During the days following a workout, you may experience delayed onset muscle soreness due to the tiny tears and breakdown of the muscle tissue from the stress of the exercise. If you've started a new activity or dramatically increased the intensity of your existing routine, the soreness may feel more severe. While a normal result of exercise, continuing to work out with sore muscles could lead to injury if you're not careful.
Dangers of Overtraining
When you push your muscles past the point where they can quickly recovery, you may be overtraining. Other symptoms of overtraining include depression, greater frequency of illness, increased resting heart rate, fatigue, insomnia, decreased appetite and poor athletic performance. When you continue to exercise with these symptoms, you put yourself at greater risk of injury and a compromised immune system. Should you experience overtraining, take a few days off from your workout routine, and if your symptoms are severe, make an appointment with your doctor.
Evaluating Your Soreness
If your soreness is mild enough that you retain a full range of motion, you can safely perform light resistance exercises or low-intensity cardio such as walking or biking. If you have any loss of coordination or range of motion from your muscle soreness, you may end up placing extra stress on your joints or compromising your technique. Should you experience sudden muscle pain while performing a physical activity, you may have pulled or strained your muscle and should stop right away.
Exercising With Sore Muscles
If you decide to exercise with sore muscles, focus on training a different muscle group than the one experiencing pain. If your arm muscles are sore, work your leg muscles or perform some light aerobic exercise to temporarily relieve the soreness and prevent it from getting worse.
Tips to Prevent and Alleviate Soreness
The best way to prevent severe muscle soreness is to allow your muscles one or two minutes rest between sets and 48 to 72 hours of recovery time between workouts. Always warm up and cool down, and stretch your muscles before and after your workouts. Within an hour of completing your workout, eat a snack rich in carbohydrates and protein to jump start the recovery process.
Member Comments