For anyone trying to get in shape or lose weight and following a strict training program, muscle soreness can be a big kink in your plans. Your mind tells you to get that workout done while your body gives you a hard pass.
Feeling sore post-workout can almost feel like a badge of honor—it’s one of the biggest reminders that you did your workout and pushed yourself. But what does feeling sore for the next couple of days mean for your workout?
While it may be tempting to power through your next session despite aching muscles, it may not be the best idea.
So, we’re breaking down what muscle soreness means and if you should continue working out when sore.
What Causes Muscle Soreness?
Some soreness after a workout is normal and typically not a big deal, but the popularized “no pain, no gain” mentality can get you into trouble if you’re not careful.
If you’re ignoring what your body is telling you and going full steam ahead, you could tread into risky territory in the long run.
There are a couple of reasons why you could experience muscle soreness post-workout.
The first, and typically the most obvious, is the use of the muscles. If you haven’t trained in a while, getting back into the groove of things can mean that your muscles are screaming a bit.
They haven’t been activated to this extent in some time, so going 0 to 100 can result in some soreness. This can happen with any kind of training, be it endurance, strength, or a combination of them.
On the other hand, strength training is often the biggest culprit of muscle soreness. The idea behind resistance training is that we’re tearing the muscle tissue and creating microtrauma, which, in order for the muscle to grow in both size and strength, must be repaired.
Trauma to the muscle triggers the migration of satellite cells, which fuse together at the site of injury (the muscle fibers), leading to increases in muscle fiber cross-sectional area or muscular hypertrophy 1.
The satellite cells replicate through division and fuse to muscle fibers to form new muscle protein strands (myofibrils) and/or repair damaged fibers. As a result, the myofibrils will increase in thickness and number.
Muscle soreness can be either immediate or delayed. Immediate muscle soreness following a workout is usually because of biochemical end products of metabolism (metabolic byproducts) that interfere with free nerve endings or temporary hypoxia due to muscle ischemia. This type of pain is generally short-lived and subsides when exercise has stopped 2.
Muscle soreness that sets in anywhere from 24 to 48 hours post-exercise is referred to as DOMS, or delayed onset muscle soreness. This type of soreness generally peaks 48 to 72 hours after exercise and dissipates after 5-7 days 2; it’s characterized by muscle soreness, stiffness, and overall discomfort.
Although any type of activity that is unfamiliar or involves high force muscle work can cause DOMS, eccentric exercises where the muscle is elongating and contracting simultaneously seem to cause it the most. But the magnitude of DOMS depends on the intensity and duration of activity.
Although there’s no single theory as to why DOMS happens, there are a few possibilities 2:
- Lactic acid accumulation
- Spasms (muscle ischemia)
- Connective tissue damage
- Muscle damage
- Inflammation
However, you also have to be able to differentiate between good pain and bad pain. Although muscle soreness is expected after a challenging workout, sometimes going overboard can result in a type of soreness that isn’t normal. If the pain is bilateral, it’s probably muscle soreness.
But if you’ve worked out both sides and you’re only feeling it on one, it could mean an injury, in which case stopping exercise is recommended to allow for healing and recovery.
If you think you’re injured, watch out for these signs:
- Sharp pain
- Discomfort
- Nausea
- Persistent pain
- Swelling and inflammation
- Numbness or tingling
- Bruising
- Loss of function in injured area
Should You Workout When You’re Sore?
If you’re dealing with any of the following situations, your body is giving you a big N to the O—NO to working out:
- You’re too sore to get out of bed — We all know the feeling of trying to sit down or stand up when your muscles are screaming at you. If you’re in this situation, you’ve got a big neon signing flashing “NO” at you.
- Taking the stairs is not the faster route — Having your legs feel like jello after a good leg workout is normal, but if you’re not able to walk up and down the stairs, that’s a pretty good sign you should give it a rest for a couple of days or focus on hitting other muscle groups. Alternatively, opt for a low-impact activity like walking and swimming.
- Your muscle soreness doesn’t feel better with movements — Muscle soreness and stiffness upon waking is normal, but you should start to feel better as you move around. If it doesn’t get better with movement, you’re too sore to hit the gym.
- You’re scrambling to find a pain reliever — If your muscles are so sore that you need a pain reliever to move, it’s definitely not time to hit the gym again. While the pain killer may help subside discomfort, you’re not actually healing the damage, and training will only cause further insult.
- It’s still sore several days later — Muscle soreness typically takes about 24-48 hours to set in full, but if you’re not feeling improvement after three or four days, you’ve ventured into the too-sore-to-workout territory. Heading to your doctor for a quick check to ensure nothing is injured may be a good idea.
Our Top 6 Tips For Speeding Up Your Recovery
1. Get In An Ice Bath
It may be counter to everything you thought about recovery, but cold immersion is one of the most effective techniques to ward off muscle soreness and improve performance and recovery.
Whether you step into a cryotherapy chamber, hop in an ice bath, or do an alternating hot-cold shower, cold water is especially effective for reducing muscle damage and the associated soreness.
A 2017 study of muscle damage-induced participants undergoing whole body cryotherapy (WBC) treatment found that WBC may improve muscle recovery, with multiple exposures more consistently showing improvements in pain recovery, loss of muscle function, and markers of inflammation and damage 3. More specifically, WBC appeared to reduce muscle pain by as much as 80%.
Another 2016 study found that just 10-15 minutes in a cold-water bath (50–59°F or 10–15°C) reduced the extent of DOMS 4.
2. Stay Hydrated
Something as simple as staying hydrated can make a big difference in your recovery. Adequate hydration facilitates better blood flow, which enhances oxygen and nutrient delivery, along with the removal of metabolic waste.
Dehydration can have a significant impact on the function of skeletal muscles. As less blood is available to supply active skeletal muscle, exercise performance decreases. And because dehydration reduces blood volume and blood pressure, muscles aren’t being supplied as they should 5.
Dehydration can also interfere with performance and recovery by impairing thermoregulation, altering water movement across cell membranes, and interfering with actin-myosin cross-bridge formation (muscle contraction).
3. Massage Or Roll It Out
Massages and foam rolling are two great recovery techniques for alleviating sore muscles and fending off a bad case of DOMS. They help relieve knots and tension in muscles, facilitate better blood flow to increase oxygen and nutrient delivery, as well as remove metabolic byproducts that contribute to muscle soreness.
In fact, a 2017 review found that people who got a massage 24, 48, or 72-hours post-workout experienced significantly less muscle soreness than people who didn’t get a massage 6. But the sweet spot seemed to be 4 hours after.
Stretching is also a great way to relieve sore muscles and facilitate a faster recovery. Static stretching post-exercise can help disperse fluid accumulation that can contribute to tissue damage. Repeated and held stretching also helps to relieve tension in the muscle-tendon unit.
4. Get Enough Sleep
When it comes to recovery, most people go toward rest in the form of cessation from activity. But sleep is actually one of the most underutilized forms of recovery out there. The majority of growth and repair happens during sleep when growth hormone secretions are at their highest.
Roughly 70% of growth hormone pulses happen during slow-wave sleep (REM stage 3), but the amount of GH secreted correlates with the amount of SWS 7. Without sufficient sleep, your body isn’t producing the hormones it needs to support muscle growth and repair, which, if left unchecked, can develop into chronic pain.
If you’re someone who struggles to get a good nights’ rest, adding in a natural sleep supplement can help. While melatonin is traditionally the go-to for getting shut-eye, it can leave you with nasty next-day drowsiness.
Instead, opt for something like Performance Lab® Sleep. It’s an ultramodern sleep aid designed to give you the best night’s sleep of your life so you can awake revitalized with no groggy after-effects.
Sleep combines CherryPURE® Montmorency Cherry, L-Tryptophan, and three forms of magnesium for ultimate relaxation. It’s a super stack designed for sleep-supportive relaxation.
5. Alternate Muscle Groups
Just because one area of your body is aching from your workout doesn’t mean to need to take time away from the gym altogether. If you’re someone who trains full-body ballistic movements daily, then alternating ON/OFF days could be to your advantage.
But for people that do more bodybuilding style workouts and divide their sessions into muscle groups, hitting the same muscle group once a week or every few days can help to give your muscles the appropriate time to recover before inducing trauma gain.
6. Use Supplements To Your Advantage
If you want to step up your recovery game, adding a recovery stack can be helpful—and we have the perfect one for you.
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Performance Lab NutriGenesis Multi:
An innovative Multivitamin designed for peak human performance, Performance Lab NutriGenesis Multi supplies 17+ essential vitamins and minerals completed with cofactors to enhance absorption and bioactivities. Because intense physical activity can deplete important nutrients needed for recovery, Multi replenishes stores so the body can get back to doing its thing. -
Performance Lab Recover:
Recover is an anabolic muscle support drink designed to help you refuel and rebuild after a workout. Featuring a precise ratio of KarboLyn® and Oryzatein® technology, Recover provides your body with the nutrients it needs to recover quickly and rebuild stronger than before. Clean, delicious, and refreshing, Recover is the perfect post-workout drink regardless of your fitness level.
Final Thoughts
Muscle soreness may signify that you pushed yourself during your training session, but excessive soreness isn’t a good thing. If you’re feeling unable to get through your day without pain, hitting the gym to train may not be the wisest idea.
Instead, take some time to practice self-care and implement proper recovery strategies to get your body back on track and into the gym ASAP.
References
- SB Charge, MA Rudnicki. Cellular and Molecular Regulation of Muscle Regeneration. Physiol Rev. 2004; 84: 209–238.
- MJ Cleak, RG Delayed onset muscle soreness: mechanisms and management. J Sports Sci. 1992;10(4):325-341.
- C Rose, KM Edwards, J Siegler, K Graham, C Caillaud. Whole-body Cryotherapy as a Recovery Technique after Exercise: A Review of the Literature.Int J Sports Med. 2017;38(14):1049-1060.
- AF Machado, PH Ferreira, JK Micheletti, et al. Can Water Temperature and Immersion Time Influence the Effect of Cold Water Immersion on Muscle Soreness? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Sports Med. 2016;46(4):503-514.
- MA Cleary, MR Sitler, ZV Kendrick. Dehydration and symptoms of delayed-onset muscle soreness in normothermic men. J Athl Train. 2006;41(1):36-45.
- J Guo, L Li, Y Gong, et al. Massage Alleviates Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness after Strenuous Exercise: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Front Physiol. 2017;8:747.
- E Van Cauter, L Plat. Physiology of growth hormone secretion during sleep. J Pediatr. 1996;128(5 Pt 2):S32-S37.
