Should I Be Sore After Exercising?

" I don't feel like I'm really getting a good workout unless I'm sore for several days after exercising"

This myth is probably the toughest to eliminate for some of my clients. However, the bottom line is that muscle soreness indicates physiological trauma, and is believed to result from inflammation and microscopic tears in the elastic tissues surrounding muscle fibers.

What muscle soreness does give us is sensory feedback.

As human beings, we want and need knowledge of results. The soreness is the information that convinces us that we have indeed worked hard.
Some personal trainers advocate that this trauma is necessary in order to develop muscle more effectively-"No Pain, No Gain " mentality. In actuality , the continued effort to ensure such soreness induces what is known as overuse syndrome. The best rule of thumb is to increase exercise time or difficulty by 5-10% after every 4-6 workouts.