Originally Posted by
Kaimi Kuenzli
Well this brings up 'fun' memories of my gym-bro days.
Debilitating DOMS after "leg day" and "chest/shoulders/tri day," and "Back/Bi day." The classic MWF bro-split. Perpetual muscle soreness and being proud of the fact that putting on a coat was difficult. It was stupid, I was weak, and making minimal progress.
I guess I shared the ideas about soreness that everyone else had: If you were sore, that means that you're working hard. I still see it a lot in the gym and with friends.
Soreness does not make you stronger – it just makes you hurt. As I've said, it is possible to train productively for months without experiencing a tenth of the soreness produced by The Filthy Fifty, and at the same time getting much stronger.
I picked up Starting Strength in July 2017 and haven't experienced DOMS once since then. I don't measure progress by soreness anymore, because that's silly. Progress is more weight on the bar; soreness really has nothing to do with it.
For fun, here's a leg day that I remember:
Squat 3x8, Weighted lunges up and down the gym x3, Leg Press 3x8, Calf machine 3x8, Ham curl 3x8, Quad machine thing 3x8, Kettlebell thrusts 3x8
Funny that sets of 8 are considered the perfect mix of strength and hypertrophy, because I didn't gain either of those.