Sore or injured: how to tell, and what to do

What post-training soreness usually looks like

Muscle soreness that shows up late after a session is called delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS. The Cleveland Clinic's patient page states that it starts one to three days after your workout, usually lasts a few days, and rarely lasts more than five days. It tends to follow unaccustomed movements or a recent increase in load.

Features that fit ordinary soreness:

• It does not hurt during the movement; it appears about a day later.
• It sits in the muscles you just trained, roughly symmetrical on both sides.
• It feels swollen, tight and tender to press, and often eases once you start moving.
• It gets lighter day by day.

Signs that do not look like soreness

• Pain that appears during the movement itself, especially sudden, sharp pain.
• Pain on one side only, or concentrated in a joint or a single point rather than across a muscle.
• Marked swelling or bruising, or a reduced range of motion in a joint.
• Pain that lasts more than a week, or that keeps getting worse.

The Cleveland Clinic lists these as reasons to see a healthcare provider: the pain lasts more than a week; the pain feels sharp and constant; you have severe swelling around a muscle; your urine is unusually dark or has blood in it.

This article does not tell you which injury you have. You will not read "that is a strain, rest three days" here, and we suggest you do not go looking for that sentence online either.

Situations that need medical care

The UK NHS page on sprains and strains lists these as reasons to call its 111 service: it is very painful or the pain is getting worse; there is a large amount of swelling or bruising, or it is getting worse; you cannot put weight on it or walk more than a few steps; it is very stiff or difficult to move; it is not improving after self-treatment; you have a fever or signs of infection.

These are treated as emergencies (999 or your local emergency number): you heard a crack at the moment of injury; the injured part has changed shape or points at an odd angle; there is numbness, tingling or pins and needles; the skin around the injury turns blue or grey, or feels cold.

One more to remember on its own: severe muscle pain and swelling together with unusually dark or bloody urine may be rhabdomyolysis, which the Cleveland Clinic lists, along with compartment syndrome, as a medical emergency. Do not wait. Go to emergency care.

Can you train while still sore

The Cleveland Clinic's advice is to avoid intense exercise with the sore muscles while they are sore, while moving them in your everyday routine is generally fine.

In terms of how this site works:

• Training other body parts is fine; keep moving through the program's training days in order.
• On a bad day you can drop the weight one step or do one set fewer, reducing by rule rather than forcing it.
• A missed session does not need making up, and never merge two sessions into one. See rest days and missed sessions.
• Do not train with a fever, marked fatigue or when you feel unwell; come back after you recover.

Early self-care

For ordinary sprains and strains the NHS advises PRICE for the first 2 to 3 days: protection (a support or suitable shoes), rest (stop exercising and try not to put weight on it), ice (a wrapped ice pack or a bag of frozen vegetables for up to 20 minutes every 2 to 3 hours), compression (a bandage for support during the day) and elevation (keep it raised). Avoid heat, alcohol and massage for the first couple of days.

This is general early care. It is not a rehabilitation plan and it does not replace seeing a doctor. If something is genuinely injured, what to do next should be decided by a doctor or a qualified rehabilitation professional after an examination.

How to have less soreness

• Add load gradually. One of the good practice statements in the World Health Organization's 2020 physical activity guidelines is to start with small amounts of physical activity and gradually increase frequency, intensity and duration over time.
• Warm up properly; see how to warm up before training.
• Do not swap in a large batch of new exercises at once. When a whole program changes, keep weights and sets low in the first week.
• Soreness is not a measure of whether training worked, and no soreness does not mean the session was wasted.

When you cannot tell, act on the more cautious side: stop that exercise first, then go ask someone.

This is general training knowledge, not a medical diagnosis or treatment advice. If you have a previous injury, are in rehabilitation, or have questions about pain, consult a doctor or a qualified rehabilitation professional.