How sore you are doesn’t indicate how hard of a workout you had. There. I said it.
It’s actually pretty easy to make someone sore. I could program Monday with 200 air squats. Tuesday with 5×15/leg Rear Elevated Split Squats. Wednesday with 1 rep max Back Squat “test” (does something like this look familiar?)…I guarantee by Thursday your lower body will be trash.
I will also say that 1 RM back squat most likely won’t be a true 1 rep max.
Don’t get me wrong delayed onset muscle soreness is part of putting yourself under a level of exertion. It’s not a bad thing at all. It actually becomes part of the process of recovery and repair which can lead to improvement with body composition.
However, I will say, wearing soreness like a badge of honor (assuming that you worked out hard and will get results because of your soreness)…I would actually argue that the above example will lead to over-training and quite possibly (probably) injury.
So what’s the balance?
One of the ways in which programming becomes effective is when we can continue to ensure adaptation is occurring with a balance of exercise (stress) and recovery (rest). Our bodies need 48-72 (ideally 72) hours of recovery between sessions as well as progressing stress in a manageable ways. To always be at high intensity and heavy loading will lead to detraining and regression instead of growth and progression.
Here’s something to consider: If you are going to do heavy squats on Monday, to give that 72 hour window, work the lower body (examples: hinge instead of squat, speed work instead of heavy work) on Friday. You can balance that same idea with upper body work. Throw in a true recovery day (Z1/Z2 cyclical work) and I think you’ve built yourself a well rounded program that promotes adaptation instead of just feeling beat up all the time.
We can always help with a plan too.