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Are you supposed to feel a burn when working out?

 

Are you supposed to feel a burn when working out?

Are you supposed to feel a burn when working out?

Not necessarily. Here’s why.

In order to effectively stimulate your muscles for growth, you need to be training to failure, or close to failure. 

Depending on your training level this normally be between 0-3 RIR (reps in reserve).

If you are training within this range and you happen to feel a burning sensation in your muscles then that is absolutely fine and normal.

However

If you are training specifically until you ‘feel the burn’ to the point where you cannot perform any more reps because of the pain, even though your muscle actually could, you are not training optimally for muscle growth.

If you are going above 20 reps in one set, it is likely that the burning sensation may stop you from actually reaching that 0–3 RIR point.

So

focus on training close to failure instead of chasing a burning sensation that may be stopping you from reaching actual failure.