Is it safe to train when you’re sore? – GOOD SHAPE

They say that a good workout is the one that leaves our body sore afterwards – after all, if it doesn’t hurt the next day, it’s a sign that the workout “didn’t work”. However, is it safe to train when we are, in fact, with a sore body?

Rest is an essential part of a good physical exercise routine, so we talked to the physical educator Vanessa Furstenberger to understand when we should step on the brakes and when we can move on when it comes to physical post-practice pain.

THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BEING PAINFUL AND FEELING PAIN

We can start this differentiation quite simply: feeling pain after training is a bad sign. Pain, according to the physical educator, is an indication that the physical stimulus was greater than what the body supports – so it can start during training (after a specific movement) or right after.

This pain, if it persists and is not treated correctly, can lead to injuries in the future. Therefore, any sign of pain – that which does not go away, which can be acute or persistent, which worsens with movement – ​​is a warning. Here, the first step is to stop the practice of physical exercise and look for a specialized doctor.

“Feeling sore means that there was an ideal stimulus to inflame the musculature and cause late pain that varies for each individual from 24 to 72 hours after training”, he explains.

The feeling of sore muscles happens because when we do bodybuilding, for example, we generate micro-ruptures in the muscle fibers, which become inflamed after this stimulus – pain is a symptom of this inflammation.

“These micro-ruptures are necessary for the body to understand that it needs to build more muscles to support the stimuli that are to come with the training”, he says.

IS IT WORTH TRAINING PAINFUL?

Depending on the intensity of the pain, yes. For Vanessa, if muscle pain only represents the effort of the previous training, there is no contraindication for physical practice. However, an interesting idea is to alternate body regions. For example, if you have sore arms and chest, you can train your legs. If your legs are sore, you can train your arms, and so on.

Aerobic exercises are interesting in these cases because they help alleviate pain and inflammation. But if you notice that the pain is still not relieved, the best thing to do is respect it and give yourself some time to rest before training that area again.

“It’s during rest that the body adapts to overcompensate and build stronger and bigger muscles, depending on each individual’s goal,” says Vanessa. “At that moment, anabolism occurs, that is, the muscle has more construction than protein and fiber breakdown, which brings the expected results with training, such as muscle growth and increased strength.”