For anyone new to the gym or a new workout routine, a question that is frequently asked is, “should you workout when sore?” This is an important question because when you’re first starting on your fitness journey or when you start a new exercise routine, your motivation is at an all-time high and you don’t want to slow down for anything — including muscle soreness!
Often people want to know whether they should push through the soreness and continue training, or if they would be better off taking a rest day instead. So, as a physiotherapist, I’m going to provide my best advice for this situation so that you can go ahead and modify your workouts when feeling sore. Let’s dive into it!
What Feeling Sore Means
Whenever someone tells me that they are feeling quite sore after an exercise session I tell them that this is a great sign that you are putting in hard work to improve your body.
When you wake up feeling sore, this is your body telling you that you’ve worked out hard and it might be time to focus on recovery for the next day before returning to hitting the weights again. With that being said, I am not suggesting taking a day off, I’m challenging you to add in either an active recovery day or a bodywork day into the mix which will help you to stay on track. Let’s explore what these mean next!