No one exercises just for the soreness. I hope - I don't know what goes on in body-building gyms. You're over-simplifying for some reason, but it's not really complicated regardless.

Let me put it this way. If I were to run even 3 miles tomorrow, or get a good workout in the weight center, I'm going to have some soreness. If I don't, it means that I didn't work enough and will see little gain. It's a different story after a couple of weeks of that ... unless I suddenly increase the intensity. Wind sprints, or maximum lift sets, in which case again you expect to be sore. It's part of the process - call it a benchmark, by-product, or consequence if you object to "goal", but it's something that will happen with the strenuous work, and part of what you're striving for.

Well, that's quite a change from your initial statement on soreness being a desirable goal. You may have not meant it that way, but plenty of other people have asked if soreness itself is a sign of progress - something to strive for - and the answer is always "no".

I've never gone to bodybuilding gyms - not familiar with that sport at all.

No it isn't, and I don't see how it would be pertinent if it were. Are we playing "gotcha?"

My intent is to reassure OP (and perhaps others) that their soreness isn't something that needs to be avoided and medicated.

That I can agree with.

Ha, if I were to run half a mile I would be sore tomorrow! But I could drop 50 miles on a bike and not be sore at all, just tired. It's all a matter of what your muscles are used to.

I'm surprised I haven't seen anybody on this thread talk about embro. Isn't muscle soreness (or prevention) what it's for? Never tried it myself. Whenever I get sore muscles I like to either self-massage with the heel of my palm, or roll them out with a roller like this.

I agree with you on that one, it parallels my own experience...Only bodybuilders and crossfitters are dumb enough to take every exercise to a complete failure, and the more soreness they have the more they brag about it.:rolleyes: ...It seems that the goals of many gym rats are to destroy and annihilate themselves with their workouts...This " no pain no gain" dogma needs to die. There is a fine line between intensity and overdoing it..."stimulate but don't annihilate"

I always fully expect to feel muscle ache on the fairly rare occasions that I resume biking or running after a hiatus of a week or more, rare for the simple reason that such long hiati are rare for me. Likewise, when I perform unfamiliar or infrequent chores such as excavating concrete rubble from my back forty, aches are expected and of no concern.
Actually, for some reason, muscle aches when resuming biking are negligible to non-existent, even after many weeks of not biking. Perhaps that is because the my biking fitness is covered by my running fitness (which I make a point of never losing to any significant degree, whatever the weather or travel schedule; whereas due to weather or travel I occasionally have no choice but to go without biking for several weeks at a stretch).

Throw in sex with rock 'n roll for a well rounded complete treatment.

+1

Eeeeyyuch - I would rather have sore muscles!

... We all have choices in life, you have to make the ones that are right for you.

I thought we were talking about muscle soreness, not the quantity of micro-tears in muscle fibers that body-builders seek. Any type of "gain" is slow indeed if we're avoiding soreness at all costs.

I got "frozen shoulder" a couple of months ago and have been in physical therapy. Now that I'm 54, I've finally made a practice of stretching every day. My shoulder is getting better, but I'm also stretching the rest of me. Since I'm not used to it, I'm more sore than before. I suppose in time I'll stop being so sore. I hope so. I'm sore every day now in many places.

They say that as we age, we always ache. If the achy places differ from day to day, it's a sign of being in fairly good shape. :-\