How Much Pain Does It Hurt During Exercise?
It’s okay to feel pain after the first day of a new workout, but you may have heard horror stories about people who are hospitalized after ruining themselves with super-intense training. You most likely have normal soreness, but here’s how to find out.
What normal soreness looks like
DOMS, or delayed muscle soreness, usually appears the day after a hard workout. The more severe it is, the longer it will last, often peaking 48-72 hours after exercise. A mild case will simply leave you feeling mildly sore for a day or two; a rougher one can make you grimace as you walk downstairs for most of the week.
The sensation can range from dull to burning. It will be most uncomfortable when you contract a sore muscle, especially if you sit still for a while. You may wake up thinking of god, everything hurts , but once you get up and start walking, you will probably feel a little better.
If you return to the gym during this time – you should! – you find that you can still do the same exercises, but you may find that the soreness makes it difficult to do them with as much weight or as many repetitions as the first time.
As a bonus, however, a bout of soreness protects you from pain the next time. This is called the “deferred fight effect,” and you can take advantage of it by showing up for your next workout even if you don’t feel completely normal. DOMS only occurs after new or extremely intense workouts, so once your body gets used to a particular exercise, you won’t get a serious case of DOMS anytime soon.
What if it’s rhabdomyolysis?
There is an extreme form of muscle soreness that can cause serious health complications and is called rhabdomyolysis, or rhabdo for short. In rhabdo, your muscles are so badly damaged that your body, and especially your kidneys, cannot handle the resulting waste products that enter your bloodstream.
However, this is not very common. If you’ve just gotten through a new workout and are feeling pain in everything, it’s much more likely that you have a bad case of DOMS than you have rhabdo. To give you an idea of how rare, this study found 29 cases over four years (2010–2014) in a New York hospital. Since this is just one hospital, there must have been more cases than 29 in the city in those years; but on the other hand, it is still a tiny fraction of the people who play sports.
But rhabdo does happen. And since it happens more often in absolute beginners who work too hard than experienced athletes (who seem to know when to stop pushing themselves), you may experience your first bout of severe soreness and not know if you are severely painful. or not.
Who gets rhabdo
Exercise-induced rhabdo, which again is rare, is more common in people who:
- Dehydrated.
- Exercise in extreme heat.
- Do extreme intensity or amount (or both) of exercise in one workout.
- Beginners in exercise and working very hard.
- Are taking certain medications, including ibuprofen or other NSAIDs .
Besides heavy training, rhabdomyolysis can also occur as a complication of injuries that damage most of the muscle tissue, as well as certain medications or other health conditions.
Symptoms to look out for can appear anytime on days after exercise, according to the CDC and include:
- Severe muscle pain, weakness, and swelling.
- Dark urine (“tea-colored or cola-colored”).
- Great fatigue.
If you have these symptoms, seek immediate medical attention, even if it means going to an emergency room or emergency room.
Once there, a blood test can confirm whether you have rhabdo and can get the help you need to make sure you don’t have kidney damage or other serious problems. The CDC recommends that you make sure you get tests for creatine kinase or creatine phosphokinase, ideally repeating them over several hours or days.
What if it just hurts you
In addition to ensuring you don’t miss your next workout, we have some tips for you . The bad news is, DOMS isn’t going anywhere; you need to get well. And to get well, you need sleep, food, and time.
But while you wait, a few things can help you feel better. Getting around helps, so take a walk or consider doing some light cardio. Massaging can be pleasant, so have someone massage you or massage yourself with a foam roller or lacrosse ball .
Stretching can help some people, but try not to stretch too much as this can damage the muscles further. I like to take a hot bath or use a heating pad. (Driving with heated seats is a post-workout pleasure that uses your back and hamstrings.)
And, as always, seek medical attention for anything that bothers you the most. An article on the Internet can’t tell you if you’re seriously injured or just a little in pain, but a real doctor can.