Do I need to be sore?

Hello!

I can do FL/PE5, but it's hard and I am exhausted afterwards. But even if I do some L-Sits at the end of a workout, I am not sore he next day, although I am shaking during the last seconds of L-Sits!

But yesterday in track&field we did some ab conditioning, including very slow crunches with legs towards the ceiling, toe-touches and planks. I was far the strongest and was able to do all of the exercises, but I am super sore today! 

I also feel my abs a lot more cramping when I do crunches or planks, whereas in L-Sits or hollow body holds and do not really feel them...

Why is that? Would planks and crunches be beneficial?

 

Different loading of the muscles can make them sore. For instance, recently I was able to do 5x60 hollow body rocks without soreness. Then I tried mastery of the next progression, which involves fewer reps but more tension, and the abs got quite sore.

Also, soreness is not a good indicator of training effect (depending on your goal of course). 

From my own experience and what I've read, soreness comes when you are doing something that you are not used to (a different kind of exercise or maybe doing it in a different fashion, or stuff like that). I very rarely get soreness from my F-sessions but I do however get it pretty often from kung fu practice.

Kasper Stangerup said:

Also, soreness is not a good indicator of training effect (depending on your goal of course). 

Well, yeah, if your goal is to feel sore....

As everyone has stated already, there seems to be a new way of looking at soreness as not being that big of an indicator of workout productivity, just something the body has not yet adapted to.

Planks and crunches, as you mentioned, are beneficial to a certain point of course, but after some cycles you would move on to the next progression. Trying them again after some time would bring soreness, but that wouldnt mean you would go back to that level for further advancement. 

Dr. Casey Butt has some great articles as to why muscles get sore, how they grow, et cetera

His site is weightrainer.net

I personally get more soreness from stretching than from strength training.

wheezer said:

I personally get more soreness from stretching than from strength training.

Me too. I only get sore from strength training when I do a new exercise for the first time. And it's only the first time, after that my muscles just feel tired, not sore.

Good points made by everyone so far.

Something else to consider is that exercises which emphasize the eccentric portion of an exercise (like negatives or super-slow reps) tend to produce more micro-trauma and thus generally result in greater amounts of DOMS. This doesn't necessarily make them superior for strength or muscle building though.

In regards to planks, they are part of the sPL progressions, so whether you should be doing them would depend on your level in that progression. If you could do a solid 10 second Straddle Planche (and assuming you did it right and built up to that point by working your way through the F series), performing planks for core strength would pretty much be a waste of time. However, if you haven't yet gained mastery of them, then they will be beneficial.

Lastly, if you don't feel your abs working while doing the HBH progressions, then you either have some serious core strength and endurance, or you are doing them wrong. :-)