Learn about what’s really going on when you feel sore after a workout; why we don’t know who designed the Taj Mahal; and the real reason why you have to change your clock for Daylight Saving Time. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: Are Sore Muscles the True Sign of a Good Workout? — https://curiosity.im/2tHVg7z Nobody Knows Who Designed The Taj Mahal — https://curiosity.im/2tE26uP The Annoying Reason You Have to Change Your Clock for Daylight Saving Time — https://curiosity.im/2tFTZOj If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Learn about what’s really going on when you feel sore after a workout; why we don’t know who designed the Taj Mahal; and the real reason why you have to change your clock for Daylight Saving Time.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom
Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/why-your-muscles-are-sore-after-workouts-daylight-saving-time-myths-and-taj-mahal-history
[MUSIC PLAYING] CODY GOUGH: Hi. We're here from curiositydotcom to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today, you'll learn about what's really going on when you feel sore after a workout, why we don't know who designed the Taj Mahal, and the real reason why you have to change your clock for daylight saving time.
CODY GOUGH: Let's spring forward into some curiosity.
ASHLEY HAMER: The phrase, "no pain, no gain" is a myth. If you've ever been hard on yourself because you didn't feel sore after a workout, then listen up. Because soreness does not mean you got a good workout.
CODY GOUGH: But it feels really good to feel sore after a workout.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, it totally does. Yeah. I absolutely, the day after, I'm like, yes, that was so good. Oh, I feel like death. It's awesome.
CODY GOUGH: Do you do it in that voice?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yes.
CODY GOUGH: Awesome.
ASHLEY HAMER: That's my working out voice.
CODY GOUGH: Good.
ASHLEY HAMER: So first of all, here's why your muscles get sore. The technical term is delayed onset muscle soreness, which you, typically, feel between one and three days after a workout. We don't totally understand what causes it, but it's probably because when you exercise, you create microscopic tears in your muscles. And those tears cause inflammation and an increased feeling of pain.
Most exercises can cause this feeling. But the biggest offender is anything that requires eccentric contraction. That's the lengthening phase of a movement. Like when you lower a weight or you run downhill. Another big cause is just doing an exercise you're not used to doing. Like starting a new workout program or going on a 5-mile hike when you haven't gotten out in a while.
The thing is, that inflammation around your tiny muscle tears means your muscles are rebuilding themselves and getting stronger. But that doesn't necessarily mean soreness equals muscle growth. Muscle damage isn't the only way muscles grow. And that soreness isn't a really good indicator of how much muscle damage you even have.
A paper in Strength and Conditioning Journal found that participants felt that pain even when there was no evidence of muscle damage. Think about this. The more you do and exercise, the less sore you feel afterward. If soreness meant muscle growth, wouldn't that mean you'd get all the benefits of an exercise the first few times you did it? In that case, why would bodybuilders keep lifting and marathoners keep running?
No, the reason you don't get a sore the more you do an exercise is the repeated bout effect. That's an adaptation your body makes after the first workout to make sure your muscles aren't as damaged the next time. And like I already said, damage is not the only path to stronger muscles. Feeling great the day after a workout doesn't necessarily mean you slacked off. It could mean you're getting fitter.
As much as some fitness buffs love to hurt so good, it's not always necessary. And feeling to sort of work out is a guaranteed way to slow your progress. As always, the key is balance.
CODY GOUGH: So you're saying if you do work out and you do feel a sore once or twice, that's OK.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. There's nothing wrong with feeling sore, but there's also nothing wrong with not feeling sore. And if you work so hard that you feel too sored to work out the next time you want to work out, that's a bad thing.
CODY GOUGH: It's like DDP always says, "pain is pain. Modify your positions." Diamond Dallas Page, DDP yoga. Look it up. It's a great program.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh. That's why they call it DDP. Is that's his name. Got it.
CODY GOUGH: Here's something weird. Nobody knows who designed the Taj Mahal. Seriously. And I mean, come on. It's not even 400 years old. It's not like it was designed that long ago. It was commissioned in 1632 and it's considered one of the new seven wonders of the world, along with the Great Wall of China and Machu Picchu down in Peru and the other four.
Have you ever wondered why the Taj Mahal is a big deal in the first place? Well, it's because it combines Indian, Persian, and Islamic influences, so it's the most distinctive and outstanding example of Mughal architecture in existence today. The Mughal Empire ruled most of India in Pakistan in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Taj Mahal represents a key turning point in the identity of that empire itself.
The Mughals were proud of their Persian and Timurid roots, but the design of the Taj Mahal shows that they now saw themselves as being Indian first while respecting their Muslim heritage. One of the building's most dominant themes is hierarchy, which played a critical role in Mughal religion and philosophy during the 17th century.
We know the Taj Mahal was commissioned to be built as a mausoleum for the favorite wife of Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal emperor. Yes, I said favorite wife. That's how they rolled back in the day. And we know that he personally oversaw the design and construction of the palace. But historians say there's no way Jahan could have designed the building himself. The official Mughal histories account for 37 designers and architects who would have been able to contribute to the Taj Mahal commission.
And more than 20,000 workers from throughout India, Europe, Persia, and the Ottoman Empire contributed to the construction of the Taj Mahal. Alongside 1,000 elephants doing a fair amount of the heavy lifting. Whether or not one person designed it, the final product was definitely a group effort. See what we can accomplish when we all work together.
ASHLEY HAMER: Don't forget to set your clocks ahead this weekend. That's right. We're releasing this episode of Curiosity Daily just before daylight saving time hits the US. Also, I still can't get over that it actually is daylight saving time. I want to say savings every time but I'm going to do it correctly.
CODY GOUGH: Not savings time. You're doing it wrong if you say it that way.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yes. So it's real fun to spring forward and lose an hour of sleep. But we'll try to ease the pain by teaching you about the history of this infamous tradition. You might think we invented daylight saving time to give American farmers more daylight during harvest, I did for a long time. But that's actually not true.
It all had to do with World War I. During wartime, President Woodrow Wilson proposed setting clocks back an hour in the fall to give people an extra hour of daylight. The idea was that we could save energy by not using electric lights. The original idea wasn't even his by the way. A New Zealand scientist had proposed the idea in a paper way back in 1895.
And the German empire started setting their clocks forward by an hour to save on artificial lighting in 1916, two years before the US adopted the practice. In any case, the time change was a boon for commercial interests. It gave office workers more daylight for shopping at the end of the day after all.
But contrary to popular belief, it was nothing but trouble for farmers. The shifted clock messed with farmers' entire schedules. It meant they couldn't work as quickly in the morning because the fields were covered in dew and cows weren't ready to produce when the milk truck arrived. They disliked daylight saving time so much, in fact, that they pushed for its repeal in 1919. And they succeeded.
But that federal repeal turned daylight saving time from a broad national rule to a mishmash of state and local regulations. It created so many time differences that you could pass through seven different time changes on a bus from Ohio to West Virginia. That was fixed in 1966 with the Uniform Time Act. It's changed several times since then, but the modern schedule has been in effect since 2007.
There are, of course, a lot of reports of health problems when we change times, but we won't get into that today. Just try to go to bed a bit early on Saturday and, hopefully, we'll all wake up refreshed and ready for a nice spring week.
CODY GOUGH: That's all for today but you can keep learning all weekend on curiositydotcom.
ASHLEY HAMER: This weekend, you'll learn about the difference between every salt at the grocery store, which for specific facial features people pick out when they meet you, the 11 factors to falling in love according to one psychologist, why the US launched half a billion tiny copper needles into orbit during the Cold War, and more.
CODY GOUGH: If there's something else you're curious about, then email your question to podcast@curiositydotcom. We might answer your question on a future episode.
ASHLEY HAMER: That's podcast@curiositydotcom. Come hang out with us again Sunday on the award-winning Curiosity Daily and learn something new in just a few minutes. I'm Ashley Hamer.
CODY GOUGH: And I'm Cody Gough. Have a great weekend.
ASHLEY HAMER: And stay curious.
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