muscle soreness

[LovnLife]

when you exercise and the next day your muscles are sore, is it better to take the day off or work thru the soreness?

[Colinm39]

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@LovnLife wrote:

when you exercise and the next day your muscles are sore, is it better to take the day off or work thru the soreness?

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@LovnLifeWhat you are experiencing is normal and caused by microscopic tears and resulting inflammation in the muscles when you start an activity that your body hasn't experienced before. Read this link which explains it all and don't stop exercising. I'm experiencing it now in my legs because I had to cut back my activity because of lower back issues and now I'm a few days into increasing that activity and I'm getting the 48 hour delayed soreness.

[Heybales]

As that link says "Take it easy for a few days while your body adapts, says Torgan. Or try some light exercise such as walking or swimming, she suggests. Keeping the muscle in motion can also provide some relief."

Since your muscles are trying to recovery during this period, you can do some light exercise just to get the blood flowing, but to put an additional big load on the muscles needing repair preventing a full repair, means you basically wasted the workout that caused the soreness.

Exercise if done right tears the body down.

Rest for recovery and repair is what builds it back up, stronger if diet allows.

During a deficit diet your recovery is impaired already, takes longer.

If you don't allow full repair, you don't get full recovery, and if you constantly do this, your workouts will plateau faster and you will get less benefit from them then you could if fully repaired.

So unless the workout that caused the soreness doesn't matter to you, but the workout the next day does, then by all means try to work out hard through the soreness. And then perhaps get a better routine to not cause this, because you also can't workout muscle as hard that is repairing, so the next workout is impaired too.

Otherwise, do something gentle, hopefully different muscles, and just get the blood flowing.

By repairing fully, this effect will start getting less extreme and eventually go away unless the workout changes. Eventually you can be doing that same micro-tear damage proving a good workout was done, and not be sore. But the body must still repair, taking 24-36 hrs.

[TandemWalker]

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@LovnLife wrote:

when you exercise and the next day your muscles are sore, is it better to take the day off or work thru the soreness?

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I would not work through the soreness, but I would vary my exercise regimen and work on a different muscle group, thus giving those muscles that are now sore a chance to recover. If I do walk/jog intervals today, I might doing rowing or cycling tomorrow; and if I do resistance bands or weigth training today, I will do something else tomorrow - and if I choose to do the same, I will avoid working with same muscle group.

[CourtB]

For me, it depends on how sore. If it is slight, I push through it in my next workout. If I feel like I pushed really hard and don't want to overdo it in the next workout, I zone in on a different muscle group. My soreness usually doesn't hit till post-24hrs and I feel exercise does help lessen the soreness a bit. If I keep moving it feels better 🙂