What would be drawbacks (apart from pain) and benefits to go to gym with sore muscles?

Question

I have been lazy... so after a few year break I decided to hit the gym again. I put on only fraction of weight of what I was doing 'back then'... and I couldn't even go through all the exercises, I was doing 5x20 for around 2 hours...

Yesterday upon waking up I can't seem to be able to stretch my arms they just don't extend all the way anymore...

As far as I know this is really good as I have ripped my muscle fibres and now they are healing up and this means more muscle mass... which is pretty much my goal as I am getting overweight and more muscle mas = more passive calories consumed...

Today I am supposed to go to gym again... muscles hurt like hell, but if it will result in gaining muscle mass at accelerated rate I am willing to take the pain...

What would be drawbacks (apart from pain) and benefits to go to gym with sore muscles?

Answer 1

First, love this statement. It's dead on, simple yet so few seem to understand the importance of putting on muscle mass to lose weight.

"more muscle mass = more passive calories consumed"

Not sure what type of split you're on but unless you have a leg day, no.

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Why?

• Just like taking an NSAID after lifting (Ibuprofen, Alive, Excedrin etc.) impedes the inflammatory response - specifically training too soon after the normal spike in satellite cells that is seen during muscle repair / growth.
• Lifting too soon essentially is like picking a healing scab, you haven't given your body enough time to "do it's job" i.e. heal which is what leads to increased muscle mass.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15297119
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6392811

Athletes who must train on a daily basis should be encouraged to reduce the intensity and duration of exercise for 1-2 days following intense DOMS-inducing exercise. Alternatively, exercises targeting less affected body parts should be encouraged in order to allow the most affected muscle groups to recover.

Eccentric exercises or novel activities should be introduced progressively over a period of 1 or 2 weeks at the beginning of, or during, the sporting season in order to reduce the level of physical impairment and/or training disruption.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12617692

• As you know putting on muscle isn't a sprint it's a lifelong journey. Let your body become re-acclimated to lifting.

Answer 2

Soreness you can work through isn't so bad and in general people training all the time will have a bit of soreness here and there that they're okay with.

The problem with soreness is that on the upper end of the pain scale it can cause you to not move in the right ways. If you're squatting with really sore hip adductors (groin muscles) , as an example, that can cause you to not go deep enough and lean too far forward. That in turn can cause excessive loads on your lumbar spine.

DOMS really has nothing to do with how hard you're training and it's a poor indicator of intensity, progress, or recovery. The biggest issue for me is really just that pain can cause you to favor certain movements which might not be the one you're supposed to do which can in turn lead to real injuries.