Health and Your Life

In my experience, there are two distinct types of muscular fatigue associated with intense progressive resistance training (only intense training is sufficient to trigger muscle hypertrophy) and it is important that they be recognized and understood. The first type of fatigue is direct muscle soreness, and is the result of a particular exercise targeting a specific muscle. Scientists are at odds as to the exact cause of muscle soreness, but most believe it is associated with some sort of cellular micro-trauma. Direct muscle soreness is usually the type of pain and discomfort most folks experience when they begin serious progressive resistance training program.

There are varying degrees of muscle soreness. Sometimes the intensity of soreness can become so severe as to be debilitating. The muscles are actually sore to the touch. I have self-induced this type of soreness to every degree on every muscle - once, as a 14-year old novice, I found a 10-pound solid dumbbell and proceeded to do 50-repetitions in the one-arm curl for each arm every hour on the hour for 10-straight hours. It seemed like a cool idea to my young and dumb mind, but that went out the window the next day when both arms locked to such a degree that I could not straighten my them. Both biceps were so traumatized that they remained involuntarily contracted for the next 36-hours. My hands were held at my face and any attempt to straighten my arms resulted in excruciating pain. I had to ride it out until the biceps relaxed. This was an extreme example of muscle fatigue, but extremely illustrative.

The second type of muscular fatigue is what I would describe as overall fatigue, I call it body shock. The body is a holistic unit and intense training done for long time periods has a cumulative effect. After a while, a uniform sense of overall fatigue is experienced, manifested by an overwhelming sensation of tiredness. This tiredness envelops the whole body. When in the throes of body shock, it seems as if you are moving through water. In my experience, this type of fatigue is a cumulative direct result of intense workouts. Fatigue and soreness come with weight training, and if you never experience either version, likely you'll not make any significant physical progress.

Responding to Muscle Fatique

In my experience, if I don't feel some degree of muscle soreness in the target muscle after a workout, I suspect I didn't work hard enough or the exercise was technically deficient and spread the muscular effect over too wide an area. In this respect I use controlled soreness (not too much, not too little) as a workout report card. When it comes to body-shock fatigue, a more serious type of fatigue, I cut back on my training and kick up my calories, particularly my protein intake. The body needs to recover before resuming training, so follow basic sport nutrition rules. Watch your nutritional intake, quality of calories, and add a nutritional supplement if needed.

When body-shock interferes with training it is a set back : first, training poundage plummets (so what's the point?) and secondly there is a very real danger of fatigue-induced injury.

Recovering from Muscle Fatigue

If you experience severe muscular soreness of the 1st type, avoid training that muscle group until the discomfort reaches tolerable levels. If body-shock envelops you, though, stop progressive resistance training, and kick up the food intake. Add a nutritional supplement as needed to fuel the body's recovery. I have found that light to moderate cardio actually helps dissipate muscle soreness. Accelerating circulation within a sore muscle stimulates recovery, assuming the resistance used is light and not taxing.

Use common sense to recover from muscle fatigue and minimize the impact on your weight training program.