5 Times Sore Muscles Are a Bad Thing
We all know the feeling of waking up the morning after a particularly brutal workout only to find walking is hardly an option. Soreness can be a sign of a workout that was challenging but beneficial to your body, but other times it can signal injury.
If you are constantly wondering if your I-can’t-sit-down-without-assistance soreness is normal, check for these five warning signs that something else may be to blame for your pain.
1. You can pinpoint your pain
Muscle soreness is usually more of a dull, expansive pain. An injury, on the other hand, tends to be more localized in a specific spot. If you can point with one finger to your pain, you may have a pulled or strained ligament, tendon, or muscle. If you need your whole palm to show where the pain it, it is probably just sore muscles.
2. You only feel it on one side
Muscle soreness will typically affect both sides of your body. With normal soreness the pain is bilateral, but with injuries, the pain is usually unilateral.
3. You overtrained
There is an exception to unilateral pain being “normal” soreness: overtraining. The feeling is very similar to muscle soreness and happens often with endurance athletes. If you are constantly shaking off your “dead leg” sore feeling, ask yourself when your last day off was. If it is hard to remember, take a rest day.
4. How long have you been sore?
Sore muscles typically will fade anywhere from 24 to 72 hours after a workout. If you are feeling a pain that you can point to with a finger for five, six, or seven days, you may have an injury.
5. The pain gets worse with movement
When your muscles begin to warm up, typically your soreness will subside. But if you are limping every step and the pain gets worse the more you use your muscles, you may have an injury.