muscle ache gone

When I first started lifting I would get that awesome sore feeling the next day, letting me know that damage was done and that I was due for some improvement. Now, if anything, my lifting has intensified and I'm progressing slowly in terms of weight lifted, but I no longer seem to get that same sore feeling.

When I hit a muscle group, say biceps, I do three different exercises of 4 or 5 sets of 10 to 12 reps the last two always to failure, and often followed by 1 or 2 drop sets to failure. I hit each muscle group once a week (except for legs which I hit twice). At the end of the session I usually get a massive pump where I feel the muscle's about to explode out of the skin. But no real soreness the next day! (I believe my diet is also quite good).

Any idea what I'm doing wrong? Or is this normal?

Cheers

i think u need to change ur regular exercises for atleast a week or two,
a basic example if u always use cable curls to do ur biceps u shud give preacher curl a go for a while

on a heavier weight too, 6 reps max
try that for a week or 2 then move back to ur favourite exercises
u always need to mix it up now and then

hope that helps

DOMS is not a measure of how much hypertrophy the muscle has sustained.
Perhaps you are overtraining. that seems a fair bit for a small muscle like biceps considering that they get hit again when you train lats. Up your intensity and drop a set or 2.

Most professional lifters will vary their routine, for instance they will do 8 weeks of bench press, then 8 weeks dumbell press and cycle it. You need to keep shocking your body to keep it growing, and that small change in exercise can help.

But as Shrek said, soreness isn't a good indicator; I'd prefer not to be sore (and protein helps that ). As long as you are building muscle and moving up weights all is cruisy.

I will try and cycle a bit more, thank you for the advice. I guess the biceps and triceps do get hit quite a bit, on chest and back days as well as with the shoulder workout. I might scale back on the biceps and add some more abdominal work on the arm day.

So soreness doesn't = hypertrophy? Interesting. I guess it makes sense, as I keep going up in weight steadily.

Thanks for all your input.