Should You Workout If You're Sore? (3 Levels of Muscle Soreness Explained)
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- čas přidán 30. 07. 2024
- Should you workout when sore? There's some controversy on this so in this quick video I decided to clear things up.
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Muscle soreness is one of those things I get asked a lot about, and it's often a question whether the person can still exercise if they're sore.
If you're not sure what muscle soreness (DOMS) really is then I suggest watching this video titled: "Do You Have To Be Sore After Every Workout to Build Muscle?"
• Do You Have To Be Sore...
Key Points:
Soreness (technically called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) is a sign that you body isn't used to stimuli that you've exposed it to.
And in practical terms that means you've added some new exercises, maybe you tried to emphasize the eccentric portion of the lift more, or lift to failure, or simply you added more sets or reps than what you're used to.
All of these things can affect how sore you get. And also how sore you get will depends on your genetics.
Some people get muscle soreness very easily (I'm that kind of person) while others almost never have it.
Muscle soreness is not an indicator for the quality of your workout program like the gurus want you to believe.
You can grow perfectly fine without being sore.
And as your body adapts to training, soreness will lessen and in some cases go away completely.
Workout quality can be measured by progress, and if you're getting stronger over time.
And as far as training when sore that depends on how severe the soreness is.
I like to estimate this in 3 levels:
Level 1: You're slightly sore, or a smaller muscle group is sore. In this case the soreness and tightness go away after a good warm-up and you'll often find that exercise will completely relieve the effects of soreness.
For Level 1 soreness it's not only allow to workout but I also recommend you to do it.
Level 2: This is where it gets tricky. At this level of soreness you can notice that it's affecting your range of motion. You're getting stiff and this might impact the way you perform exercises.
At this stage it''s still okay to exercise as long as you take your time and warm-up properly. Aside from a general warm-up I recommend adding more warm-up sets.
As long as you can hit the full range of motion, and it feels okay after warm-up you can definitely do a nice workout at this level of soreness.
Often you'll find that training relieved some of the symptoms and that you feel better the next day.
Level 3: At this stage soreness is extreme. Your range of motion is severely limited and you can barely move.
This level of soreness is rare but it can happen. Especially for someone who's coming back into training and they overestimate their abilities.
Now, when you get this type of soreness you shouldn't try to do your regular workout.
Because your range of motion is limit and some parts of your body might under too much stress it's a better idea to delay the workout for a day or two.
And what you should do when this happens is do a form of active recovery. Light walking is great.
Additionally things like hot baths, massaging, stretching and foam rolling can help by temporarily relieving some of the symptoms.
If you do decide to still do a workout make sure it's lighter loads and focus on a VERY long warm-up.
The idea would be to do a recovery workout, and not push yourself too hard to risk an injury.
Soreness (DOMS) naturally decreases in intensity over a couple of weeks when you familiarize yourself with the workout plan.
This is completely normal.
Hope you guys enjoyed this. Let me know in the comments do you usually get very sore or not with your current workout routine.
And have a great day!
Talk soon, Mario
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I worked out my calves and had to walk on toes
I did squats yesterday and today I had a worst time in high school looking at people looking at me moving real slow on the stairs XD
Than I think it's level 2 or 2.5 soreness lol
Abdul Manan Ch lmao I feel you man. My first time working out I didn't get sore but then after the second day I couldn't stand up straight, extend my arm high enough, not could I walk properly or at a decent pace either. I literally was sore all over my body from doing arms, chest, back, and legs lol
Abdul Manan Ch same..that day was the worst..I couldn't even walk up a 3 in. stair. 😥 that day stairs was my fear.
Finally someone talks about this. Every one else I watch talks about soreness as one or the other but sometimes I'm just barely sore to the point where I have to look for it and I was wondering if I should be cutting back but it looks like I can keep going if this is the case.
I love the feeling of being sore 😅
Its funny, when I am sore then I go to the gym and get warmed up, the pain will just go away. then the next day or two i dont even remember the muscle was sore.
Great info about the topic so far!
Interesting topic bro. Awesome work!!
+Callum Davies Thank you bro!
My muscles tighten everytime i move them but i still feel like i have enough strength to exercise the question is should I ????
Wow thank you very much!
Cheers!
hey Mario, thanks for your videos ;)
I wanted to ask your opinion about these :
I like running and improving my times on 3000m and 5000m.
I also do weight training. Will running such distances make me lose muscle? I run because I like it, and would like to have high fitness. maybe better if I focus only on 3000m?
+JustHamid94 "Lose muscle" is a very harsh term. Look at it like this, your body can't serve 2 masters at the same time. So you'll have to prioritize either strength or endurance adaptations. Which ever is a priority you do more of that and tone down the volume of the other. How much impact cardio has on your strength / hypertrophy adaptations depends on many factors such as the volume, intensity and frequency of cardio. Also which type of activity, your work capacity, genetics etc..
I noticed when I started hitting the gym that I got EXTREMELY sore. Like a could barely move for a few days. It was bad. But after my subsequent workouts i barely got sore at all. My muscles seem to have adjusted fairly quickly. I think this is because I have done body weight training for about five years and have really never hit the gym much at all. So my muscles just need a period to adjust. I always feel like I am getting the most gains when my muscles are sore though. When my muscles are not sore I feel like the workout just wasn't that good.
+Alex Kozlowski Thanks for taking the time to share that with the community bro, that's very similar to my experience
What if my whole body is sore? should i do some cardio to heal faster if i'm bulking?
damn can you help me please! When im doing pushups my muscles close to my shoulder on my chest hurt. Should I stop doing pushups for a couple days?
Nice topic bro! Havent listen this before. Just a question, im hitting 60 heavy reps per week on each muscular group, but i just hit them once a week(each group). Should i increase the frecuency? Thanks !
+nelson verdugo Generally there's some data showing that higher frequency might be beneficial, hitting each muscle part 2-3 times a week. However it depends greatly on how you organize your training volume through out the week. Frequency is sort of a tool to protect the quality of your volume
Well my level of soreness varies with muscle groups. Lower body gets to level 2 with ease whereas my shoulders hardly ever get sore. If I work my shoulders on the same day as chest then they get sore.
oh nice.. my triceps its verry hurts ? its ok to go to the gym ?? icnt straight properly . 😔 what can i do?? thank you
For smaller muscle groups, it's usually okay if you go to the gym. The increased blood flow and body temperature will actually boost the recovery. And you can skip training that muscle group in the workout if it's too sore.
Is there a such thing as level four, bc that's what I experience!
haha
Mario, what would you advise me if after a heavy shoulder workout (12reps/4sets) my shoulder joints are still hurting after 5 days
(much much less but still i can feel a sting if i lift 1L milk or something like that)
Did i permanently destroyed my joints or should i just wait until it doesnt hurt anymore?
Broxine you should concentrate on the right performance. For example if you do side laterals incorrect then you can tear the tissue around your shoulder joints
Boredbosnian Ez, what you mean to concentrate on "performance" ? I asked if i should train itching joints shoulders or if i shoud pause
Joint pain sucks , I had to take time off the heavy load movements . Started walking with weights in my Hands and doing all sorts or shoulder moves , mp, side raise front raise , curls reverse curls , overhead extensions. Sometimes you have strong anterior from bench but the supporting muscles are weak . Long story short I’m going heavy again except bench , and I am shocked with my progress .
i could do 12 push ups but since im sore 5 why ?
I was doing upper body exercises yesterday (mainly Ab workouts) and now i can’t even do a sit up lmao
I think I might be on level 2. I was on level 3 twice with my core, because I swam too much with my legs.. My ABS hurted soo much, i had a hard time to breath for 7 days. I coudn't walk. Well, once i walked, it didn't hurt, but hell, it hured me every time, i had to stretch.
So if i go light now, I should be okay i suppose.
Do i need to feel like i hand wash my self ? WHen i swim i swim till I can't feel my body lol to an extend. I have a hard time to wash my self, or stand. I suppose my muscles got tired enough, or maybe i don't need to feel always like that? But jsut got light and any workout is good? : p though I'm trying to achieve good fitness, and I don't want to get fat either.
Thanks for sharing bro.
the more experienced the athlete, the more intimately they will be able to tell what level of soreness it is. an inexperienced lifter\athlete will freak out at level 1-2, and often won't take level 3 seriously enough (I can train this off mentality). knowing your body comes only with "time under tension" aka experience
+Livio Dinaj Well said man!
Did you do a video also about stretches before and after or maybe on the day off ?
+billc Hey bro, I've made a couple of warm-up videos displaying my mobility routines. Haven't done one on stretching because I don't do much stretching myself. Just a few small things before bed.
Im at level three soreness,I did legs after a long time,did 7 set of squats and now im on day three with dome serious pain ,barely can walk ,is this normal and how long is going to take.i did try the light cycling and jogging,no help 😔
Foam rolling and walking help.
is it okay if i lift weights for my shoulder but my biceps are sore. i cant fully raise my hand because of my biceps it sore alot.
It's okay to skip it at that point or just use lighter weights to speed up recovery so you can get back to training.
hey man how long is it take to build a good shoulder like filling the gaps i hate that feeling of bonny shoulder there is no meat in there pls help
+bargene journey It depends on too many things to give you a straightforward answer. Ranging from months to years, all you can do is do the best you can to work on your shoulders muscles with compound movements such as overhead pressing and let the time do it's thing
Hey mate, maybe you should talk about injuries, in my case i got Costochondritis from pushing my chest too hard in the gym. It's better now, but damn I had to pause for a month and a half.
+Darko Ristanovic If the person uses proper exercise technique, and doesn't do any ego-lifting weight lifting is one of the safest sports in the world. For specific issues like that it's best to consult a qualified physiotherapist as I'm not qualified to talk about treating such issues.
Man can you help me with these two questions
Is possible to make progress lifting when you're in a deficit?
And
Can we get ripped just by just tracking calories and protein?
+Rony Zelaya "Is possible to make progress lifting when you're in a deficit? " - Yes in certain situations. "Can we get ripped just by just tracking calories and protein?" Yes. If you're in a caloric deficit you'll lose fat.
I stay extremely sore, but i can still add weight all the time and always do every set to failure.
What's your opinion on joint pain?...is it normal when starting out weight training ?
I th
No, start with a lower weight
I'm getting level 3
I still go ahead and do my workout. Soreness usually goes away once I get into the workout!
+Trevor Williams In most of cases that's a good choice, however there's a few cases where that's not recommended as I mentioned in the video
+Mario Tomic Ya, speaking for myself ;)
First :)
I can't raise my arms higher then my chest should I wait till I'm better?
Nothing bad will happen if you take 1 more day of rest for the upper body
dude! ....... love your bids bro!
+Zack Anderson Thanks man :D
lvl 3 here lol was just gonna hit the gym,before seeing this video,now i think im just gonna go for a walk thanks heaps
Cheers!
I did some leg day 3 days ago and when I was a kid I don't remember to backing off from football while sore. But those nerd youtubers are like don't do that and that and I think I am getting stupid. I think 2 days is enough to heal, soreness in my legs is because I didn't do anything with them so I will warm them up extra and go ahead with the routine, they should adapt.
Are you croatian
Second! ;)
+Tucker Wilson Hope you're having a great day bro!
How can you feel more stronger when you are sore???
+kdebbagh It's weird, but at Level 1 soreness I often feel a lot stronger than if I'm completely rested. Experience may vary :)
I do a full body 3x a week with normally 1-2 days rest in between. I have a problem sometimes managing my intensity on exercises to balance with the increased frequency and sometimes and can go too close to failure on some sets. 1 rest day in between workouts is sometimes not enough and I can still be sore 2 days later. I often take an extra day off.
hi i'm your classic ectomorph no muscle weakling nerd recently i decided F*** it i'm tired of looking like this
i didn't want to start heavy so i looked up an easy starter workout for the chest just to get my body used to working out
it was knee push ups 10 reps 30 sec rest and repeat repeat repeat
then on to level 2 same as before but from an elevated platform aka my couch
then level three same as first but arms scooted in toward the chest
all three phases were repeat after 30 sec rest over and over now its the next day and my triceps starting at the elbow and going about 4 inches back is sore as hell
it hurts a lot to bend my arm to my shoulder
i just need to know if this is normal i haven't been to the gym ever but have been sore before but this feels different like its not the muscle
i feel like a pussy that such a mild workout did this to me but it my own fault for being so lazy all these years
i know for sure i'm not going to stop working out till i'm satisfied
all i need to know is if i should push through it or stop for a few days
i'm going to do this but i want to do it without hurting myself
does anyone know what this is or had it happen to them am i over reacting ? a little help for the non athletic dweeb would be nice i welcome any comment to help me reach my goal
It's normal to be sore. It usually resolves itself.
the moment you "scooted" your hands toward the center of your chest (narrow-grip push up) you shifted most of your body weight to your triceps. if your trying to target your chest try pacing your hands a little wider than your shoulder width (wide-grip push ups). as far as the soreness goes, its just a part of the process. hence the quote "No pain no gain" ... couldn't have put it better myself. Hope this helps, and happy lifting!!
Carlos Alberto Araujo Muro Thanks I've been trying to figure out the difference between wide and narrow
I ran 5 and a half laps and now today I'm gonna play football is that fine
Should be good bro
Third!
+Keshav Bhatt Haha, awesome :D
So yes or no lol sheeeeesh
As a kinesiologyst, and a coach of a couple of world class athletes I can confirm this (usually athletes, because of better level of conditioning, don't experience this too much, they get to level 1 maybe, rarely level 2 but if they ever get to level 3 something is wrong - usually that the coach is complete shit XD , but for "regular people" its possible but not good if you get to lv3, it just means your conditioning is way off... )
+Ivan Delac Thanks for taking the time to share this bro! Awesome info
Level 100