After a workout, feeling some discomfort is normal. Your muscles may feel stiff, tender or achy, especially if you tried a new exercise or pushed yourself harder than usual. But not every type of pain is simply part of recovery. Sometimes, it’s your body’s way of telling you something has gone wrong. Looking at when the pain started, what caused it, where you feel it and how it affects your movement can help you work out what you’re dealing with.
Pay Attention to the Timing
When you first notice discomfort can tell you a lot. The most common type of muscle soreness is delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS). It usually develops 24 to 72 hours after exercise and gradually settles as your muscles recover and adapt. The discomfort may feel more noticeable when you first move, but gentle movement can usually help you loosen up.
You may also experience soreness during or immediately after intense exercise. This type tends to settle much faster than DOMS. In both cases, the important thing is that the discomfort follows exercise without a specific injury event and improves as you recover.
The timeline for an injury can be different, often depending on the type. The first type is called an acute injury. This is a sudden physical trauma or damage that happens after a specific event, such as when you fall, take a blow or twist a joint. The second is chronic injury, which develops gradually when repeated stress or overuse affects the same area over time.
If your pain keeps getting worse, doesn’t improve after a few days or keeps coming back with a particular movement, you may be dealing with an injury rather than ordinary muscle soreness.
Check Where and How It Hurts
Location can provide a clue. With muscle soreness, you’ll usually notice aching in the muscles you worked, such as your legs after a tough lower-body session or your shoulders after a new upper-body routine. You may also have some tenderness, stiffness or reduced range of motion.
An injury is more likely to affect a specific spot, such as a joint, tendon or part of a muscle. You may notice pain when you press on the area or repeat a particular movement. For example, a bicep injury can cause pain in the upper arm that may extend toward the forearm, while a triceps injury can make straightening your arm painful or difficult. Swelling, bruising or noticeable weakness can also point to an injury.
Consider What Happened During Your Workout
Think back to what you were doing before the pain appeared. Muscle soreness usually shows up after you challenge your body in a new way. Did you increase the weight, add more repetitions, try a new exercise or push yourself harder than usual? If you felt fine during the session and noticed soreness afterward, your workout may simply have challenged your muscles more than they’re used to.
Pay closer attention if you remember a specific moment when something went wrong during the exercise itself, such as a sudden pull, an awkward landing, a twist or an impact. Poor technique and lifting more weight than you can control can also increase your risk of getting hurt. Weightlifting injuries made up about 30% of all sports injuries among athletes.
What to Do When You’re Unsure
If you think you’re dealing with normal soreness, keep your body moving gently as long as it feels comfortable. However, give yourself time to recover before putting the same muscles through another demanding workout. Pushing your muscles too hard before they recover can increase your risk of injury.
However, if you suspect an injury, you should stop the activity that triggered the pain altogether. You should also avoid repeatedly testing the painful movement just to see if it still hurts. You don’t need to blame yourself, either. Remember that fitness injuries are common and can happen to anyone, with younger men more likely to experience them.
Seek professional advice for severe or worsening pain, significant swelling or bruising, sudden weakness, numbness or trouble using the affected area, even if you’re unsure what’s causing the pain.
Know When to Push and When to Pause
Muscle soreness is a normal response to challenging exercise, but pain that begins with a specific incident, affects your normal movement or keeps getting worse deserves a closer look. When something feels significantly different from your usual post-workout soreness, stop pushing yourself and give your body the attention it deserves.