Quote Originally Posted by Greenport
Alright. I know you know this if u work out already. When you work out the day after you are sore right? So...should you give yourself a day to rest or no..
I'm 17, nearly 18 and been "weight training" for nearly 2 years.

Soreness can be several things (don't know all); lactic acid can play a small part, to eliminate lactic acid build up, incorporate stretching in your routine. Note that not ALL of the lactic acid can be removed, it can take around 48 hours.

Soreness in terms of weight training I guess can happen frequently when you've torn your muscle fibres to the point where you are promoting your body to repair (strengthening and building upon that muscle - making it bigger). - THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT!

When you flex and contract that muscle, does it hurt? When you poke it in a relaxed state, does it feel tender? That's muscle soreness, and is generally a good thing in most cases and should last around 48-72 hours (2-3 days).

As you train more and more, you adapt to the resistance and your muscles won't feel as sore anymore after a workout or not even seem evidently sore at all. Don't worry, as soreness doesn't always imply growth.

Generally, most people say, 'when you're sore, do more.', 'no pain. no gain', but these aren't true... If you have incorporated a good routine split, you should have it worked out that you train each muscle group once a week throughout 4 sessions. E.g. Back & Bis, Chest & Tris... Because you are indirectly training your tris when you do your chest (bench press etc.) - all pressing movements indirectly train the tricep etc.

I guess you wouldn't have asked this question if you had a good enough routine, so if you need help in that department i'd be more than happy to set you up with a training program - just let me know what equipment you have access to, or if you go to the gym and how many days you wish to train per week... I'd personally prefer 4, and no more than that. lol, just figured i'd also I guess need to know your weight stats etc. too to see what bodytype you are.

But yeah, soreness is good, you can adapt (change of routine, resistance (weight) can promote soreness again), if you're not sore it doesn't always mean you didn't work out that muscle as aptly as you could of.

YOU CAN WORKOUT STILL, JUST NOT DIRECTLY TRAINING THAT MUSCLE GROUP AGAIN, avoid overtraining :wtf:

Also, are you on any specific diet? This is the most overlooked and important principle of training...