One of the most common questions I get from people who are new to training is: “Is this normal?” They’ve trained for the first time in months, they can barely walk down stairs, and they want to know if they’ve broken something.
Usually, it’s just muscle soreness. Completely normal. But sometimes it’s not. And knowing the difference between normal post-training soreness and something that needs attention is a skill every person who trains should have.
What Soreness Actually Is
That stiffness and tenderness you feel 24 to 72 hours after a hard session is called delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS. It happens when you stress your muscles in ways they’re not accustomed to, especially during the eccentric (lowering) phase of exercises.
When you do a squat, the lowering portion creates micro-tears in the muscle fibres. Your body then repairs those tears, making the muscle slightly stronger than before. The soreness you feel is part of that repair process. It’s inflammation, fluid shifts, and your immune system doing cleanup work.
DOMS is normal, expected, and generally not harmful. It’s your body adapting. Over time, as your muscles adapt to the training stimulus, you’ll experience less soreness from the same exercises.
What Pain Is
Pain is different from soreness in several key ways. Understanding these differences helps you make good decisions about when to push through and when to stop.
Soreness:
- Dull, achy, widespread across the whole muscle
- Worst 24-72 hours after training, then improves
- Gets better with gentle movement and warm-up
- Affects both sides equally (both quads, both glutes)
- No sharp or stabbing sensations
Pain (potential injury):
- Sharp, localised, specific to one spot
- Gets worse with certain movements, not better with warm-up
- One-sided (one knee, one shoulder, one side of the lower back)
- Persists beyond 72 hours or gets progressively worse
- Accompanied by swelling, bruising, or reduced range of motion
The key distinction is: soreness is general, pain is specific. Soreness improves with movement, pain doesn’t.
The Yellow Flags
These are signs something might be wrong but isn’t necessarily an emergency. If you experience any of these, modify your training and monitor:
- A twinge during a specific exercise that disappears when you stop
- Tightness in one area that doesn’t improve with stretching or warm-up
- Mild discomfort in a joint (not the muscle) during training
- Soreness that hasn’t improved after five days
The response here is to back off that specific movement, not to stop training entirely. Find variations that don’t provoke the issue. If squats bother your knee, try box squats or leg press. If overhead pressing irritates your shoulder, do landmine presses instead. Train around it while it settles.
The Red Flags
See a physiotherapist or doctor if you experience:
- Sharp pain that stops you mid-rep
- A pop, snap, or crack followed by pain
- Significant swelling that appears within hours
- Numbness or tingling down a limb
- Pain that wakes you up at night
- Any pain that gets worse over days instead of better
Don’t be the person who trains through a genuine injury for six weeks because they thought it would go away. Early intervention with a good physio can resolve in days what ignoring it turns into months of rehab.
Managing Soreness
For regular DOMS, here’s what helps:
- Light movement. A walk, gentle stretching, or an easy swim. Active recovery is better than complete rest.
- Sleep. This is when most repair happens. Prioritise it.
- Hydration and nutrition. Protein for repair, water for everything else.
- Foam rolling. It doesn’t speed up recovery technically, but it reduces the sensation of soreness.
- Warm baths or showers. Heat increases blood flow to sore muscles.
Anti-inflammatories (ibuprofen, etc.) are a last resort. They reduce inflammation, which is the very process that makes you stronger. Use them for pain management if you need to, but don’t pop them after every session.
