Getting strong without getting sore
Yes, it is possible to improve strength without crippling yourself. By making a few smart programming decisions, you can easily avoid next-day muscle soreness that would otherwise hamper your run, bike, swim, hike, or whatever.
Avoid eccentrics
The eccentric, or lowering phase of a movement is what creates most of the muscular damage. Some good concentric-only exercise choices to avoid this:
- Deadlifts (and then drop the weight)
- Step-ups (come down quickly)
- Sled pushing
- Barbell squat or split squat from the pins (lower quickly, relax between reps).
You can also focus purely on isometric strength. This has the added benefit of opening up a few more exercise options, and allowing you to dial in the specific position/joint angle you’d like to train.
If you’re a beginner, then doing some basic bodyweight isometric strength can be a good start. But at a certain point, you’ll need to overload with some weight. A barbell and rack are helpful here. Practice holds for 15–20 seconds at maximum weight.
Start slow
If you’re getting back into strength work or are introducing new exercises. Start with only a single set for the day. Or keep the load extremely easy. Trust me.
Day one of any program shouldn’t be about “working out.” But rather about learning the exercises and just lightly introducing the body to the movements. Multiple sets on day one guarantee a case of the cripples.
Keep it simple
Muscles get sore when you introduce new movements. Keep things simple. Pick a few key exercises and movements and focus your strength work around them. Ideally, have a lunge or single-leg squat movement in there as this will have the most bang-for-buck with cyclists and runners.
Keep repetitions low
More reps = more time = more muscular damage = more soreness. Keep reps below five or duration of the set under 10 seconds-ish. This is also the money-making range for strength. Rest should be complete between sets (3–5 minutes).
Keep things in perspective
So this isn’t really a tip on avoiding soreness, but rather accepting soreness.
There are times where you definitely want to show up fresh and ready to perform. Namely competitions and key workouts.
But other than that, is having some soreness in your quads really going to hamper your long run or ride that much? I’m not suggesting that it will or won’t, I’m saying don’t have a knee-jerk reaction to SORENESS as if it should be avoided at all costs.
Understand what you’re doing and how it fits into your overall training plan. Some minor leg soreness prior to an hour long run 12 weeks out from competition during a buildup probably isn’t the end of the world. And the strength benefits may trump the minor performance reduction of that particular endurance session.
Be a self-aware athlete. Experiment. Think. Adjust. Observe. Be in tune with how you feel, how you perform, and most importantly, how you progress over the long term.
