Essay On Strength Loss

“Is There Any Strength Loss Associated With Muscle Soreness”

According to a study done by John N. Howell, Gary Chleboun, and Robert Conaster entitled. “Muscle Stiffness, Strength Loss, Swelling and Soreness Following Exercise Induced Injury in Humans”, (Page 4), there is a significant amount of strength loss. According to the study:

“Exercise muscles exhibited a dramatic, 35%, loss of strength, on the day following the exercise . Although a slow trend toward recovery of strength is apparent after post-exercise day 3, even on the tenth post-exercise day the muscles had recovered only to about 70% of their control strength.”

Similar findings by R.B Armstrong suggests a strong correlation between delayed onset muscle soreness and decreased strength levels.

I’ve tried training through the pain with damaged muscles and if there is one thing I’ve learned over the years, is to listen to my body. I’ve injured myself on various occasions because I “trained” through the pain.

The fact of the matter is this. Science has proven that 1) You lose a certain amount of strength with delayed onset muscle soreness; 2) Your muscles are stiff; And 3) There is a reduced range of motion associated with muscle soreness. These facts have been proven. Attempting to lift at a 100% when your body is at 60% can have some very adverse affects, especially when you are attempting to lift maximum poundages.

Experience tells me that when my muscles are only operating at 60%, my connective tissues and tendons try to make up the difference when attempting to lift heavy weights. This is not an ideal situation, especially when your connective tissues are already damaged from the previous session. This puts your muscles and connective tissues at risk. I’ve been there and done it and I’ve had to live with the consequences (Muscle tears and