69: Touching on a Sore(ness) Subject

There are times, if you’re lucky, when you meet someone who challenges and reshapes how you think about a closely held belief.  Twenty-five years ago, meeting Robert Francis was such a time for me--a true mentor, he taught me to look at exercise in a completely new way. 

Robert Francis—exercise historian, spinal rehabilitation specialist, machine designer and master exercise instructor--has been working in the field of exercise since 1981.  A milestone of my career was when, eighteen years after I met him, Robert agreed to be an instructor at InForm Fitness, the company I founded due to his influence.  

And now, Robert, a fount of information, joins me for the first of a series of podcast episodes where I pick his brain on a variety of interesting topics. Our first episode, Touching on a Sore(ness) Subject, we delve into the misunderstood and controversial topic of muscle soreness. 

• Is soreness necessary for strength gains? And if so, do you need constant variation and routine changes to consistently get sore and see progress? 
• What is, ‘The motor learning mirage’
• What causes muscle soreness?
• Why some muscle groups get sore and others don’t.
• How sore is sore enough--Macro trauma vs. micro trauma.

We digress into a discussion on the knee extension machine and if going to full extension is safe? And we touch on why, in many cases, there is no substitute for a well-designed machine.
While it’s understood that muscle soreness is, generally, a good thing, we wrap up this episode discussing ways you can mitigate muscle soreness such as getting good sleep, staying hydrated, taking contrast baths, and eating well.

We would love to hear from you with your questions, comments & show ideas…

Our email address is [email protected]
As always, your feedback and suggestions are always welcome.

Adam Zickerman – Power of 10: The Once-A-Week Slow Motion Fitness Revolution:

http://bit.ly/ThePowerofTen

Inform_R FRANCIS Ep 69 Transcript

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

sore, exercise, muscles, muscle soreness, soreness, people, machine, extension, robert, stimulus, workout, nautilus, knee, weight, degree, lowering, enigmas, contraction, resistance, negative

Arlene  00:01

The Inform fitness podcast with Adam Zickerman and co host Mike Rogers is a presentation of informed fitness studios, a small family of personal training facilities specializing in safe, efficient high intensity strength training. On our BI monthly podcast, Adam and Mike discuss the latest findings in the areas of exercise nutrition and recovery with leading experts and scientists, we aim to debunk the popular misconceptions in the urban myths that are so prevalent in the fields of health and fitness, and to replace those sacred cows with scientific base. up to the minute information on a variety of subjects will cover exercise protocols and techniques, nutrition, sleep recovery, the role of genetics in the response to exercise, and much more. For this episode, Adam welcomes his mentor, Robert Francis, exercise historian, spinal rehabilitation specialist, machine designer, Master exercise instructor, and instructor at informed fitness. On the first of a series of episodes, Adam and Robert will delve into the misunderstood and controversial topic of muscle soreness.

Robert  01:22

I can remember a day in the 11th grade when I couldn't walk up the stairs in school. And I got in a lot of trouble because I missed a couple of classes. I'd never had soreness like that again.

Adam  01:36

Hello, everybody. Welcome back. This is a very special episode for me. Because I'm here with Robert Francis. Robert Francis and I go back over 20 years. He's one of the reasons one of the main reasons one of maybe five people I can probably say that got me into this business, I wouldn't be where I am right now, if it wasn't for Robert and a handful of other people. Ken Hutchins, Ken leissner, Rob Cirino, Robert Francis, Arthur Jones, of course, truth be told, I wouldn't have met Robert Francis, if it wasn't for big drew Israel. So Robert now works with inform fitness. So to have my mentor working with me, is really special. It's one of the most special aspects of my career, to be honest with you being able to work side by side with this guy in my Port Washington location. He is a font of information. He has been at this business. He has been doing this as an exercise instructor since 1981. And just to give you an idea, I've been doing this for 23 years, and I started in 97. All right, he's a real pro. He knows everything about the iron game weight training, he is he has special interest in bodybuilding, the strongman competitions of old, all the Scottish games and all those crazy strongman competitions. You know, it's about the original dumbbells and all the pioneers in 1800s, about this. He just is a true true historian when it comes to exercise. And he's probably trained 1000s and 1000s of people. Of course, he's certified as an instructor. He has a degree in Exercise Science. He's also certified as a medical testing and rehabilitation technician. And that's a special designation because those medics testing machines are really special, and very technical. And you have to know what you're doing. He's using a rehab setting for a long time as well. So today, we're going to talk about, I mean, first of all, I can talk to him about a million subjects, and we're going to do a whole series of videos with him. I don't know why haven't done this before. But today's topic is going to be on muscle soreness. muscle soreness is a bit of an enigma. We all have our impressions of it. And there's a lot of misunderstanding about muscle soreness. So we're gonna get into that for the next 20 minutes or so. Maybe half an hour, I might run a little bit over. He's a little long winded, so forgive him. But he's so so informative. So gonna give him a little. He's my mentor. So I got to give him a little little leeway. So welcome, Robert Francis. Hi.

Robert  04:22

Well, thank you, Adam. That is very, very generous of you. I have got to do more of these. In fact, I'd like to listen to you a lot longer.

Adam  04:32

Especially when I compliment you like, Oh, that was better. It ends though.

Robert  04:36

That was a very, very short nap. So now I gotta earn my money. No more

Adam  04:39

asked kissing. So muscle soreness, Robert, we're gonna get deep into that. But before we go into exactly what exercise induced muscle soreness is, you've been at this a long time as I just mentioned, so why don't you share your experiences since 1981 on muscle soreness

Robert  05:00

I have a fairly long and very intimate relationship with muscle soreness. And I can remember the day after the first workout I took my coach who gave me my workout program asked me about, are you sore? And I remember saying, No, I didn't seem to feel sore, maybe I didn't know what I was looking for. But I told him, No, I wasn't sore, and he had a look on his face like, well, you're gonna have to get better at this, we're gonna, we'r...