Sore Muscles?

[AmericanDerp]

Hello everyone! I’ve had a question about fitness lately, but I couldn’t find any decent research to give me an answer. I know you’re supposed to work out one day, the next day rest, and so on. But what if you’re sore for two or three days? Is it better to wait for your body to heal completely before working out? Or go for it even though you’re sore? I’ve been afraid that if I keep training with sore muscles, I’ll eventually hurt myself. Thank you for any answers you can provide!

[realbrickwall]

Go for it even though you're sore.

Something to make sure you do is stretch after (not before) every workout, and STRETCH ON YOUR OFF DAYS. Seriously, that's often a huge help.

Don't worry. After a week or two the soreness starts being less of a thing.

If you have actual muscle pain (believe me, you'll know it when it happens), then you should take care of the afflicted area, but continue to work out everything else.

[Jenn]

The reasons muscles get sore (unless you actually injure yourself) is because exercise causes small muscle tears and the release of lactic acid. These two combined is what causes the achy soreness of a good work out. The two best ways to help the soreness is to drink lots of water and exercise. These two help flush out the lactic acid which is the primary cause of pain. Usually you work out three days in a row (or four) and then take one or two days off. If you're using proper form during your workouts the risk for injury should be pretty minimal.

[Centurion]

If you go from not using certain muscles to working them out you are bound to be sore. Do some light exercise on your rests days or something that doesn't directly involve the muscles you used the day before. Exercising promotes blood flow which will really help to alleviate the soreness quicker

[Cboat1975]

Hey what's up. Just have started my workout routine I feel your pain. After the first work out I was so sore I could not move. The next day I rested and was still sore. The day of my next work out I was so sore I almost talked myself out of doing it. However I did what realbrickwall suggested. I stretched and then did my work out. After that I was sore but not so much. It does get much better as you go on. I woke up this morning not sore at all. Good luck on your quest of slaying the soreness dragon.

[Rilo]

I guess it depends on how sore they are. Take atleast one rest day to recover and use heat pads to relieve some soreness (hot water bottle works for me) and see how things are in the morning.

Muscles in my legs were really sore this weekend. Sunday I rested, monday still sore so continued to rest but did some yoga which helped. And today they're mildly tender but fine so I did some workouts for my upper body and I'll do some yoga again and maybe go for a walk. And by sore I mean I found it painful to even walk and sit down.

It can be a real pain waiting to recover but if you can barely even move it's better to wait and just work the rest of your body if you can, I know I can't wait to get back to a full workout again. I haven't had a day of doing nothing in the last month, my rest days always atleast have some light exercise.