Pain

When is muscle soreness a good sign, and when should you be careful to avoid injury?

Every athlete knows that exercise comes with discomfort — and that’s necessary. To build stronger muscles, you need to place them under a certain amount of stress. This stress usually feels like a burning sensation during the workout and goes away quickly. Fatigue after a tough workout is a good sign and helps develop muscle strength.

But when bones, joints, muscles, tendons, and cartilage are overloaded, the body isn’t building strength — it’s repairing bad damage. This kind of bad pain can start a few hours after the workout, peak on days 1–2 afterward, and may even come with swelling. A good way to prevent this is to perform a new or unfamiliar exercise at no more than two-thirds of your maximum intensity the first few times. Once your muscles and joints have adapted, you can increase the intensity safely.

Bones also need time to adapt. For example, when you start training for running, the bones in your legs become denser. But if you increase the intensity too quickly, your bones can become weaker instead of stronger — in extreme cases, this can lead to stress fractures (small cracks in the bone).

What if you’re already in a lot of pain?
Avoid overloading that muscle group. Focus on other parts of the body or switch to a low-impact workout, such as swimming. Don’t stop moving entirely — otherwise, joints can become stiff and lose their natural range of motion.

Warning signs of “bad pain”:

• Doesn’t go away with rest

• Prevents you from using the muscle at all

• Interferes with other parts of life, like sleep

• Is constant, gets worse, and doesn’t improve

• Comes with a fever