercise, not being used to specific movements, or doing too much. Two, too much time under tension in the eccentric loading phase of exercises. You’re either doing too many reps or too many eccentric dominant moves in general. Or third, improper nutrition around workouts. When looking at impressive workouts on social media, for example, it's important to remember that the impressive workouts aren’t what those people did to get there. They worked toward that goal. Some workouts make you more sore than others. There is a significant link between muscle soreness, systemic inflammation, and the power of exercise selection. Less is more! Your workout doesn’t need to make you incredibly sore to have been a great one.DOMS, or delayed onset muscle soreness, is actually related to inflammation. Muscle soreness is “damage,” but remember, not all inflammation and damage is bad. It's when there is too much inflammation that it becomes a problem. Women who struggle with autoimmune issues want to avoid workouts that cause excessive soreness, because they're already susceptible to being sore, and they're already managing the inflammation related to their condition.Taking all of this into consideration, wanting a program for myself not to over-fatigue my body, I created Strength Without Stress. It's a collection of exercises that are concentric-based, where maximal load is when the muscle is in a shortened position, allowing you to lift more without soreness. Working smarter, and not harder, is the key to striking the right balance in your workouts. Emphasis is determined by the time spent under tension, and if the targeted muscle is in a lengthened, stretched, or shortened position. Once I started masterminding my workouts so that I didn't do too many eccentric exercises, where the muscle is in a lengthened position at maximal load and force, everything changed. A concentric contraction is when a muscle shortens as it produces force. It shortens to overcome the weight load to cause movement. A great example of this is a bicep curl. In general, concentric contractions don't cause soreness. An eccentric contraction is the opposite. It's when the muscle is lengthening as it produces force, and these are the special exercises that cause soreness. A great example here is a squat where you're lowering down to the ground and you're resisting the load that you're holding, and then you're returning to a standing position.So the exercises that are eccentric, dominant, and therefore more taxing to the muscle, and therefore tend to cause soreness, are barbell back squats, lunges of any kind, Bulgarian split squats, Romanian deadlift, good mornings, bench press or a bicep chest press, chest fly, overhead tricep extension, supine hamstring curl, and push ups. My Strength Without Stress program combines all of my favorite concentric exercises with just the bare minimum eccentric exercises. Remember, soreness isn’t the goal. Finding the perfect collection of exercises where you can actually increase your weight loads consistently over time, so that you experience intense moments during a set is. Strength training should make you feel great the next day, not knock you down!If you want access to my 4-week Strength Without Stress program for...
What if everything you've believed about soreness is wrong? How surprised would you be if the best strength training left you feeling energized, not exhausted? In this episode, I shed light on muscle soreness. Most people think a workout is only good if you’re sore afterwards. Not true! You’ll learn why soreness isn't a sign of success but actually a big problem, especially if you have an autoimmune condition, and which exercises contribute more to soreness.
Muscle soreness is one of three things. First, soreness could be from doing a new exercise, not being used to specific movements, or doing too much. Two, too much time under tension in the eccentric loading phase of exercises. You’re either doing too many reps or too many eccentric dominant moves in general. Or third, improper nutrition around workouts.
When looking at impressive workouts on social media, for example, it's important to remember that the impressive workouts aren’t what those people did to get there. They worked toward that goal. Some workouts make you more sore than others. There is a significant link between muscle soreness, systemic inflammation, and the power of exercise selection. Less is more! Your workout doesn’t need to make you incredibly sore to have been a great one.
DOMS, or delayed onset muscle soreness, is actually related to inflammation. Muscle soreness is “damage,” but remember, not all inflammation and damage is bad. It's when there is too much inflammation that it becomes a problem. Women who struggle with autoimmune issues want to avoid workouts that cause excessive soreness, because they're already susceptible to being sore, and they're already managing the inflammation related to their condition.
Taking all of this into consideration, wanting a program for myself not to over-fatigue my body, I created Strength Without Stress. It's a collection of exercises that are concentric-based, where maximal load is when the muscle is in a shortened position, allowing you to lift more without soreness. Working smarter, and not harder, is the key to striking the right balance in your workouts.
Emphasis is determined by the time spent under tension, and if the targeted muscle is in a lengthened, stretched, or shortened position. Once I started masterminding my workouts so that I didn't do too many eccentric exercises, where the muscle is in a lengthened position at maximal load and force, everything changed.
A concentric contraction is when a muscle shortens as it produces force. It shortens to overcome the weight load to cause movement. A great example of this is a bicep curl. In general, concentric contractions don't cause soreness. An eccentric contraction is the opposite. It's when the muscle is lengthening as it produces force, and these are the special exercises that cause soreness. A great example here is a squat where you're lowering down to the ground and you're resisting the load that you're holding, and then you're returning to a standing position.
So the exercises that are eccentric, dominant, and therefore more taxing to the muscle, and therefore tend to cause soreness, are barbell back squats, lunges of any kind, Bulgarian split squats, Romanian deadlift, good mornings, bench press or a bicep chest press, chest fly, overhead tricep extension, supine hamstring curl, and push ups. My Strength Without Stress program combines all of my favorite concentric exercises with just the bare minimum eccentric exercises.
Remember, soreness isn’t the goal. Finding the perfect collection of exercises where you can actually increase your weight loads consistently over time, so that you experience intense moments during a set is. Strength training should make you feel great the next day, not knock you down!
If you want access to my 4-week Strength Without Stress program for free, be sure to Rate and Review this episode now, grab a screenshot, and then send it to me over at hollyperkins.com/review. You’ll get immediate access for free!
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Holly Perkins 00:00
What if everything you've believed about soreness is wrong? How surprised would you be if the best strength training left you feeling energized, not exhausted? Delayed onset muscle soreness is way more complicated than you think, and you'll get better results when you have less of it. If you believe that muscle soreness is a sign of a good workout, keep listening.
Holly Perkins 00:29
Hello and welcome. Thank you for being here. If you are new, I'm Holly Perkins, and I help women—mostly over 40—improve your body composition, so that you are at least 70% lean muscle, so that you can reduce your risk of disease and stay in this amazing game of life and out of the rocking chair as you get older.
And today's episode is such a good one, because I am talking about some really specific concepts that nobody else out there is really talking about. And it's particularly relevant if you're often sore or if you are someone who struggles with autoimmune symptoms, diseases, disorders, etc.—which is so many women in my community. And this is perfect for you.
Holly Perkins 01:22
If you're over 40 and you're working hard, but you're not getting anywhere... if you feel like your workouts aren't working unless you're sore... or if you push through fatigue, thinking that that's the price of progress—this episode is so for you.
Muscle soreness is not what you think, and it's usually the result of one or more of these three things:
Holly Perkins 01:48
Number one: new exercise, or simply being unaccustomed to specific movement patterns, or too much intensity or frequency of workouts in general.
So for example, you might be in great shape, but if you haven't been doing a Nordic hamstring curl, and then you do, you're gonna be super sore.
Number two: too much time under tension in the eccentric loading phase of exercises. I'll talk about this more in a moment to define it, but this could mean that you're doing too many reps of exercises that are eccentric-dominant or too many eccentric-dominant moves in general, in any one given workout.
And then the third thing—which I'm not gonna talk a lot about today—is improper nutrition around workouts. And that's probably an episode in and of itself, so I'm not going to talk about it today. But if you listen to this whole episode and find it doesn't apply to you, but you're chronically sore, it's often a nutrition conversation.
Holly Perkins 02:53
A lot of times, women will come to me and they're doing everything right, and when I go through my checklist of questions, it's like, oh, they're doing okay, but they're always sore because they're doing fasted workouts or because they're not eating the right combination of protein and carbohydrates before, during, or after their workout.
So stay tuned on that—I'll do a whole other podcast episode.
In this episode, you're going to learn:
I believe that strength training should build you up, not break you down. It should make you feel amazing afterwards and the next day. When your training is smart, strategic, and inflammation-aware, you become unstoppable—strong, lean, resilient, and energetic for life.
Wouldn't it be amazing to actually end the day with more energy than you know what to do with? So few women experience that, and I get it maybe once a week. Now, I'd like to have it every single day, but it's really fun when at the end of the day, you have a lot of energy and you need to get some extra steps in, or do some gentle stretching or yoga just to get energy out.
Holly Perkins 04:36
Guess what? That's actually an option. When you get the right mix of movement patterns, weekly programming, and nutrition, you'll feel worked after your workouts—but in a way that says, I'm a powerhouse instead of I feel wrecked.
And in that situation, you're sore for days or weeks on end—and that is not how it should be.
So let's get into why soreness isn't the goal, and what smarter strength training looks like for women over 40.
When I was in the height of my own personal metabolic meltdown—I had many years of that, by the way, like more years than I even want to admit—but I'm talking 10, 15, maybe even 20 years of metabolic meltdown.
I had the belief during those years that if I wanted to look fit and be fit, that I should push hard—like I see other fit people do.
Holly Perkins 05:41
And by the way, some of those fit people were in media—they weren't even people that I really knew. So I didn't know what they were doing behind the scenes, but I had this idea, this image of what fit people do—and they crush it during their workout.
So if I did that, I would get what they had. If I wanted what they had, I should do what they do. Makes sense, right?
That if so-and-so, let's say, was super fit, and I did the same things that she was doing, I would get there too.
And I'll cut straight to the chase here: that could not be further from the truth.
It took me a long time to figure that out, and I believe that's one of the reasons why I suffered way longer than I needed to.
Super fit people are able to push harder because they've been accustomed to their increasingly advancing workout protocols. Their aggressive, tough, super challenging workouts that they do are the result and the outlet of their fitness.
Holly Perkins 06:51
They're not the actual things they did to get to that level of fitness.
Does that make sense?
So if there's someone you're admiring or watching on social media and they do these crazy tough workouts, and you're like, I'm gonna go try and do that—they didn't do that to get there. They're either doing that to show off or to demonstrate their fitness. High five. That's okay. They've earned it.
But I promise, if you had been with them on the journey, it's not what they did to get there.
I really learned this when I suffered my own bout of what I like to call CrossFit-itis.
I was obsessed with CrossFit for like 10 years—maybe longer. Now, I wasn't able to stay consistent for 10 years because of what I'm going to say next, but I kept hitting my head against the wall, going through phases of being in, followed by phases of being out.
Holly Perkins 07:51
Because I loved everything about CrossFit. I would get into it, and I would go hardcore for a week or 10 days, and then I would hit a wall. I would burn out. It would take me a number of weeks to fully recover enough to go back.
And so I was never consistent, which is part of the problem.
But this conversation could really go off on a tangent, and I'm gonna try really hard not to.
So let me first go over some disclaimers, which I think are super important.
I am still a huge fan of CrossFit—conceptually. In another life, I am a CrossFit competitor. I love it. I love them. I think it's so amazing. I think it's an incredible sport.
Holly Perkins 08:36
I think the concept and the principles are brilliant.
Now, that all being said, there are some very serious problems with it—with the community, with the protocols, and the culture.
And I am not here to bash it. I'm not here to debate it either. And I'm not here to talk about CrossFit as a brand, but it's what people can recognize. It calls to mind a type of workout that I'm talking about today.
More specifically, I am here to talk about high-intensity, aggressive, metabolic-type workouts. And even more specifically, as those pertain to women over 40.
Keep in mind this extends to any kind of a boot camp–type class that you might see at your local gym or even online.
Deal? Does that make sense? Awesome. Let's move on.
Holly Perkins 09:32
During the years that I had the bug, I was chronically sore. Chronically tired. Beyond tired—I was chronically exhausted. I was chronically craving carbohydrates.
And sadly, I was chronically average.
My body fat was higher, and I didn't look super fit—even though that was the goal.
I never got stronger, and I felt like I was simply in this state of like purgatory, where—while I loved these abusive workouts so much, I loved them—they didn’t bring any benefits other than just simply feeling the accomplishment.
I loved when I walked away from a grueling workout that crushed me. I loved that sense of accomplishment.
It was during this time that I really started to uncover the link between muscle soreness, systemic inflammation, and the power of exercise selection.
Holly Perkins 10:36
See, some exercises contribute to muscle soreness more than others. That's what we're talking about today.
And muscle soreness does not indicate the quality of a workout.
In fact, I'll argue that muscle soreness slows your progress if it's not kept in check. A little bit of muscle soreness is fine—but you have to know how to titrate it.
Finally, at some point, I started asking myself:
Why am I on a cycle of on-again, off-again, but never getting anywhere—for years on end?
And what's the point if I don't feel or look more fit?
I wasn't performing any better. I could go in and crush it because I was mentally strong, because I wanted to be there and I loved it. But I wasn't doing it because I was actually getting more fit. I was not performing better.
And clearly something is wrong if I was also sore and never stronger.
Holly Perkins 11:39
So I started asking new questions. And I started looking at it differently.
I knew that muscle soreness is a form of inflammation—and in this case, it wasn't working in my favor.
So I said, I wonder what would happen if I started titrating my muscle soreness by adjusting my frequency, intensity, and exercise selection.
And wouldn't you know it—my body started changing overnight, before my eyes—literally.
And thus began an era of less is more. And it is no surprise to tell you that that era began at the age of 40.
So let's get into this a bit more so that you can apply these concepts if you are always sore and never succeeding—or if any of this feels relevant to you.
And certainly if you're struggling with any kind of autoimmune disorder or symptoms.
Holly Perkins 12:48
So let's talk about muscle soreness in general—because it isn't the sign of a good workout. It's a sign of microscopic damage to the muscle tissue.
Science lesson incoming! You can fast-forward if you don't like this stuff, but I will tell you: it's fascinating and it will change the game for you.
While some degree of quote-unquote damage is necessary for muscular remodeling, chronic and/or uncomfortable soreness is not.
That type of soreness where you cannot sit down and you're moaning and groaning is not necessary, and it's an indication that something is off in your approach.
A common mistake women make is thinking that they need to be sore in order to have proof that their workout was good—and that is just not true.
In general, muscle soreness is known as DOMS—delayed onset muscle soreness.
Holly Perkins 13:49
This is way overly simplified. I'm sure you've probably heard this term, but it basically means after your workout, the soreness doesn't show up right away.
It usually shows up—I would say—18 to 24 hours later. Sometimes it's 48 hours later.
I will tell you that when your muscle soreness shows up says a lot about what's wrong. There were times in my life where I would be sore 12 hours later. That's very different than when muscle soreness shows up 48 hours later.
Nonetheless, it shows up later—and that's why it's called delayed onset.
Once, there was a time when we thought that it was related to the buildup of lactic acid in the muscle. This is like the 80s and 90s.
And we now know that that's not the case.
Holly Perkins 14:35
Then there was a time when we thought that the pain of muscle soreness was due to microscopic tears in the actual muscle fibers.
And now that's up for discussion as well—because that's not exactly accurate either.
So I did a bunch of research. As always, if you want to geek out, some of the links—some of them—are linked.
I probably had 15 links, and I can't put them all in my show notes, but the good ones are below if you're interested.
A review in The Journal of Applied Physiology (linked in the show notes) goes deep, and it says:
"Although DOMS is also a common symptom of muscle damage, the precise mechanisms responsible for DOMS remain somewhat uncertain.”
Holly Perkins 15:20
“It is commonly believed that microtrauma of myofibers and subsequent inflammation cause DOMs.” End quote. However, some research indicates that's not the case either. So it's likely that DOMs is associated more with inflammation in what's called the extracellular matrix, the ECM. This is a complex of tissues and structures that surround the muscle cell—the muscle fiber—rather than myofiber damage and inflammation in general. It's a little different. Again, I realize that you might snore out on this, but I think it's important to know, and I like to educate you regardless. Inflammation is a piece of the puzzle here, and this is why you feel swollen when you're sore, and this is why you may notice—take notes—the bathroom scale goes up when you're sore.
Holly Perkins 16:20
That's because of the inflammation that's coming into the muscles to heal it. Ultimately, muscle soreness is damage—damage in quotes—and it's a sign that you either just did too much or you just did something totally new. In a minute, I'll talk about specific exercises that actually cause muscle soreness, because not all movements are to blame. The thing to understand is that, however you slice it, some degree of damage, trauma, and stress to the muscle is necessary, and that damage causes inflammation. This is an important and essential part of improving muscle function.
Holly Perkins 17:08
At one point, we thought all inflammation was bad. It's not. Inflammation is a necessary part of the process in order to improve muscle quality, muscle density, muscle volume, muscle mass, strength—all of these things. Inflammation is not a problem unless there's too much of it, it becomes too chronic, or if you have other inflammation-related disorders. Now, for women over 40, this becomes a more delicate and nuanced conversation because, as I just said, you do need some degree of inflammation, but it's also important to keep a close eye on it.
Holly Perkins 17:50
See, each day that you're walking around, you've got a different level of inflammation going on in your body from life in general—even if you're not working out, even if you don't have an autoimmune condition. We all have different levels of inflammation that come from environmental toxins, food intolerances, illness, stress, emotional stress, environmental stress. Right now on the East Coast, we're going through a heat wave—that causes stress to your body, and on some level, it impacts your levels of silent inflammation. Some days your inflammation is higher, and some days it's lower. There was actually a really interesting study—I don't know if I linked it, I may have, you can dig through it if you want.
Holly Perkins 18:39
That actually called out synovial joints as the barometer of systemic inflammation. It was really wild. I think they actually called it like the barometer of inflammation. So for example—let's say if you haven't experienced this, you probably know someone who has—if you're prone to joint discomfort or if you have arthritis, let's say like in your hips or knees, a flare-up of pain can indicate higher systemic inflammation in your body. This is also one reason why some people with arthritis say their joints hurt them when the barometric pressure is up and a storm is coming in. It's all related in some wild but also measurable way. So for me, this happens when I eat something that I shouldn't be eating—which, yes, I do—and it triggers my autoimmunity. I see this with alcohol and gluten, because these are things I do have once or twice a week.
Holly Perkins 19:42
Right now. There will be a day when I don't touch it, but right now, I have it, and a few hours later, after I've ingested something that I shouldn't be eating, very specific joints in my hands hurt. So it's the joints at my thumbs and my index finger, and it's like—a few hours later—I feel it. Anyway, I digress. The point is that inflammation goes up and down all the time, day to day, throughout the day, and when it gets high enough, you may end up with an issue. Because of this, women who struggle with autoimmune issues really want to avoid workouts that cause excessive soreness, because you're already susceptible and you're busy managing the inflammation related to your condition. In this case, managing the nature of your workouts is everything. It's extra important so that you stay on the straight and narrow, so that you are consistent and you can keep any symptoms in check.
Holly Perkins 20:50
This is exactly why I created my Strength Without Stress four-week strength training program—because I needed a specific protocol to use any time I needed to keep inflammation and muscle soreness down. I go through flare-ups, so for me, muscle soreness really zaps me in a big way. And it's not just like an annoyance—it makes me feel terrible. It truly impacts my overall system. It's not just a nuisance. It impacts my mood, my mental outlook, my energy, my appetite, and my mental health. Believe it or not, if I am really sore and it's a sunny day out, you would think there was a storm coming in. It's like the dark clouds move in—if you know what I mean. Listeners of this podcast know that I have a tendency to struggle with depression, and when I am wicked sore and my inflammation is up, I get all of those symptoms of depression. Once I learned that I can push myself harder with some exercises and feel great the next day, while other exercises wreck me—and I have to be judicious with those—
Holly Perkins 22:08
I started collecting all the exercises that don't lead to soreness, that don't make me feel terrible, so that I could see progress while feeling awesome without flare-ups. And this system became Strength Without Stress. It's a collection of exercises that are concentric-based, where maximal load is when the muscle is in a shortened position, allowing you to lift more without soreness. It's really brilliant, I must say, and I don't take enough time to talk about it. That's why I wanted to weave it into this episode. And yes, I will also make sure you know how you can get your hands on Strength Without Stress for free. It's a program that I will be selling in the future, but right now, you could get it for free if you want it. Longer, harder workouts don't lead to results. Smarter workouts do. So up next, I'm going to cover what that means and review the exercises that actually cause soreness so that you can budget them accordingly.
Holly Perkins 23:15
And if you'd like to try out my methodology and get Strength Without Stress for free for a limited time, let me tell you how. So after 40, longer, harder, or more extra workouts in general usually don't lead to better results like they did when you were younger. I have a lot of episodes that dive deep into why this is, but the short answer is that after the age of about 35 or so, your estrogen begins to fluctuate and decline. As it does that, inflammation rises in general because estrogen is protective and anti-inflammatory. Less estrogen in your body means less anti-inflammatory help, which equals chronic silent inflammation increasing. And inflammation is the root of all evil. Make sure that you listen to my other episodes on this. Inflammation destabilizes glucoregulatory control. Inflammation is linked with cortisol.
Holly Perkins 24:31
Cortisol is linked with an increase in belly fat. Inflammation and cortisol are linked with mood disorders, appetite, and hunger. Inflammation is linked with every single life-threatening disease state and all of the chronic diseases that we are trying to avoid, like diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, more, harder effort often leads to more inflammation in general. So it all backfires. So what do smarter workouts actually look like? Number one: they are lower intensity, but they're still challenging on a global scale.
Holly Perkins 25:20
So instead of your entire workout being brutal—like my CrossFit days—your individual reps and sets should be near brutal. Ultimately, this turns any workout into manageable interval training, and that yields really great results. So instead of a tough workout, it becomes: Whew! Those last two reps of that set really challenged me. That's a nuanced difference, but it's everything. Smarter workouts are also fewer in number each week, but intense little doses of high-quality stuff. Instead of doing a variety of different, random workouts that just crush you each week, it's really about mapping out different modalities that are needed to improve the different components of fitness, like muscular strength, or muscular endurance, or cardiovascular fitness.
Holly Perkins 26:32
My simplest formula is three to four strength workouts each week, focusing on split training so that muscle groups or movement patterns get the right volume each week. Three to four true intentional cardio sessions each week that are heart rate-based for steady state and moderate interval training. And then lastly, other activities that promote NEAT—non-exercise activity time—or recovery, or just pleasure in general. Maybe you love a Zumba class. Maybe you love a recovery class at your gym.
Holly Perkins 27:07
This could be walking to get steps in each day. It could be stretching. It could be gentle or even active yoga. When it comes to strength training exercise selection, there are two very broad, very general categories of movements: those that emphasize concentric contractions and those that emphasize eccentric contractions. I'll explain this in a moment. Emphasis is determined by the time spent under tension and if the targeted muscle is in a lengthened or stretched or shortened position. This, my friend, is the method to my magic. I'm giving it all away.
Holly Perkins 27:56
And once I started masterminding my workouts so that I didn't get too many eccentric exercises—where the muscle is in a lengthened position at maximal load and force—everything changed. Now, the whole essence of strength training is that you have to challenge your muscle beyond its current ability, and that means creating this low level of stress or damage during every workout. And damage is also subjective. During my CrossFit days, I was damaging my muscles so severely each workout—feel my drift—that it would take, like, four to five, sometimes more, days to fully recover. And that is the type of damage that gets more and more problematic as you get older.
Holly Perkins 28:56
Then there are times when the exercise or load isn't that hard, and so, therefore, it's not creating enough damage to produce results. When we talk about damage, we're talking on a microscopic level, but there are varying degrees. This is what is key to get right. It's all about finding the perfect amount of stress in a workout. If you were to combine five or six exercises that are eccentric-dominant—and that means maximal force happens when the muscle's in a lengthened or stretched position—you will create way more stimulus and stress, leading to way more soreness than if you were to combine five or six concentric exercises with just one or two of those soreness-causing eccentric exercises.
Holly Perkins 29:54
So in case concentric and eccentric is new terminology for you—understood if it is—if you're like, "What is she saying?" you're welcome here. A lot of people don't totally understand this, and some people do. I have listeners to my podcast where they're learning from me, and I've got listeners on my podcast that are highly educated. So let me explain. A concentric contraction is when a muscle shortens as it produces force. It shortens to overcome the weight load to cause movement. A great example of this is a bicep curl. It's hardest when you are pulling the dumbbell up to your shoulder, right? And as you do that, the biceps muscles are shortening—provided you have enough strength to move that weight load.
Holly Perkins 30:50
So if you're using a five-pound dumbbell and you're strong enough to cause movement, the bicep muscles are shortening. Now, if you pick up a 100-pound dumbbell and you can't cause movement, then there is no contraction—well, there is a contraction happening, it's an isometric contraction—but there's not a change of the angle at the joint. In this case, it's the elbow joint. Okay? This type of exercise does not cause soreness in general. We don't live in a perfect world or in a vacuum. If you're brand new to bicep dumbbell curls, you might get sore because you're unaccustomed to that exercise.
Holly Perkins 31:31
But in general, concentric contractions don't cause soreness. An eccentric contraction is the opposite. It's when the muscle is lengthening as it produces force. And these are the special exercises that cause soreness. A great example here is a squat, where you're lowering down to the ground and you're resisting the load that you're holding, and then you're returning to a standing position. A Bulgarian split squat is a great example, and that one causes a lot of soreness—as does my beloved bestie, walking lunges. If you haven't been doing walking lunges, and you do a set of bodyweight walking lunges, you're going to be wicked sore. When you start to add load to that—
Holly Perkins 32:24
Those are the exercises that really tend to cause soreness. These are also some of the very best exercises that you can do, so it is important to be judicious with them and include some of them. But before I figured all of this out, I knew those were, like, the Mac Daddy most important exercises. So I would do all of them all the time in all my workouts, as heavy as I could, and I was usually sore or struggling to recover.
Holly Perkins 32:57
So the exercises that are eccentric-dominant and therefore more taxing to the muscle—and therefore tend to cause soreness—are barbell back squats, lunges of any kind, Bulgarian split squats, Romanian deadlift, Good Mornings (although I don't think many people should be doing Good Mornings unless you're super fit), bench press or a bicep chest press, chest fly, overhead tricep extension, supine hamstring curl (that's the hamstring curl where you're laying face down on a machine), and—drum roll—push-ups. P.S., I'm gonna say it because push-ups are having their moment right now—their 15 minutes of fame—and I hope it's only 15 minutes. I am not a fan of push-ups. I do not love them. I'll outright say I think they are dumb, and you will never see them in one of my programs unless something changes.
Holly Perkins 33:58
Push-ups are way harder than they seem, and they are incredibly taxing to the shoulder joint. I cannot tell you how many clients I've had over the years—myself included—get a tear or an injury at the shoulder because of push-ups. So push-ups are in this list, and I hope we never talk about them again. Let's leave it at that. When I created my Strength Without Stress program, I put all of my favorite concentric exercises together with just the bare minimum eccentric exercises. I remember the day I had this idea. I was on a long road trip from Los Angeles to San Luis Obispo.
Holly Perkins 34:41
It's one of my absolute favorite drives up the California coast. And I had this aha, and I was like, "Oh my gosh—put every concentric exercise I could possibly think of into a workout, and let's see what happens." And what I found is that I would feel awesome after those workouts. I would have zero soreness, so I could recover faster. I increased my weight loads faster. I actually enjoyed my workouts again, and I stopped getting so many inflammation-related symptoms. It was like the most amazing thing I think I've ever created, in all honesty. Oh, and did I mention I was never, ever, ever sore?
Holly Perkins 35:34
And guess what? I got way better results. The mistake I see so many women making is doing way too much in general—way too much intensity, way too much work that is cardio-based, and way too many of these eccentric-type exercises that cause soreness—and also just chasing soreness in general. Rather than pushing yourself in a spin class, push yourself on a hard set of seated leg curls. Rather than crushing it during your boot camp class, find a weight load that causes you a "coming to Jesus" moment during a lat pulldown. Rather than sprinting until you want to die, dig deep and ask yourself what you're made of during a heavy hip thrust. I promise you, you will get better results without soreness, and you will actually love your muscles, your physique, and your workouts.
Holly Perkins 36:41
And that, my friend, is exactly why soreness is not the goal. So what is the goal then? Finding the perfect collection of exercises and programming in a given week where you can actually increase your weight loads consistently over time, so that you experience intense moments during a set. Your workout is in the reps, not in the exercise class overall. You may be tempted to think that soreness equals success, but what would it be like if your workouts left you energized and not exhausted? I hope you enjoyed this episode, and if you want access to my four-week Strength Without Stress program for free for a limited time, be sure to rate and review this episode now.
Holly Perkins 37:34
Just post your review, grab a screenshot wherever you are listening, and then send it to me at hollyperkins.com/review. You'll get immediate access to my program, Strength Without Stress, for free. And if you are not sure where you're listening to my podcast or where you could actually post a review, you can come over to my website, hollyperkins.com. Go to the tab that says "Podcast," pick any episode—it'll take you to the episode recording page on my website. Scroll to the bottom, post your review there, grab a screenshot, send it to me at hollyperkins.com/review, and I'm going to change your life. Stay tuned for another brand-new episode on Tuesday of next week. Stay strong, my friend.