Should You Work Out When Sore? When to Push Through & When to Rest

Soreness can be a serious hurdle for athletes. You’re finally in a groove with your training, and suddenly your muscles feel achy and tight. You’re not injured but unsure if you should push through or rest. So, should you work out when sore? On the one hand, going through soreness can help you avoid injury and keep progressing in your workouts. Is resting the best way to get rid of soreness? This article will help you answer these questions by examining the different types of soreness and their effects on athletic performance. You’ll also discover the best recovery tools for athletes to speed up muscle recovery, reduce soreness, and optimize your training. You’ll learn exactly when to push through soreness and when to rest, so you can recover faster, avoid injury, and keep making progress in your workouts.
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What Are the Two Types of Workout-Related Muscle Soreness?

Acute muscle soreness hits during a workout or immediately after. It’s the burning feeling you experience when your body transitions into oxygen depletion during exercise.

When you’ve done enough reps to the point where your muscles start to feel the burn, you might feel this in the moment when your quads have had enough after several squats or your biceps begin to scream after a lot of weighted reps. This soreness is normal and can be alleviated with a proper cool down and rest.

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness: The Soreness That Lingers

Delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS, is the feeling you get usually 24 to 48 hours after an intense workout. It may feel achy, stiff, or tight, and you might have trouble moving that muscle or body part like you usually do. Although it’s not 100 percent clear what causes DOMS, we do know now that it’s no longer thought to be simply a buildup of lactic acid. 

There are many hypothesized ideas about what causes sore muscles after challenging exercise, including:

• Lactic acid
• Muscle spasm
• Connective tissue damage
• Muscle damage
• Inflammation
• Enzyme efflux theories

What Causes Muscle Soreness?

It’s probably a mixture of things, and probably different for each circumstance, says Melissa Boyd, NASM, CP,T and head coach at Tempo. It’s likely some sort of injury to the muscle, or the brain thinking it’s an injury to the muscle and sending a pain response, but nobody knows for sure.

DOMS tends to be more prevalent for those starting new workouts, an athlete re-entering their training season, or someone taking up working out for the first time—but it can really happen whenever you work a new muscle or work a muscle harder than usual (add more weight, do more reps, and so on).

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Should You Work Out When Sore or In Pain? Know When to Push or Rest

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Soreness and pain are different. Soreness is a normal part of muscle recovery. Pain can indicate injury. While going about your workouts, paying attention to the signals your body sends you is crucial. If you’re sore, it’s probably okay to continue working out. If you’re in real pain, it’s best to rest and assess your situation.

The distinction between soreness and pain isn’t just semantics. Understanding the difference can help you avoid worsening an injury that can sideline your training for weeks or longer. Soreness, also known as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), occurs when muscles are challenged, especially when they are unaccustomed to the work or have been worked particularly hard.

Soreness vs. Pain: Know the Difference

The discomfort signals that something is going on in the muscle, and that’s good. The muscle tissue has undergone some trauma, and your body works to repair and strengthen the area.

Pain, on the other hand, often signals injury.

An acute injury like a pulled muscle can cause soreness, but the pain from the injury differs from the normal soreness after exercise. Soreness is something you can push through as you continue to work out. Pain signals that something is wrong, and you should stop your activity and rest.

Can I Still Work Out If I’m This Sore?

Well, it depends. Soreness isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Some soreness is normal when you train hard or challenge your muscles in new ways. It’s a natural effect known as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), in which discomfort typically peaks within 48 hours post-exercise, then usually goes away within 72 hours.

It happens because putting different or higher demands than usual on our muscles can lead to tissue breakdown, which triggers an inflammatory response. Don’t worry—that breakdown isn’t bad; the following repair process is actually how our muscles grow stronger.

When to Push Through

Your body brings a ton of immune cells to that muscle tissue because it wants to clean up the muscle breakdown. The soreness that you feel is just the swelling and all those cells coming in to clean up that breakdown, putting pressure on your nerves in your muscles.

The key thing to pay attention to is how sore you feel. If the pain is about a “three” on a scale of one to 10, that’s perfectly fine to push through. However, you might need to adjust your workout based on your soreness level, lifting lighter weights or running a little easier, for instance.

When is it Okay To Work Out?

If your soreness is mild, it’s likely okay for you to continue exercising. Research shows mild to moderate soreness won’t worsen if you keep working out.

Moving those muscles will promote blood flow to the area and help reduce discomfort. If your soreness is more than a mild ache, take it as a sign to back off.

Your Body is Smart

It tells you you're sore so you don't do it again. In this instance, it’s best to give your body time to recover—even if your fitness tracker says it’s time to push hard.

Some trackers are equipped with a “recovery” or “readiness” score based on your heart rate variability, which picks up on total systemic stress in your body. A reduced variation between heartbeats signals that your nervous system is in more of a fight-or-flight mode. Your heart rate response doesn't necessarily know that your muscles hurt.

Don't Undercut Your Gains

Trying to push through extreme soreness could mess with the recovery process, undercutting the work you put in.

Recovery from the workout is when protein synthesis takes place, and you start to build muscle and strength. You won't get the benefits you want if you cut the recovery too short.

When Should I Rest?

If you’re sore, you should take a break to allow your body to recover. Working out on sore muscles isn’t dangerous but can hamper recovery. Moreover, working out on super-sore muscles simply isn’t very beneficial. If you're very painful, that impacts the strength of your muscles.

Sore muscles cannot produce as much force and usually fatigue more quickly. So even if you wanted to do 20 push-ups, you might not be able to get through them all or go as deep as usual.

When Soreness Becomes Dangerous

Intense soreness can throw off your form, so you might not get the intended benefit of the exercises you’re doing, and could even injure yourself. There’s also a rare but serious condition called rhabdomyolysis, often shortened to “rhabdo,” that can happen.

It occurs when somebody overdoes it, causing very significant damage to the muscle. Rapid muscle breakdown can lead to kidney damage that, in extreme cases, can be life-threatening. 

What Should I Do If I Am Sore?

So what should you do when you’re so sore you can hardly move? Listen to what your body is craving, and take a rest day. That doesn’t necessarily mean you need to be stationary, though. It can be helpful to do a little light movement like:

• Walking
• Low-intensity cycling
• A gentle yoga flow

Move, Massage, and Modify

Although it might initially hurt to get up off the sofa and start, you’ll likely feel a little better when you sit back down. “Getting blood flow to those tissues can help the body do that cellular cleanup it's trying to do.” Massage might also be helpful for the same reason.

If you’re itching for another hard workout, you can focus on muscles that don’t hurt—for instance, do a leg day if your arms are aching. If you're sore in one muscle, it's localized. You've got a whole different portion of your body that you can start looking at exercising.

The Key to Long-Term Strength

Yet even if you’re following a dedicated workout program or training for something big like a triathlon, taking a day or two off won’t ruin all your hard work. Remember, recovery is where the magic happens.

Some muscle soreness is good in the long term because as the muscle repairs, it becomes stronger and more resistant to soreness occurring in the future. So give your body the time it needs to heal. It’s good to be a little patient.

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Strategies for Working Out When Sore

Active recovery workouts can help you keep moving while minimizing muscle soreness and speeding your recovery. This counterintuitive approach allows you to work out while your muscles repair gently, helping you avoid stiffness and get back to your regular training routine.

‍"I try not to be completely sedentary on my recovery days," says Peloton instructor Tunde Oyeneyin. "I focus on keeping the joints lubricated with non-strenuous movement. This can help increase the circulation of blood flow, which can reduce inflammation and help minimize soreness.

"This includes:

• Walking
• Mobility work
• Stretching
• Low-impact bike rides
• Yoga

Vagy adds that moving your sore muscles helps remove waste products from the soft tissues and stimulates recovery. 

‍"For example, if your leg muscles are sore from cycling, then maybe you go swimming the next day because the muscles will be used in a different manner," says Vagy. "I log into the Peloton app for a 20-minute yoga flow or even a mobility class on my recovery days," says Tunde.

Train Around Soreness by Working Out Alternate Muscle Groups

When you're sore, you may not be able to effectively work out your primary muscle groups. However, you can often train around the soreness by working out alternate muscle groups. For example, let's say your upper body is hurting from yesterday's strength training session, but your legs feel amazing.

According to Vagy, this is a sign that it's time for some deadlifts, squats, and lunges (provided you can safely perform these moves with sore arms). You can even program your workout week to account for fatigue and soreness.

Balance Workouts for Recovery

For example, you work your upper body on Tuesdays and Thursdays and tend to your lower body on Wednesdays and Saturdays. If you incorporate some form of cardio into your routine, you can choose opposing cardio on the other days, a run on Monday or a swim on Tuesday, for example.

Recovery Modalities: Strategies for Muscle Soreness Relief

Regarding muscle soreness and working out generally, taking some form of recovery time is key. When it comes to DOMS, there is no known treatment to stop it entirely, but there are some recovery techniques that help provide relief and speed up recovery. 

Recovery has become a buzzy term with so many different modalities available, from cryotherapy to infrared saunas, percussion massages, and various pain-relieving modalities. The truth is, the recovery method each person needs may look different.

Hot and Cold Therapies

Trendy hot and cold therapies like cryotherapy, cold plunges or ice baths, and saunas are suggested to have some mental health and cognitive benefits, and have been shown to reduce pain and inflammation from muscle damage, with a positive impact specifically on DOMS. Lefever is a fan.

‍"The research does look significant and promising for chronic inflammation and jump-starting the metabolic system," he says, adding that he now incorporates both a cold plunge and a hot sauna into his recovery. 

Foam Rolling & Massage

Foam rolling is also commonly used for soreness relief. Although studies are sparse, like massage, it seems to reduce soreness for some people.

Epsom salt baths are another good pick for relief. Though, like foam rollers, the scientific evidence for their efficacy is relatively slim, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence, and if they make you relax and feel good, there's no harm in a good Epsom salt soak.

Prioritize Hydration, Nutrition, and Sleep

Of course, proper hydration, nutrition, and sleep are also essential for proper recovery.

Calming Breathing Exercises

Lefever also says we shouldn't discount the impact breathing has on our workouts and recovery, explaining that deep breathing helps the muscles relax and helps switch us out of fight-or-flight mode we naturally enter into after a heart-thumping, high-impact workout (exercise is a healthy type of temporary stress!).

‍"Before you leave the gym, find a spot where you can put your feet up on the wall and do nasal breathing a three or four second inhale, then a prolonged six to 10 second exhale." He says. "This should help transport oxygen to more tissues and cells that need recovery and repair."

Foam Roll or Massage Your Aching Muscles

"I find massages not only relaxing but necessary. I drop in for a 20 minute foot massage as often as I can. It helps keep my entire body in alignment," adds Tunde. Vagy says that applying light to moderate pressure on the sore parts of the body may kickstart the recovery process.

‍"Mild and moderate intensity will actively stimulate that area without overly breaking it down," he explains. A little time with your foam roller or a massage will do the trick.

Stretch or Dynamic Stretch

"In addition, light stretching, and often dynamic stretching moving through your available range of motion allow the muscles and tendons to contract and elongate. This action can help pump out inflammation and facilitate active recovery," says Vagy.

Although studies are mixed on whether or not stretching helps speed up muscle recovery, if stretching enables you to feel better after a workout, then there's no reason it can't be a part of your post-workout routine. Stretching has other benefits, too, including:

• Reducing your risk of injury
• Improving performance

Rest When You’re Tired

The truth is, sometimes, the best thing you can do for your body (and your future workouts) is just relax.

‍"In my opinion rest is just as important, if not more important than the workout. Proper rest gives my body the time it needs to properly detox and recover, making me stronger for the workout ahead," says Tunde.

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