05/05/2026
Note, this does not mean YOU ARE NOT WORKING HARD, but it means that there are no measurable incremental increases in impactful exercises.
SORENESS IS NOT AN INDICATION OF A GOOD TRAINING SESSION, now a good training session can make you sore, sure, but a movement being new is the biggest causational factor to whether or not you are sore the next day.
In fact, if you are constantly sore, especially from exercises that are continuously changing, your muscles are not going to 1) get stronger 2) get leaner, since your body can’t lay down new muscle tissue till the motor learning phase of training is surpassed 3) you will actually unnecessarily cause more stress than is productive while failing to achieve points 1&2.
Here I am progressing pin presses by the weight staying the same, 275lbs, but I’m moving from 8 pins up to 7 pins up, thus moving the weight through a greater range of motion.
This is one of my favorite progressive overload techniques, especially deadlift variations for men who have previously had back pain.