Muscle Soreness and Muscle Growth (“BROSCIENCE” REVEALED!)

Summary

In this video, Jeff Cavaliere from ATHLEANX.com discusses the role of muscle soreness in muscle growth. He refutes the idea that soreness is unnecessary, explaining that it is one of three key pathways to building muscle: muscle mechanical damage, progressive overload, and metabolic stress. He emphasizes the importance of incorporating all these methods for effective muscle development.

Takeaways

• 👍 If you want to build muscle, muscle soreness could be one of the major ways to achieve it, contrary to some beliefs that it's not necessary.
• 💪 There are three main pathways to muscle growth: muscle mechanical damage, progressive overload, and metabolic stress.
• 🏋️ Eccentric overload, which can cause muscle soreness, is a way to create damage that the muscle must repair by growing back bigger and stronger.
• 📊 Progressive overload can be achieved by increasing either tension (adding weight) or volume (doing more reps or sets), but it's not sustainable indefinitely.
• ⚠️ Overuse injuries can occur from too much volume, so it's important not to rely solely on this method for muscle growth.
• 🔥 Metabolic stress involves training through the burn caused by the accumulation of metabolites like hydrogen ions and lactate, which can lead to hypertrophy with lighter loads.
• 🕊️ Occlusion training is a method that uses light loads to create a 'pump', increasing metabolites in the muscle and promoting growth.
• 🦾 Continuous tension exercises, like spider curls, focus on maintaining tension in the contracted position of the muscle to stimulate growth.
• 🔄 It's important to mix all three mechanisms of muscle growth in your training to avoid plateaus and ensure comprehensive development.
• 🚀 A touch-up set, where you do a couple of reps with a weight close to your 5-rep max before a regular set, can awaken the muscles and increase strength temporarily.
• 🔍 The video emphasizes that while muscle soreness is not a prerequisite for growth, it is one of the effective methods and should not be dismissed as irrelevant.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video?

The main topic of the video is discussing the role of muscle soreness in muscle growth and debunking the idea that muscle soreness is not necessary for muscle growth.

What are the three ways the body creates muscle growth according to the video?

The three ways the body creates muscle growth are: 1) muscle mechanical damage through eccentric overload, 2) progressive overload using tension or volume, and 3) metabolic stress from training byproducts.

What is meant by 'eccentric overload' in the context of muscle growth?

Eccentric overload refers to the process of creating damage to the muscle or the connective tissue around the muscle, typically through the lowering phase of an exercise, which leads to muscle growth as it heals and rebuilds stronger.

How does progressive overload using tension contribute to muscle growth?

Progressive overload using tension involves adding more weight to the bar during training, which makes the muscles work harder and helps them get stronger and larger over time.

What is the potential problem with relying solely on progressive overload using tension?

The potential problem with relying solely on progressive overload using tension is that you can't keep adding weight indefinitely. Eventually, this pathway will dry up, and you may need to incorporate other methods like volume or metabolic stress.

What are the risks associated with increasing training volume?

Increasing training volume can lead to overuse injuries such as tendonitis and chronic pain in joints like shoulders, elbows, and knees, due to the accumulation of stress over time.

How does metabolic stress contribute to muscle hypertrophy?

Metabolic stress contributes to muscle hypertrophy by creating a buildup of byproducts like hydrogen ions and lactate during training. Training through this discomfort can lead to muscle growth even with lighter loads.

What is occlusion training and how does it relate to metabolic stress?

Occlusion training is a method that relies on very light loads and restricts blood flow to the muscle, increasing the accumulation of metabolites and creating a 'pump'. This method is related to metabolic stress as it also leads to muscle growth through the accumulation of training byproducts.

What is the importance of including mechanical damage via eccentric overloads in muscle growth training?

Including mechanical damage via eccentric overloads is important because it is one of the easiest ways to stimulate muscle growth. It involves controlling the lowering phase of an exercise, applying high tension as the muscle stretches, which can lead to muscle growth.

What is the danger of relying solely on eccentric overload for muscle growth?

The danger of relying solely on eccentric overload is that it can lead to excessive muscle soreness, which may debilitate you and make it difficult to train frequently, thus hindering your overall progress.

What does the video suggest about the necessity of muscle soreness in muscle growth?

The video suggests that while muscle soreness is not a prerequisite for muscle growth, it is one of the three mechanisms that can contribute to muscle growth. It is associated with muscle damage via eccentric overload and should be part of a balanced training program.

Outlines

00:00

💪 Muscle Soreness and Growth: Debunking Broscience

In this paragraph, Jeff Cavaliere from ATHLEANX.com discusses the common misconception that muscle soreness is not necessary for muscle growth. He argues that while it's not a prerequisite, muscle soreness can be a significant factor in building muscle. Jeff explains that muscle growth can occur through three pathways: muscle mechanical damage (via eccentric overload), progressive overload (using tension or volume), and metabolic stress. He emphasizes the importance of incorporating all three methods into a training regimen, rather than relying solely on one. Jeff also warns against the potential dangers of overuse injuries from excessive volume and the need for a balanced approach to training.

05:02

🏋️‍♂️ Training Techniques for Optimal Muscle Growth

Jeff continues the discussion on muscle growth by delving into specific training techniques. He highlights the importance of continuous tension, occlusion training, and the use of contracted position exercises to increase metabolic stress and promote muscle growth. Jeff explains that these methods can lead to muscle hypertrophy even with lighter loads, but they require a high level of discomfort tolerance. He also touches on the potential problems of relying too heavily on volume or tension, such as overuse injuries. Jeff concludes by emphasizing the need for a comprehensive training program that includes all three pathways of muscle growth: mechanical damage, progressive overload, and metabolic stress. He invites viewers to explore ATHLEANX.com for programs that incorporate these principles.

Keywords

💡Broscience

Broscience refers to fitness-related advice or beliefs that are not based on scientific evidence but are widely accepted or propagated within the bodybuilding community. In the video, Jeff Cavaliere challenges the common broscience notion that muscle soreness is not necessary for muscle growth, arguing that it is, in fact, one of the ways to build muscle.

💡Muscle Soreness

Muscle soreness, also known as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), is a common symptom experienced after intense physical activity, particularly when the body is subjected to unfamiliar movements or high levels of strain. The video discusses how muscle soreness can be a sign of muscle damage and a potential pathway to muscle growth, contrary to the belief that it is not required.

💡Eccentric Overload

Eccentric overload is a training technique where the muscle is subjected to a heavier load during the eccentric (lengthening) phase of an exercise compared to the concentric (shortening) phase. It is mentioned in the video as a method to create muscle damage, which can lead to muscle growth and is associated with the experience of muscle soreness.

💡Progressive Overload

Progressive overload is a fundamental principle of strength training that involves gradually increasing the stress placed upon the body during exercise to cause continuous adaptation and improvement. The script explains that progressive overload can be achieved through increasing tension or volume, which can lead to muscle growth without necessarily causing soreness.

💡Tension

In the context of strength training, tension refers to the force exerted by the muscles during an exercise. The video script uses the term to describe how adding weight to the bar increases the tension, thereby making the muscles work harder and potentially leading to increased strength and size.

💡Volume

Volume in strength training is typically measured by the total number of sets and repetitions performed for a particular exercise. The script discusses how increasing volume can be a method of progressive overload but also warns of the potential for overuse injuries due to excessive volume.

💡Metabolic Stress

Metabolic stress refers to the physiological stress placed on the muscles due to the accumulation of metabolic byproducts such as lactate and hydrogen ions during high-intensity exercise. The video explains that training through this metabolic stress can lead to muscle hypertrophy even with lighter loads.

💡Occlusion Training

Occlusion training is a technique that involves restricting blood flow to a working muscle group, typically by using a tourniquet, to enhance the metabolic stress and 'pump' during exercise. The script mentions this as a method that relies on metabolic stress for muscle growth.

💡Continuous Tension

Continuous tension is a training approach where a muscle is kept under constant tension throughout an exercise, often by performing movements in a contracted position. The video script suggests that this method can be effective for muscle growth, though it requires training through discomfort.

💡Touch Up Set

A touch-up set is a technique where a lifter performs a few reps at a weight heavier than their intended working weight before starting their regular set. In the script, Jeff Cavaliere suggests using a touch-up set to awaken the neurological system and increase the perceived ability to lift heavier weights.

💡Eccentric

Eccentric in exercise refers to the phase of a movement where a muscle lengthens under tension, such as lowering a weight in a bicep curl. The script emphasizes the importance of controlling the eccentric phase to apply high levels of tension and induce muscle damage, which is crucial for growth.

Highlights

Muscle soreness is not a requirement for muscle growth, but it can be one of the major ways to achieve it.

Three ways to create muscle growth: muscle soreness, progressive overload, and metabolic stress.

Muscle mechanical damage through eccentric overload can lead to muscle growth.

Progressive overload can be achieved by increasing tension or volume in training.

Adding weight to the bar can help increase muscle strength and size, but has limitations.

Increased volume can lead to overuse injuries and is not always a good thing.

Metabolic stress from training byproducts like hydrogen ions and lactate can lead to muscle hypertrophy.

Occlusion training uses light loads to create a pump and increase metabolites for muscle growth.

Continuous tension or contracted position exercises can help resist the burn and promote muscle growth.

Muscle soreness is not a prerequisite for muscle growth, but it is associated with muscle damage and can be beneficial.

Eccentric overloads are one of the easiest ways to induce muscle damage and growth.

Controlling the eccentric phase of lifts is crucial for effective muscle damage.

Muscle soreness can be a sign of effective training, but relying solely on it can lead to debilitation.

A balanced approach combining all three mechanisms (soreness, overload, metabolic stress) is necessary for optimal muscle growth.

A touch-up set can help neurologically awaken muscles for a stronger lift.

All three mechanisms (tension, volume, metabolic stress) need to be part of a comprehensive training program.

ATHLEANX.com offers programs based on training science principles to help achieve muscle growth.

Transcripts

JEFF: If you found the video helpful, make sure to leave your comments and thumbs up

below and also let me know what you want to see in a future video and I'll do my best

to cover it for you.

All right, guys.

I'll see you soon.

JESSIE: Cut.

JEFF: Jessie, come get me out of this shit.

Oh my God.

JESSIE: Hold on.

JEFF: Oh, there you go.

I don’t know how the other fitness guys do this shit.

JESSIE: I don’t know.

JEFF: What's up, guys?

Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.com.

Today I want to talk to you about – oh, screw it.

Hit the arms.

Let them be free.

However you want to hold them.

Guys, the fact of the matter is, today we're talking about Broscience.

More Broscience.

And today the Broscience may not be what you think it is because a lot of guys that follow

the science of training will say – these days – that muscle soreness is not a requirement

for muscle growth.

In fact, muscle soreness has nothing to do with muscle growth.

That's where they took it too far because that's not true.

That is Broscience.

The fact of the matter is, if you want to build muscle, muscle soreness could be one

of the major ways that you're going to do it.

As a matter of fact, it may be one of the easiest ways for you to do it.

So here's what we're going to do: we're going to cover the three ways that your body tends

to create muscle growth.

One of them is related to muscle soreness.

Two of them don’t necessarily have to have it.

That's where the whole saying comes from in the first place.

That "Oh, you don’t need it.

It's not a requirement for that".

But it eventually becomes necessary because these other two pathways might dry up for

you.

So what we talk about is this third pathway, if we jump all the way down to the bottom,

muscle mechanical damage.

We're talking about eccentric overload.

Literally creating damage to the muscle, or as some research will say these days, to the

connective tissue around the muscle.

It depends on what you believe is the actual mechanism of damage.

But we all agree that it's some level of damage occurring to that area of the muscle that

you train.

It has to grow back bigger and stronger, we do that through eccentric overload.

That is what causes this delayed onset muscle soreness that we're familiar with, that we

say "Oh, this is what I need to build muscle", and this is where, now, people are saying

you don’t need it.

Well, they're saying you don’t need it because you've got two other mechanisms that actually

lead to growth that don’t have the associated soreness with it.

The first one is a progressive overload using either tension as a driver, or volume as the

driver.

So what are we talking about here?

The tension is literally adding weight to the bar every time you train.

So every time you train if you can continue to add tension, add more weight to the bar,

which makes the muscles that you have working here, work harder; it helps them to get stronger.

We know we can increase the size of your muscles as you're strength increases, as will your

size over time.

However, there's a major problem with that.

We can't keep doing that forever.

We can't keep adding weight to the bar.

It's easier when you're just starting out and you're training, but ultimately that pathway

will dry up.

You want to always try to do that.

you always want to continue to lift heavy when you can in your training sessions, but

you want to make sure that you don’t rely on this as your only mechanism because when

you can't add more tension then the next thing you might try is volume.

You might say "All right, if I'm not going to be able to add more weight to the bar I

can do more of what I'm doing."

As we do that we start to see that, maybe, isn't necessarily the best way either.

I know a lot of people like to rely on this as their main mechanism these days.

This is the preferred means of getting bigger, and stronger.

However, as a physical therapist I have to look at it from another side.

I have to look at it from the standpoint of: increased volume is not necessarily always

a good thing.

The number one problem with people that are lifting these days is overuse injuries.

I'm not talking about injuries like "I got hurt, I snapped my pec tendon, or I tore a

patellar tendon".

That's not what it is.

It's that really low-key, over time "My God.

My shoulder's starting to hurt a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more.

My elbow is starting to hurt.

I have tendonitis in the outside of my elbow here.

I have tendonitis of my knee."

All of those things are coming because we're accruing volume and volume creates overload.

But volume will also create overuse.

If you keep relying on this – especially if you're not using spot on, dead on, nails

perfect form – that will start to rear its ugly head a lot faster.

If we go the metabolic way here, the metabolic way is actually when we create the byproducts

of training.

So we have metabolites that are produced.

We have hydrogen ions.

We have lactate.

All this stuff is being produced as we accrue higher, and higher volume.

We can use a lot lower loads here and we can still get this intense burning in the muscles,

and if we continue to train through that, and train through that pain, and train through

that burn it's been shown that you can actually create muscle hypertrophy using a lot lighter

loads.

That's actually very encouraging for a lot of people because they don’t need to rely

on this all the time.

But this is very difficult training.

Not a lot of people have the fortitude to try to put up with this discomfort when they're

training.

The metabolic stress.

This is also, ironically, one of the newer ways that people always ask about in training.

Occlusion training.

Occlusion training relies on this.

Very light loads, create and occlusion in the muscle, don’t let it breathe, more or

less, continue to allow the accumulation of that pump, and don’t let it go.

That increases the metabolites that are being collected in the working muscle, and again,

it starts this cascade of events that will ultimately lead to muscle growth.

So continuous tension, or the use of contracted position exercises.

So you can take an exercise like a spider curl that trains you in this contracted position,

the most tension, peak tension occurs at the contracted position of the biceps.

I can crank away in that range using lighter loads, increase this, but like I said, you'd

better be prepared to really resist that burn, and train through it if you want to get the

benefits of this.

So now, let's go back to – you don’t need pain, you don’t need soreness to create

muscle growth.

You might need it.

If you dry up here, you might go to volume.

If this starts to cause a problem, potentially, in just the way you feel in breaking down

other areas that make training even more difficult for you – I've seen it a million times.

This can become a problem.

If you go here, this might already become a problem for this.

But if you try this and maybe you don’t even have the ability to do this, or string

together multiple workouts like this, or you're consistently using too light a weight because

this is the only mechanism you're using, you're not dipping into this; where do you go from

there?

Where you go is, you have to start including some mechanical damage via eccentric overloads.

We can do that, and the reason why this is one of the best ways is because It's one of

the easiest things to do.

You don’t have to have this.

You just have to slow down the weight that you're lifting here.

Control it.

Eccentrically allow it to start applying this high level of tension as your muscle is stretching

and elongating.

You can feel the effects of what this is doing to the muscle as you're doing every rep.

So now, what is the danger to this?

The danger is you would never rely on this on its own because if you continue to do this,

and you produce your delayed onset muscle soreness that leaves you debilitated, and

unable to come back and train, then where are you left?

Then you're not able to train as frequently because you feel as if you're too sore.

So when you look at the whole picture here it's wrong to say that muscle soreness is

not a way to build muscle.

That's wrong.

It's not true.

It's one of the three ways that builds muscle.

Muscle soreness is not a prerequisite for muscle growth.

That's right because you can have other pathways, but ultimately you're never going to get away

from the fact that the muscle soreness is a path, one associated with damage via eccentric

overload, that's going to be part of the equation for you.

So the bottom line is, all three of these mechanisms need to be part of your equation.

You need to figure out how you're going to start training heavy.

I can tell you a quick way to even test this with a touch up set.

You can essentially feel how neurologically you can already lift more than you think you

can right now.

Do a touch up set.

If you're going to do a six to eight rep set, take your five rep max, do two reps of it.

Now go do your six to eight rep set after you've recovered for a couple minutes.

You'll instantly feel stronger.

You've turned on the neurological awakening of your muscle that will allow you to lift

more easily.

Lift that heavier weight more easily.

But again, even neurological gains; those end, too.

So for all these reasons, you have to mix them all up.

But don’t say that 'muscle soreness has no effect on your ability to grow muscle'.

That's just not true.

That's complete, and utter Broscience.

Guys, if you're looking for a program that knows how to mix all these up at the right

time to allow you to benefit from all of them – because you're going to need them all,

like I said.

You're going to have to lift heavy sometime.

You're going to have to increase your volume.

You're going to have to increase your tension.

You're going to have to do metabolic exercises.

You're going to have to use continuous tension.

You're going to have to know within the range of the exercises when you're going to work

the contracted position, when you're going to work the stretched position, when you're

going to work the mid-range.

You're going to have to have mechanical damage and overload.

You're going to have to have a respect for lowering your eccentrics slowly, and in control.

All this matters.

All of this stuff, at the end of the day, it's all part of the big picture.

I have a whole program over at ATHLEANX.com.

In fact, all of our programs are based on the principles of training science that works.

You can find the one that's right for you over at ATHLEANX.com right now.

Click on the link below this video.

Use our program selector to help you do that.

In the meantime, if you've found this video helpful make sure you leave your comments

and thumbs up below.

We'll cover more Broscience in the future.

Let me know what other things you'd like to see us cover.

Give me some ideas.

I'll be happy to go over them for you.

All right, guys.

See you soon.