Should you workout while you're still sore?

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Replies

  • Walter__
    Walter__ Posts: 518 Member
    DavPul wrote: »

    anything else? you good now? or would you like to regale us with more tales of hypothetical torn pecs and people continuing to work thru them. i really enjoyed that story and could stand to hear some more.

    I'm still waiting to hear what other sound advice you have besides disregarding all signs of pain and injury.

    Maybe you'd recommend some crossfit-style squats like these, just to really guarantee a hospital visit :p :

    Squat_Death.jpg
  • KittensMaster
    KittensMaster Posts: 748 Member
    Joint pain or sudden onset pain is one thing

    Soreness in the belly of your muscles is something else

    If you can grasp and rub the muscle tissue and feel it in your biceps or things for example, that is muscle sore that is not a huge deal. It if is really sore let it rest and rebuild. Walking is fine for sore legs. It increases circulation and is good for recovery. A set of squats is not.

    If you ever feel a sudden pain related to a movement, that is highly probable to be a degree of injury. A range of motion pain may let you know you need stretching.

    Warm up and stretch a bit. Then do your progressive set workout.

    Morning after muscle soreness is to be expected

    Sudden onset or joint pain isn't.

    Lots of people feel pain in the front of their knee below the knee cap when starting running. One of those nagging pains to rest and stretch your hamstrings to get conditioned to running.

    Running on that sore knee may make it worse. Some try to push thru those things and do. Lots get good and sore and end up taking a week off

    Listen to your body. It is only exercise. Eating a little less is the same as doing some exercise

    Keep it all in perspective
  • Bansh3e
    Bansh3e Posts: 71 Member
    If you are sore, yes you should because your muscle wll get used to it and later you will not have a problem.
    If you`re injured, no.
  • 47Jacqueline
    47Jacqueline Posts: 6,993 Member
    If you are in pain, no do not continue. If you have the feeling that your muscles have been worked harder than before, sure carry on.
  • piperdown44
    piperdown44 Posts: 958 Member
    In the OP you said you're doing bodyweight exercises and are now sore. Get the rest day in, as called for in the book, and go on to the next workout as scheduled. You will be sore, period, if you're just starting out. Took me three weeks before soreness started to lessen.
    I would suggest warming up the area before starting the next session. Walk around for 10-15 mins if your lower body is sore, do some arm circles of peace, small circles and large circles, to warm the upper body up.
  • lisalsd1
    lisalsd1 Posts: 1,519 Member
    Are you sore or in pain? If it is soreness, working out will probably help; it helps me to keep moving.
  • shor0814
    shor0814 Posts: 559 Member
    walterc7 wrote: »
    DavPul wrote: »
    Yes. This post is totes about the OP feeling like they've been gravely injured. You caught me again

    Lol. I thought you would've realize by now that I was giving OP advice beyond the scope of soreness because he is a beginner. Hence why I said:
    walterc7 wrote:
    And heed my advice about listening to your body always. If you're doing an exercise and it feels wrong - something hurts or doesn't feel right while you're doing it - fix it or stop if necessary.

    And of course you completely disagree.
    DavPul wrote:
    Completely and totally disagree. With virtually every word.


    I even broke things down further, explaining what I meant by "listening to your body", to help with your reading comprehension issues:

    walterc7 wrote:
    Last week I saw two beginners deadlifting. By second set I could see they were both in obvious pain so I went over there and helped them out - taught them how to stop hyperextending their lumbar by maintain a neutral spine and brace their core. But they should have continued with what they were doing until they eventually blew a disc out, right? :) You "completely and totally disagree" that they should have listened to their body's pain signals and fixed what they were doing wrong.

    Now how about the guy who tore his pec out during benching. He shouldn't have stopped benching and gone to the hospital right? Because you completely disagree with "stop if necessary".
    DavPul wrote:
    Yep, still stand by every single word.

    Go on. Tell us more about how you disagree about ignoring signs of pain and injury.

    I am obviously not DavPul but here is my take and how it might help the OP.

    Dav didn't say to ignore pain and signs of pain, he said that new lifters don't know what their body is saying, case in point is the OP. If the OP only listened to his/her body they would not work out until they stopped feeling sore which would be days and when they worked out again they would be sore again and waited until they aren't sore etc. where their body would never adapt.

    Second case in point is your deadlifters. They obviously were unable to recognize what their body was telling them. An experienced lifter would have felt the pain and changed form or stopped. They hurt yet didn't have the experience to know that something was wrong. They listened to their body and continued because they believed that their body was still fine because they didn't know better.

    The new lifter will take forever to adapt and make gains if they rest for soreness. One or two extra days of rest is a big deal because it will discourage the new lifter. Extra days off for soreness means days where you have not gotten into your routine and more opportunity to make excuses and not exercise. Extra days off mean the body doesn't adapt to soreness so it is constantly sore (and a lot sore, not the general sore that we get used to).

    The OP and other new lifters should listen to their body but verify with someone who knows more than they do, hence the OP's question. The two lifters in your scenario should not have stopped and fixed anything on their own, they should have asked a trainer or better lifter to check them out and continue with the correct form. In another situation they may have had perfect form but because it felt uncomfortable and because they are new they would not know the difference between good and bad uncomfortable.

    The bottom line islearning about what your body is telling you by asking. That is how we learn to understand our bodies, as a newbie we don't know and should ask but we shouldn't stop just because DOMS or a certain new way of working our body feels different.
  • mmutluaydin
    mmutluaydin Posts: 53 Member
    I changed my workout plan. I do each part once a week and i m getting better results. (I only use creatine as supplement)
  • SingRunTing
    SingRunTing Posts: 2,604 Member
    DavPul wrote: »
    walterc7 wrote: »
    If you're new to strength training the best advice I can give you is to always listen to your body.

    There are different levels of soreness. Some you can push through; others you can not. So if you feel like you are too sore to work out then don't. What's one or two extra days of rest in the grand scheme of things anyway?

    Eventually your body will adapt to working out and you'll be able to stick to your routine as scheduled because you'll no longer get sore.

    But for now rest if you must. And heed my advice about listening to your body always. If you're doing an exercise and it feels wrong - something hurts or doesn't feel right while you're doing it - fix it or stop if necessary.

    Completely and totally disagree. With virtually every word.

    1. complete noobs don't understand what their body is saying
    2. Avoiding working out is the best way to ensure that the soreness lasts a week instead of a couple days
    3. Soreness is just soreness. Warm up, start slow and you'll get thru your workout perfectly fine
    4. The best way to stick to a plan is by sticking with a plan, not taking extra days off willy nilly. A well written plan already incorporated appropriate rest
    5. The soreness from the first workout or two is the WORST, but some soreness will pretty much always be there, even after adaptation. Just not nearly at the levels of day 1.
    6. Noobs don't know what "feels wrong" means. Hence their atrocious form

    This plus:
    - it depends on what level you are on, but YAYOG is only 4ish days a week. You can take a rest day if you want.
    - You don't work the same muscle groups two days in a row on the program. It's usually push/pull then legs/abs. You don't ever do upper body two workouts in a row.
  • Walter__
    Walter__ Posts: 518 Member
    edited August 2015
    shor0814 wrote: »
    Dav didn't say to ignore pain and signs of pain, he said that new lifters don't know what their body is saying, case in point is the OP. If the OP only listened to his/her body they would not work out until they stopped feeling sore which would be days and when they worked out again they would be sore again and waited until they aren't sore etc. where their body would never adapt.

    Second case in point is your deadlifters. They obviously were unable to recognize what their body was telling them. An experienced lifter would have felt the pain and changed form or stopped. They hurt yet didn't have the experience to know that something was wrong. They listened to their body and continued because they believed that their body was still fine because they didn't know better.

    The new lifter will take forever to adapt and make gains if they rest for soreness. One or two extra days of rest is a big deal because it will discourage the new lifter. Extra days off for soreness means days where you have not gotten into your routine and more opportunity to make excuses and not exercise. Extra days off mean the body doesn't adapt to soreness so it is constantly sore (and a lot sore, not the general sore that we get used to).

    The OP and other new lifters should listen to their body but verify with someone who knows more than they do, hence the OP's question. The two lifters in your scenario should not have stopped and fixed anything on their own, they should have asked a trainer or better lifter to check them out and continue with the correct form. In another situation they may have had perfect form but because it felt uncomfortable and because they are new they would not know the difference between good and bad uncomfortable.

    The bottom line islearning about what your body is telling you by asking. That is how we learn to understand our bodies, as a newbie we don't know and should ask but we shouldn't stop just because DOMS or a certain new way of working our body feels different.

    Haha I'm sure he doesn't really believe one should ignore signs of pain. But I did state that if you're lifting and something hurts then take steps to fix it or stop if necessary. To which he responded he completely disagrees and he's sticking to it. I'm just busting his chops about it because he's being stubborn.

    Anyway, what you and Dav seem to keep missing is that I never told OP not to work out if he's sore. If you reread my first post, I tell OP there's different levels of soreness and some you can push through, other's you can't. OP comes back a few posts later and says he went for a walk, feels fine, and he's going to lift again. So it wasn't that bad at all, and he pushed through it. Perfect. But there are some occasions where the soreness really is that bad that you can't seem to function no matter how much you stretch out or try to get those muscles moving. In that case, an extra day of rest may be beneficial. I don't know if it's a reading comprehension issue on your part or if I just wasn't clear enough..so one last time, to make it clear: I never stated don't work out if you're sore. Push through the soreness, unless it's really that freakin' bad that you just can't. And when I said "If you're doing an exercise and it feels wrong - something hurts or doesn't feel right while you're doing it - fix it or stop if necessary", I was no longer talking about soreness. I was talking about actual pain from bad form.


    Finally, new lifter definitely feels when something hurts. The problem is that everyone has heard the expression "no pain, no gain", so they've been conditioned to think that pain is normal. It's not. Lifting shouldn't hurt if you have no preexisting injuries. When done right, you shouldn't be in pain during your lifts. Sure you might feel sore the next day, but your knees shouldn't feel like they're about to blow out when squatting. If people weren't conditioned to think pain was normal, they'd definitely take a moment to try to fix themselves when something hurts. But they don't because they hear "no pain, no gain". I still stand by what I said: if you're performing a lift and it hurts then fix it or stop if necessary. I mentioned this to the OP because he stated he's new to lifting and it's good advice to give to anyone. Feel free to disagree, but it's perfectly good advise to give to anyone. No different from "use good form".
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