Dan: How important is doing the exact weight? I have a multi station and the plates are 10LB each, which makes it impossible to do 5 LB increments. so I just use the same weight for each of the sets. Is that OK?

Also, some of my body parts are never sore while others ones are sore for a couple of days. Does this mean that I am not working certain parts hard enough (even though they are exhausted during the workout) or am I not using enough weight or am I doing to much with the parts that are sore. I am the kind of person who feels that no pain is maybe not really a gain.

It is always best to use the exact weight the workout calls for. However, as long as you are within 5 pounds, it's not a big deal. The most important thing is to make sure you can do all of the prescribed sets and reps for each exercise. And, because we encourage all of our members to make adjustments or update their programs as their body changes, everyone's workouts should be right on the money!

The reason that completing all of your sets and reps is so important is because of the specific periodization model of each program. Say, for example, the workout calls for 10 reps but you could only do 6 reps. Then, say, you didn't change the weight to allow you to complete the 10 repetitions and you continued doing the 6 reps. By the time the workout actually did get into the 6 rep range you would already have been doing them for about a month! This creates a lack of variation and ultimately a lack of progress.

To answer your question about muscle soreness: If certain muscle groups get sore (and other don't) even though you are working just as hard on everything, it is usually a neuromuscular problem or a technique problem. This is a little hard to explain, but I will relate something that I have experienced that might help. Every once in a while I will put a new exercise into my program that I have never done before. I will work hard on the exercise but I won't start getting sore from doing it until 2 weeks later! No, this isn't some kind of massive delayed onset muscle soreness! It is more a lack of ability to get the right contraction or just the right "feel" in order to stimulate the muscles hard enough to create soreness. After a couple weeks of doing the exercise it feels more natural and my technique is better and I can create more of an intense workout for the muscles involved. This could be what is happening to you.

If you have had an injury or nerve damage to certain parts of your body, you will also experience the same thing. You will be doing the work but not really feeling the exercise as much as you could. Make sure you concentrate on technique and squeezing the muscle groups you are working to get the most out of them!