Should I Workout When I’m Sore?
884,129
Published 2015-02-04
muscularstrength.com/article/Should-I-Workout-When…
Today I want to answer a question that I get asked all the time.
“Should I workout when I’m sore?”
I actually saw a video on this topic the other day by another YouTuber and it blows my mind the amount of misinformation that is out there. In the video I watched this person answer the question by rambling for a while, throw in some fancy words here and there and for some reason everybody believed what he said!
In the end, the stuff he said didn’t any make sense or really amount to any conclusion at all. This is what really gets to me Nation. You all need to be able to tell the difference between real life experience and research knowledge versus people who know how to ramble and babble about a topic for 10 - 15 min, but never really give you any concrete information.
But enough venting and back to the topic at hand.
Today we are going to talk about DOMS, which stands for Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness.
DOMS: Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness
Let’s say you hit the gym ultra-hard or just came back to exercising after being out of the gym for a while and about a day to three days after your workout you start feeling sore. This feeling of pain is what we call DOMS and it is caused by all the microtears and inflammation that happens to your muscle tissue as a result of your workout.
The process of repairing your muscles is what causes them to grow in size and get stronger, so this is all normal and a part of the process.
But should you go back to the gym if your muscles are still sore?
The answer is: It depends on how bad it is.
Are You In Uncomfortable Pain?
If you’re in a lot of pain and it feels like something is wrong, obviously you should not go to the gym and you should go see a doctor. Most of us know our bodies well enough to know when something is not right. But this is not what I want to focus on.
Are Your Muscles Sore To The Touch?
If you didn’t injure yourself but the muscle is very sore to the point that it hurts when you touch it or causes you to not have full range of motion, than my answer is:
Wait another day to work that muscle group.
The key point here is do not train the muscle group THAT IS SORE. I’m not saying skip the gym, I’m saying let this specific muscle recover and focus on another area for that day.
For example, if my legs are killing me I still train that day but I will adjust my schedule to work something like biceps. There is no need to rush the process because if you’re experiencing DOMS and can't perform full range of motion on your exercises, you’re not going to have the most productive workout anyway.
Another thing to keep in mind is that if your muscles are working on repairing the tears you’ve inflicted on your previous workout, creating more tears and damage will only disrupt the recovery process.
So the bottom line, rest THAT area a little longer.
Do You Have Light Muscle Soreness?
If you’re feeling reasonably sore, but it’s not as drastic as the situation described above, it’s actually a good thing to go to gym and get the sore muscles moving again. Just be sure to take it easy on the weights!
This is not the time to go hardcore and try to hit a new personal record. What you want to do is hit some aerobic exercises and do some light lifting.
Activity in this case is good because it will increase the temperature in the area which increases oxygen flow and the flow of much needed nutrients to help heal the damaged area as well.
This blood flow is also good because it will help to take toxins away which were produced by the tears and subsequent inflammation of your muscle tissue.
So no excuses nation! Even when you’re extremely sore, you should still go to the gym!
It’s just a matter of figuring out how bad it is so you can decide if you can train the same area again or if you have to come up with a plan B to workout another part of your body.
Conclusion
Now knowing this, you might be thinking, if I workout but I don’t get sore, does it mean I’m not going to grow? Absolutely not! But I am going to talk about that in more detail in a future article!
Program Selector - Get The Right Program For You! - muscularstrength.com/Program-Selector
----------------------------------------
Subscribe To My Channel - youtube.com/user/ScottHermanFitness
----------------------------------------
1 on 1 Online Coaching - muscularstrength.com/consultations
----------------------------------------
DOWNLOAD MY APP! – iPhone & Android!
muscularstrength.com/phoneapp
----------------------------------------
MORE TIPS! - www.instagram.com/ScottHermanFitness
All Comments (21)
-
My name is not Nation.
-
After a shoulder workout my worst nightmare is an itch right around the top middle back.
-
This guy reminds me of the ski instructor in Southpark. "If you french frie when your meant to Pizza your gonna have a baad tiiiime. "
-
i can't ever not be sore after leg day...
-
Better Sore than Sorry ;)
-
A simple yes or no would be great
-
Dear Scott. I wish every single person in the fitness industry could be like you who would never say or give out things that are totally BS. You were the role model, the true inspiration for us. I just can not thank you enough. Please keep up with what you have been doing. I really appreciated it.
-
this is very accurate, i like this guy
-
I recommend walking next day (atleast 30-60 minutes). Sitting makes the soreness even worse.
-
Having arthritis and bone spurs in my knees and bone spurs in my heels and achilles tendons, I am in constant pain. If you don't use it, you will lose it. I don't want to be in a wheelchair at 44 years of age. I work out in pain every day. No pain = no gain. :) Thank you Scott! You are amazing! God Bless You! Keep up the great work everyone!
-
straight answer: do not work out a muscle part that is already sore from a previous workout as it needs time to repair.
-
Scott was a little bit pissed at the beginning lol good video btw
-
Did calf raises and had to stop going to the gym for like 5 days. Couldn't even stretch my leg let alone stand
-
Welp thanks for answering my questions ! I was really sore the past two days because I haven't hit the gym in a couple months , but today im not THAT sore and was thinking whether i should still go or not .. And Now that i saw this video I definitely will 😇️
-
I asked Google this question and started reading and then remembered you existed and stopped myself and came straight here. I love your videos. Always solid straight forward answers. None of the crap. Thanks Scott!
-
Omg, I just fell in love with a total stranger in less than 5 minutes! 😍 So I’m battling depression and weight gain. Went to the gym yesterday and cracked under 5 lbs dumbbells pressure... managed a 75% total workout... today I’m feeling sore and fatigued, it’s 7 pm and I feel I should go to bed, but the gym is still open. I fear if I skip the gym today, I’ll just fall right off the wellness wagon yet again, but due to this short video and the very convincing speaker, I’m gonna hit the gym even if I just walk on the treadmill for an hour and nothing else. Thanks for posting!
-
2 hours I was looking for a concrete answer on how to handle muscle soreness as my hamstrings are sore from the deadlift 2 days ago. YOU have answered my question in a clear and concise way and I thank you for that, Scott. I will hit the legs today but will go as light as possible on my hamstrings. Cheers!
-
With abs... You don't have to wait for the soreness to stop.
-
So i started doing calf raises, my right leg was killing me, i was soo sore, about a week later my right leg seems bigger then my left...wtf
-
For my personal experience, I gained an inch in my arms by doing an everyday biceps workout. I trained it on my 70% 1rep max for 10-15 reps for 3 sets of different bicep exercise every day. I felt the soreness on the 3rd day and still doing the same intensity and volume with no decrease in strength and number of reps. I do really gained more than an inch (measured after the swelling gone - not pumped - measured on the 4th day of rest after the 5 consecutive bicep days) I did it for the purpose of experimenting myself. BIG BIG BIG DOWNSIDE: I got a right wrist injury and it really hurt so bad and it lasted for 4 months until it's gone and it made me switch from straight barbell bar to an ez-bar. I do continue to do biceps exercise after a week of rest from those 5 consecutive bicep days but only using light weights and ez-bar. And to answer this question, training while on DOMS will not stunt the growth and the recovery, but the problem if you do it to the extent that you are going to mess up your joints then indirectly it is a NO NO.
