If You’re Sore After a Workout, Should You Be Concerned?

Athletes, fitness buffs and novices alike all know the saying, “No pain, no gain.” To some extent, this saying is true.

Weight-bearing and cardiovascular activities stress the body. As a result of that stress, we enhance our strength and endurance and build muscle over time. By pushing our physical boundaries, we optimize our athletic performance. But this process is almost always at the cost of feeling some level of pain or soreness.

“A certain low level of soreness is acceptable, but you should not push through pain while exercising,” says sports medicine physician Dominic King, DO.

Dr. King breaks down when pain should be cause for concern and how you can alleviate some of the pain without falling back on your goals.

Should I still work out if I’m sore?

If you’re only experiencing low-level soreness in the days following a workout, Dr. King says it’s probably OK to try a lighter workout than you’re used to. Some physical activity might actually help ease the achiness you’re feeling. Once you get started, you might feel up for taking on the rest of your routine.

But if your soreness is more painful or you feel like it’s harder to do your routine exercises, it’s best to avoid strenuous activity until you’re no longer sore.

Why am I sore after I work out?

Muscle soreness after exercising is completely normal, especially if you’re starting a new exercise for the very first time or you’re exercising after a long period of rest. This soreness is called “delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS)” and tends to develop hours or days after intense exercise.

On a physiological level, you’re experiencing this low-level soreness because your muscles are learning how to perform the workout that you’re doing. And in response to lifting weights and exerting stress during each of your exercises, your muscles experience microtears. Over time, with the help of protein and rest, your muscles fill these microtears in with newer and stronger muscle. This is how you continue to build muscle mass.

In most cases, this soreness goes away on its own within a few days and becomes less severe or frequent the more you work out those same muscles. Over time, as you progress through your strength training routine, you might experience DOMS again with more complex challenges until your muscles become accustomed to the stress.

Good vs. bad soreness after a workout

Soreness is good after a workout if it’s a dull, low-level pain that goes away on its own with rest or gets better with regular physical activity. If you can quantify your pain as a 2 or 3 on a scale of 1 to 10, and your pain isn’t getting worse during exercise or limiting your ability to do other daily activities, the pain you’re feeling is probably natural and OK.

If you experience this kind of pain, there are some at-home solutions you can try that will reduce the severity of your pain and help your muscles recover more efficiently.

But sudden, strong, sharp or persistent pain that develops while you’re exercising is something of a concern.

“Pain represents injury,” Dr. King clarifies. “It’s your body’s way of signaling that something needs attention — often, the result of overuse or too much stress on a muscle or tendon. Instead of pushing through pain, listen to your body, respect its limits and give it the care and recovery it needs.”

If you experience any of the following symptoms, it may be a sign of a musculoskeletal strain or an overuse injury and should be looked at by a healthcare provider:

• Sharp pain that prevents you from moving a body part, decreases your range of motion or prevents you from moving altogether
• Pain in an area that was previously injured or where you’ve had surgery
• No pain relief after several days of rest, ice or over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) medication
• Pain coupled with pressure and bruising
• Pain associated with fevers and chills

What if I don’t feel sore after a workout?

When you exercise, you want your muscles to feel some sort of fatigue — like you actually put them to work. If you’re not feeling sore after a workout, it could mean one of two things:

• Your muscles have grown accustomed to the exercise you’re doing, which is a sign that you’re strength and endurance are progressing
• Your muscles aren’t being challenged enough and could benefit from more weight, higher amount of repetitions or different exercises

When it comes to increasing the challenge of a workout, gradual progression is key. “You should only increase the difficulty of an exercise when your current routine starts to feel manageable and no longer challenges you,” Dr. King advises. A good rule of thumb is the “10% rule” — whether it’s increasing weight, duration or intensity, aim for no more than a 10% increase per week to prevent overuse injuries.

Another way to gauge readiness is through the “talk test.”

“If you can carry on a conversation easily during your workout, it may be time to increase intensity,” Dr. King suggests. Similarly, on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is maximal effort, workouts should generally feel around a 6 to 8 for strength training and conditioning.

“The key is to challenge yourself without breaking yourself,” he adds. “Focus on progress, not punishment. Small, consistent improvements lead to big results over time.”