Is soreness a good thing in running?

Is soreness a good thing in running?

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Well like most things, it depends who you ask. I’m leaning towards it being a good thing.

To me soreness means I’m doing something new or wrong. It’s your muscles and joints are trying to tell you something. It could be some feedback on your form or a sign you’re doing the dreaded too-much-too-soon.

Physical exercise is all about adaptation. If you’re brand new to running, jogging a 5k can make you sore for weeks, even if your form is pretty good. That’s the pain and pleasure of running being a weight bearing exercise.

The good thing is once you build a base, running becomes quite effortless unless you’re doing something different such as inserting speed work and/or hill training.

The good thing is athletes usually become better listeners (to their bodies) over time and with the many kilometres spent out there. It is a skill though it’s like most skills, it takes some time and effort.

What should pain you ignore? What pain should you pain attention to? From what I read, it’s not an exact science but overtime we become pretty good judges of what nicks are and what could be serious.

One of the major benefits of adapting the ChiRunning principles is it’s extremely rare for me to be sore after a run, even with daily runs. It means I must be doing something right!

I remember in my power-lifting and football day, I used to live for soreness. I used to wake up excited for some delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) since it meant I was growing and getting stronger and bigger. It all depends what your goals are.

So next time you’re sore, ask yourself why. The answer could be very telling!

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