So i was chatting in a group thread with my brother and a couple others today, and my brother gave me a big W.

Tim Wu:
ray has inspired me to do pushups
gonna do after i walk hopper
started with 10 on monday, 11 on tuesday

Ray Wu:
❤️ ❤️ ❤️

Tim Wu:
+1 every day
taking bets on how far i get

Ray Wu:
50 at least

Tim Wu:
generous, im already sore

Background

See, my brother Tim, does not like strength training. However, we know how important strength training is for how you look, your bone strength, and longevity.

Thus I was very happy he got started.

However, sore after 11 pushups? Does this mean it's working? Why do your muscles get sore anyways?

There are 1000 articles online about why you get sore, and how to prevent, but they all seemed not trustworthy.

Thus, i looked up the actual science from pubmed, and this is what I found..

Findings

Soreness is from what is called delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). It is particularly caused by the "down" or "lengthening" part of the exercise (eccentric part).

DOMS happens bc of microtears (damage) to your muscles that you are working, and the subsequent inflammatory response.

It is most likely NOT bc of lactic acid (lactic acid is gone within one hour of workout).

Working your muscles, even from 11 pushups, causes muscle growth from the micotears and inflammatory response, as well as increases in anabolic (muscle growing) hormone release, and myogenic pathways (metabolic pathways that cause muscle growth, such as activation of mTOR).

Therefore, soreness is a good sign. It means your muscles were stressed (and torn) and will be repaired to be stronger.

Does this mean doing 11 pushups a day will help you get huge?

No. You need "progressive load" to continually increase stress on muscles, and thus strength and muscle growth. This can come from weight or reps or any other way to stress muscles progressively.

Will doing one extra pushup a day do it?

I think actually yes. Theoretically if you do this for a year, increasing 1 a day, you'll get to 365+11=376 pushups in a row. IF you do that, i'm pretty sure you are stronger and muscles will be bigger.

Indeed, a recent study showed that increasing reps with a constant load was slightly better than increasing weight while keeping the same number of reps for increasing muscle size over 8 weeks.

Do you have to be sore to increase strength and grow muscle?

Online says no, but i think it might actually be yes. Only makes sense. Progress is necessary either way.

Interesting related fact - the best way to reduce soreness seems to be to exercise again.

What is the takeaway?

You must stress your muscles, and a little soreness is good. Too much is probably bad, bc it means you will have too much pain, and not want to continue. Progressive load to continually be "a little" sore is key to both strength and muscle growth.

I'm now curious how far doing just body weight exercises, while progressively increasing reps, can increase both strength and muscle size...

In any case, I'm convinced doing push-ups alone is a good thing. Good job Tim. Keep it up.

Citations

Plotkin D, Coleman M, Van Every D, Maldonado J, Oberlin D, Israetel M, Feather J, Alto A, Vigotsky AD, Schoenfeld BJ. Progressive overload without progressing load? The effects of load or repetition progression on muscular adaptations. PeerJ. 2022 Sep 30;10:e14142. doi: 10.7717/peerj.14142. PMID: 36199287; PMCID: PMC9528903.

Hotfiel T, Freiwald J, Hoppe MW, Lutter C, Forst R, Grim C, Bloch W, Hüttel M, Heiss R. Advances in Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS): Part I: Pathogenesis and Diagnostics. Sportverletz Sportschaden. 2018 Dec;32(4):243-250. English. doi: 10.1055/a-0753-1884. Epub 2018 Dec 11. PMID: 30537791.

Schoenfeld, Brad J. The Mechanisms of Muscle Hypertrophy and Their Application to Resistance Training. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 24(10):p 2857-2872, October 2010. | DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181e840f3

Cheung K, Hume P, Maxwell L. Delayed onset muscle soreness : treatment strategies and performance factors. Sports Med. 2003;33(2):145-64. doi: 10.2165/00007256-200333020-00005. PMID: 12617692.