In this informal, conversational video Eric Roberts addresses a common fitness myth: that muscle soreness, excessive sweating, or being out of breath are necessary signs of an effective workout. He explains that an effective workout is defined by measurable progress toward personal strength, physique, or performance goals—not by how sore or sweaty you feel. Roberts emphasizes that recovery is the “other half” of the training equation; chronic soreness indicates insufficient recovery and will stall adaptation. He outlines the principle of progressive overload—systematically increasing weight, reps, sets, or improving form over time—and argues that sticking to a consistent program for 4‑8 weeks allows clear tracking of progress. Tracking variables (reps, sets, weight, tempo, form) is presented as the primary barometer of success, and he provides practical examples of how small incremental changes still count as overload. Roberts also debunks the “muscle confusion” myth, stating muscles don’t get confused and that constantly switching exercises prevents measurable overload. Throughout, he encourages viewers to focus on performance metrics rather than soreness, to log workouts, and to accept occasional plateaus as normal. The video concludes with a call to action for viewers to ask questions and continue tracking their progress.
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Guys, what is going on? Welcome back to another Walk and Talk with E. Hope you're doing well. In this video, we're gonna be covering what an effective workout looks like. I get a lot of people asking me, Eric, do I need to be sore in order to have an effective workout, a good workout? Do I need to be sore? Do I need to be super sweaty and out of breath? And doing all these things. And so today we're going to talk about that in and of itself, right? So the first things first, the answer to the question is going to be no. I need to fix this, uh, I need to fix this focus here. There we go. The answer to the question is no. Remember, being sore doesn't correlate to having an effective workout. It doesn't. Because what is an effective workout? Like, what, what is an effective workout? In my opinion, an effective workout is if you are getting closer to your, to your goals, if you're getting stronger, if you're improving your physique, if you are, you know, doing more chin-ups or more pull-ups or getting stronger on your bench press or deadlift or whatever it is, improving your workout performance. That to me That's what an effective workout is. Because if, if you labeled an effective workout— man, I swear this focus was better— if you labeled an effective workout by just how sore you are or how sweaty you are or out of breath you are, I mean, I could run down this street right here chasing a squirrel I saw back there. I would be very out of breath and I'd be very sweaty In about 18 seconds. But I don't think 18 seconds worth of chasing a squirrel is an effective workout. I don't know, it might be to you, but it's not to me and my clients, right? So just because you're sweaty and sore doesn't mean you had or had not had an effective workout. You can, you can be sore and have an effective workout, or you cannot be sore and And have just, just as much, if not more, of an effective workout. And honestly, I'd argue that the level of soreness— like, if, for example, if you did legs on Monday and then by Thursday you like still can't sit on the toilet, or you can't like walk, like it hurts to walk up and down steps, like you did too much. Because that's your body telling you you can't recover from what you're doing. And remember, I've said this before, but the workouts are only half the battle. The other half the battle is recovery. And if you can't recover from your workouts, you're not going to see any progress. You're not going to see any change. So if you're like always sore all the time, 24/7, that tells me you're under-recovering, which if you're under-recovering, that's going to lead to no— first and foremost, no change in your body. Because remember, The workouts inherently don't change your body. The workouts put the stress on your body that your body has to adapt to in order to see, you know, change in your body. If your body doesn't adapt to it, which is recover from it, then you're not going to see any progress anyway. So what's the point? So if you're always sore all the time, you're not seeing any change because you're not recovering and you're not changing. So remember, being sore Honestly, what mostly being sore means is like, for example, when my clients start like a new training program, the first like week or two they're more sore. Why? Because the movements are just new, right? It's a new stimulus. It's a new stress. But again, if you just made new movements every single week like some of these people want to do on like Instagram and stuff, You wouldn't see any progress because again, seeing progress and seeing change is about progressive overload. And basically what progressive overload means is you're just doing more over a period of time. So if, you know, week 1 you're doing a goblet squat for 10 reps, and then week 2 you're doing a barbell back squat for 4 reps, and then week 3 you're doing a, you know, a dumbbell front squat for 8 reps, it's like Cool. Like, like, you're not doing the same thing, so you can't really tell if you're getting better or getting worse because it's not— excuse me— it's not constant, right? This is why sticking to a workout program for anywhere between 4 to 8 weeks is the most optimal, because you're, you're, for example, goblet squat, week 1, 4 sets of 8 with 10 pounds. Week 2, 4 sets of 9 with 10 pounds. Week 3, 4 sets of 10 with 10 pounds. Week 4, 4 sets of 8 with 20 pounds. You can clearly see over a period of time you're making progress, which is going to lead to change in your body. I live— that's the gym I go to, by the way, so I just walk to the gym every day. But you can see the progress, whereas again, if you did a goblet squat for 10 pounds for 10 reps one week, And then a back squat, and then a— it's like, cool. Like, you might be sore each one of those 3 weeks, whereas opposed to if you are— let's say, for example, you know, I use that example of like 4 sets of 8, 4 sets of 9. You might only be sore the first week or 2 because the movement is new, but over time you're getting stronger, which is going to lead to— like, that's an effective workout. That's what allows your body to to change, not this switching up your workouts every single week. Like, and that— I think that's where this started. Like, people think like, oh, you have to confuse your muscles and all this other shit. Like, your muscles don't get confused, friend. Let's just call it how it is. Your muscles are way smarter than you are. Like, your body keeps you alive. You're not gonna fucking confuse your muscles. You're gonna confuse your muscles, all right, where they're like, well, what the hell is this? I'm not gonna make it. I'm not gonna change. I'm not gonna make any progress. 'Cause there's no stress That's being added to it that allows your body— that force— not even allows, that forces your body to change, right? So what, what is an effective workout is increasing your workout performance over a period of time, whether that's more reps, whether it's more weight, whether it's more push-ups or better mile time or whatever the case may be. That is what is going to change your body. You have to remember, again, you can be sore or not sore. You can be sweating out of breath or not sweating out of breath. Like, you know, for example, if you're a bit more advanced, you're probably not going to be as sore as somebody who's brand new. Because again, you're, you know, you've probably done a goblet squat before. You've probably done a back squat before. You've probably done a bent-over row before. You've probably done a deadlift before. Like, Somebody who has never done a deadlift, as opposed to somebody who, you know, has deadlifted twice a week for the past 5 years, well, that individual who's deadlifted 5 times a week for the past 5 years is going to be much less sore than somebody who has deadlifted for the first time. Doesn't mean that the person who deadlifted for the first time is, you know, better or worse. It's just they're going to be more— because they're more sore, there's more sore because it's new. Honestly, again, the person who's deadlifted, you know, 2 times a week for 5 years, they've probably really changed their body. They've probably increased their strength. They've probably, you know, applied progressive overload and gotten stronger. That person's probably made more progress even though they aren't as sore. So keep that in mind when you're going into your workouts and you're, you know, structuring your workouts. And like, I— again, I've talked to this a few times and I hate to keep bashing it, but like Like YouTube video workouts, for example. Like, again, better than nothing. Like, you're exercising, it's awesome. But there's a big difference between like just doing random YouTube video workouts and actually following a real plan. Like, those are 2 different things. And so if you're following a real plan, that's how you're going to see progress. Because again, over time, you are going to apply that progressive overload principle. And you're going to get stronger, and you're going to do more reps, and you're going to do more sets. And so what I would say going into your workouts is focus on that. Focus on, did I do more reps than last week? Did I do more sets than last week? Did I do more weight than last week? Is my form better than last week? Is my tempo— you know, did I lift the same weight for the same reps with the same form, but it felt better? Like, there's so many ways to increase your workout performance And there's nothing like— that is your barometer of success. Not how sweaty you are, not how sore you are. It's, are you getting better over a period of time? That's what matters. So this is why I'm such a big proponent of like, track your workouts. Like, and again, I've gotten a lot like people, you know, they're almost like, um, worried. Like, Eric, I'm not sore. Like, Like, I thought I'm working so hard. I thought like I'm doing more weight, I'm doing more reps. I don't understand, I'm not sore anymore. Like, what should I do? And I'm like, well, are you, you know, for that example, okay, well, you're getting stronger? Yeah, yeah. Okay, well, what's the problem then? Well, I'm not sore. Well, I don't give a shit if you're sore. If you're doing more over a period of time, that's how you know that your workouts are gonna get you to where you wanna be. That's how you know your workouts are gonna change your body, 'cause that is what is required for your body to change. Not how sore you are, not how out of breath you are. So my 2 cents would be focus more of your attention on that. Number one, stop focusing on how sore you are after your workout because that really doesn't matter. And number two, start taking your workouts a bit more seriously and tracking your workouts. Again, track how many reps you're doing, how many sets you're doing. Like, you know, whether it's my one-on-one clients or my Clubhouse members, They track their workouts. Like, you know, I give them a spreadsheet. I'm like, write down how many reps, how many sets, what weight you did, like track it. Because this way, 2 things. Number one, again, you can see if, you know, week to week you're getting better. Which, by the way, listen, not every week is going to be your best week. I have weeks all the time where, you know, I don't either— number one, I don't make massive increase from last week, and/or I don't make any increase from last week. But just like one bad day on your diet doesn't make or break you, same thing here. One bad workout of you, you know, not increasing, that's normal. You know, you don't freak out about that. But even if it's just, you know, let's again say for example, if you are doing 3 sets of 8 at 50 pounds on your goblet squat, if next week you do 1 set of 9 and then 2 sets Of 8, that is still progressive overload. That's still more than what you did last week. So that's going to be enough to over time change your body, right? So don't think that just because you can't go up in weight or do, you know, 2 more reps or whatever it is, there's usually always a way to just do a little bit more, even if it's just 1 set on 1 rep. If you do that, you are going to see change in your body. So that's what I'd say, guys. Start focusing on that when it comes to having an effective workout versus how sweaty or how sore you are. If you want to go chase a squirrel down the street for 18 seconds, I probably won't even last 18 seconds. I probably last 8 seconds if that. But if that's your, you know, effective workout, sweet. But If you want to see change in your body, which I think you want to, if you're taking the time out of your busy day to go schedule a workout, get in a workout, so on and so forth, workout performance increasing over a period of time. That's what you should be focusing on. That is what your workout should be centered around. All right, guys, any questions, concerns, drop below. Appreciate you listening and watching as always. Hope you're getting out for walks as well, and we'll talk soon. Okay. Bye.
