Why Do People Think DOMS/Target Heart Rate Good Thing?

[daisysunshine]

I read here a lot that they just the workout by DOMS, like if they feel the fry it's good, and if they don't it's not really a good workout? [i know this is generalization, but work with me LOL]. Or if they don't hit their Target Heart Rate it goes back to the store/yayas/swap?

Does EVERY workout need to be a bust your butt workout? Or make your heart race? Can't some workouts be just for the love/joy of moving? I know some of mine is just so I get a great stretch, or I moved, and a calorie burned is a calorie burned, not a THR or not. And as much as I love the DOMS, I know a lot of my favourite workouts I don't always get it. [I remember when I first did Volume 1 Firm, I was MASSIVELY prepared for the doms everyone said I was going to get, and i didn't get anything, except for some extra sore shoulders. But none in my legs, or butt where you'd THINK you'd get them].

I'm just curious why do you need the pain [or the racing heart] to qualify the workout as "acceptable/keepable?]

[RedPanda]

Good question.

There was a long thread here a while ago about how DOMS is no indicator of an effective strength workout. Yet over at the Collage forum I've seen people dissing a DVDs because it didn't give them DOMS, and people wishing DOMS on each other!

I lift very heavy by VF standards, yet rarely get DOMS.

I used to be obssessed with my target heart rate. I would wear a HRM for every cardio workout and constantly stop and check my heart-rate - until I realised I was just flinging myself around to raise my heart-rate and I would be better served by learning the moves and/or increasing my endurance, and once I improved in those areas, I would get a better calorie burn overall.

But if a cardio workout didn't make me break a sweat and I knew it was the workout - not me - which was at fault I would definitely sell or trade it.

As for the joy of movement thing, I have recently got into Tai Chi and Chi Gong and love them for the stress release, dynamic stretching and just because they make me feel good. I think there's a place for those types of gentle workouts in everyone's regime.

[Kyra]

I don't really know. I don't usually have DOMS, unless I change my workouts, and I am done with HRMs. Interesting data, but more or less told me what I already knew.

I've been in sports since I can remember, and that's why I work out. One day a week, I just do yoga and chill. (Not meaning to make yoga sound wimpy, but my class is very mellow.) And I take a day off every week.

I don't read the collage website; I tried to once but the posters were not all that bright, and that was that.

[RedPanda]

Originally Posted by Kyra

I don't read the collage website; I tried to once but the posters were not all that bright, and that was that.

That explains it!

[ooty]

I don't monitor heart-rates. But I enjoy heart pounding sprints and the feeling of breathlessness. Daisy.. don't ask me why.. it just makes me grin . Just feels so dang gooood.

DOMS: I am a perpetual restarter with weights. And I love me the feeling of DOMS.. love it.. especially if I have it in my pecs.. because I always seem to feel it in my biceps or arms when I do chest fly thingis.. chest press thingis...and am begging mercy when I do pushups still not feeling anything in my chest. Only the DOMS there have convinced me that I am doing them correctly. Also, love me a good lower body DOMS. Honestly, for me this is an indicator that something got worked. And since I am restarting all the time, I keep getting it

ETA: I have banished the on the knee pushups for me.. just not getting anywhere with that..

[Demeris]

I don't know the why or why not of desiring DOMS or DOMS as an indicator of a good workout. I know that when I get DOMS, it's because I worked a muscle that I haven't worked in a while.

About heart rate--when I made the commitment to get healthy 3 years ago, I had NO stamina--for things like callanetics or t-tapp, but I really had no wind and my heart rate would scare me. I had Petra Kolber's BREATHE II and had to stop and rest half way between each routine. It took me two hours to do the tape. So I added in some other cardio (charlene prickett--leslie on the rebounder), and lo and behold, my stamina for the other, non-cardio, workouts improved.

I think about my father who is 77 and who has a garden about the size of a basketball court, as well as chickens, pigs, and cows. The man gets up at 7 and works almost non-stop until 10 or 11. I have tried to keep up with him in the garden, and I am out of breathe and need to stop and rest while he's still hauling heavy buckets of manure from the cows over to the tomatoes. I want his cardio strength NOW and in 25 years!

[daisysunshine]

Ooty lol, no, i know what you mean. I do get the deliciousness of knowing you did a workout and you have to limp like an old old woman and you can barely squat [thank goodness for western toilets, because if we were in Asia we would be in troooouuuuuublllllleee]. and when I finish a leslie five mile, or a really hard cardio dvd, and I finish and I slump to the ground and I'm huffing and puffing and I can blow my house down I have this silly little grin, and my momma goes, what? and I go, "I DID IT MOMMY" then i take a nap because i'm exhausted lol. i LOVE those workouts.

but at the same time - it isn't the end all be all. [though i'm very patient in what prompts me to keep a workout. ]

[hee. and me too, I stop and start, I have constant continual doms!].

ahh.. maybe I answered my own question... because we're nuts!!

[Jane P.]

I hate DOMS and try to avoid it. Preventing DOMS is a terrific motivation for me not to skip a workout.

[gigi]

The reason I like DOMS is b/c I know I've challenged my body in a new way. I don't go after it or have to have it all the time, but it's nice every now and then b/c I feel like I've pulled one on the ol' body when it's getting used to one form of exercise. I too enjoy moving for movement's sake or enjoy a particular workout just b/c it's fun and gets me moving. I enjoy all the benefits of exercise, moving, fun, DOM's, getting my heart rate up, etc....Now that I'm almost 39, I've found that in addition to all the above, I'm enjoying the benefits of stretching and yoga as well and DANG, yoga can he HARD.

[ooty]

Originally Posted by Jane P.

I hate DOMS and try to avoid it. Preventing DOMS is a terrific motivation for me not to skip a workout.

LOL Jane. I like DOMS.. may be that is why I am skipping workouts and restarting all over.

Daisy : Well, I ran this morning.. so I am ing.