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No I’m not on about anything dirty here.

What I’m on about is a thing called

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness,

Aka DOMS.

you what?

Basically when you do a strength training session,

isolating certain muscle groups,

& taking them through a full range of motion,

against resistance (weight)

muscle breakdown occurs.

Basically what happens is the small fibres within the muscle,

shorten when contracting & the stretch when lengthening.

So if you imagine a bicep curl,

on the curl upwards toward the shoulder,

the muscle fibres shorten.

Then on on the lowering phase towards the hip,

the muscle fibres lengthen.

This process is repeated for every rep you do.

But as your doing this while holding a dumbbell (against resistance)

the fibres can fatigue & actually break down,

causing minuscule tears.

Then what can happen is over the next day or 2,

those muscle fibres can be a bit tender while they are heeling.

The classic example is the quad muscles,

after doing squats for the first time.

That’s where the John Wayne shuffle can kick in,

If you’ve squatted before, you’ll know exactly what I’m on about ; )

I find the second day is always the worst.

For those of you that haven’t strength trained before

this might sound a little bit insane,

well border line self harm actually.

But DOMS is actually the BIG reason why strength training

is the absolute KING of training for long term fat loss.

Why?

When these fibres are recovering for the next couple of days,

you’re burning a sh#t tonne of extra calories,

even if you’re just sitting around.

Because those fibres are hungry for food

because they need it to repair.

So rather than food just going to your fat cells

& sitting as stored energy (aka FAT)

It gets burned off helping the damaged fibres to recover.

While going for a run is great exercise both physically & mentally,

you just don’t get the same long term fat burning effect

that strength training gives you.

So you can see how strength just dominates it.

Once you understand this,

you actually enjoy the little bit of stiffness

because you know you’re body is in a state of recovery

so you’re turned into a calorie burning machine.

I’ve clients actually complain when they don’t feel it the next day.

Mad stuff.

But in fairness, proper strength training is

much more that just crushing your muscles to feel sore the next day.

If you don’t program you’re exercises properly,

it won’t be too long before your joints start getting sore.

Usually the shoulders & the knees.

So if you’re thinking about starting strength,

make sure you get someone who know’s what they’re talking about

to show you.

A professional, not just a fat bloke in the office

who used to be a bodybuilder 20 years ago.

Despite his self proclaimed expertise.

If you’re seriously thinking about losing the gut once & for all

You know where I am.

Andrew “get lifting” Lahart