3 days of squatting, NO soreness... what is going on?

[DJ Girevik]

Okay, my squat routine for the last few days was something like this...

Weds + Thurs:
warmup: 10 speed squats, 60 kilo
stretch

Fri:
warmup: 2 minutes on exercise bike (to pump blood to legs), 10 54 lb Kettlebell Swings (to warm the back)

Wednesday: about 5 sets of 5 reps, weight varied between 90 and 110 kilos (max is around 125 kilos)

Thurs: 5-6 sets of 3, varied between 100-110 kilos

Today: 4 sets of 5 (first 3 sets 100 kilos, last set 105 kilos)

And I did a lot more recently too. And I'm STILL not sore in the legs.

Other things I did today)

Wednesday: 5x5 BB Hang Clean (60 kilos) (10 reps on first set), 3x5 BB Hang Snatches (40 kilos) (this is the only thing that left me sore, worked my traps but the soreness wore off today), 2x(10L+10R) KB Cleans (54 lbs, no rest between cleans), and a 45 minute long tough cardio workout on the seat/steps behind the softball field)

Thursday: KB Cleans 10L+10R+3L+3R (54 lbs, no rest between cleans)

Today: nothing else except the squats

Still not sore. Is it possible that all the multijointing built up THAT much growth hormone in me that I recovered extremely fast? That's my only explanation for this weirdness. (BTW I might have some wednesday and thursday workouts confused)

 

[Drex]

Soreness plays absolutely no role in muscle growth. You can have a great workout and stimulate muscle growth without getting the least bit sore.

 

[DJ Girevik]

I know that, I've just found it really odd. It's been happening ever since I started incorporating high-rep KB cleans/swings and BB olympic hanglifts for high reps (did 200 KB cleans with the 36 LBer, 100 with the 54er, then 50 hangers with a 40 kilo barbell on my first day of this), so I think it's a mega GH surge. Just wondering if anything similar has happened to anything else, is all.

 

[mahon83050]

Lucky you, I did squats the other day for the first time and felt like a crippled for two days. I even needed balance assitance from my own arms to get out of a chair.

 

[DJ Girevik]

Yeah, that happens when you first start out, but you'll also get HUGE gains when you first start doin them.

 

[Templeton]

But what are you training for Girevik? Your workout looks geared towards athletic performance and strength not specifically hypertrophy (growth). I think I have mentioned before that you really have to experiment with the squatting protocol that works for you in terms of beefing up your quads. Furthermore there ARE some individuals who do not grow particularly well from squats. They may require leg press or Smith machine squats (read Dorian Yates) to get the most benefit. I myself have performed many heavy (for me) squats but my quads never grew to there fullest extent until I started on the hack machine.

Try high rep squats and other leg movements if you particularly want to feel muscle soreness. I hate hard high rep squats as they make me wanna throw up! But sometimes you just gotta do em!

 

[swigue]

You might not be going down far enough?

In college I used to do what I realize now are 1/2 squats. Go lighter on the weights- I use a plate on either side- and go all the way down to a true squatting position. then work up from there. I couldn't believe the difference. I used to do half squats with almost 300 lbs. Now I am lucky if I can do a full set of these deep squats at more than 185.

My legs are alwyas blown the next day, so badly I can barely walk.

I am not 100% sure this is proper form, people seem to have different opinions. I go lighter on the weight and higher on the reps to avoid knee problems. These things really make me want to vomit, almost as much as deadlifts. I love them.

 

[Mr. Mystery]

Originally posted by mahon83050
Lucky you, I did squats the other day for the first time and felt like a crippled for two days. I even needed balance assitance from my own arms to get out of a chair.

I just started doing squats last week (its now been two days since I sqatted) and god damn! I can barely walk. But I am also fighting a nasty fever, so that may have something to do with my extreme soreness.

I read an article in Mens Health the other day that showed how to do squats prperly. It said you should go down as far as you can and then push up and that it really won't mess up your knee's.

Swigue:

Which are you saying works better for you? 1/2 or full squats? I was doing full squats and was banged out 7X140 on my last set. Not much I know, but they were ass to the floor squats and I can now barely walk.

Which work better for you?

Mr. Mystery

 

[Soshyopathe]

Originally posted by Drex
Soreness plays absolutely no role in muscle growth. You can have a great workout and stimulate muscle growth without getting the least bit sore.

My ass.

 

[swigue]

Mr. Mystery:

I was commenting that full squats are MUCH harder. I used to wimp out on them and only did about 1/2 of ROM.

I think this is obvious, but true for most exercises. I am not huge, never really was, but in my college days was reasonably strong and fit. In my new serious lifting 4 yrs later I realize how much my ego played into my lifting back then. It probably came from being around other undergrads I knew. Now I am older, go at 6 in the mroning and simply don't care. I do slower, full reps, using lighter weights with good form, and muscles hurt that never did before.

Of course that might be my getting older. LOL. Not sure.

I think there are probably guys here that are better equipped to discuss squatting than I am. But these deep f_ckers work for me. They are hard, and I love them only a little less than the deadlift.
-Swigue