Body Pain After Gym: What Does It Mean?

There are two different topics we will be discussing today.

First, we will be diving into the issue of body pains after gym sessions. Are they normal? Natural? Helpful even?

Second, I’d like to take some time to discuss your options if the body pain persists and you’re feeling pains going into your next workout.

Some pains are absolutely natural and even valuable to your improving physique. For example, this is simply feeling a little soreness in your bicep after bicep day in the gym.

However, there are some pains that you definitely need to be weary of.

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Do You Feel Pain After The Gym?

If you’re feeling pains after the gym, this could be happening for a variety of reasons.

Personally, I always consider feeling quite sore after a gym session as a positive thing. This means that I worked the targeted muscle group in such a way, that through recovery, I will be sure to experience a positive formation of muscle growth or enhancement (even though it may not be visible).

Feeling sore is simply a natural occurrence after exercise and can be seen as a job well done.

This could also be seen as a negative, because you definitely don’t want to work yourself so hard that your body just aches with pain. Overworking your muscle groups will not truly benefit your physique and could lead to something more serious occurring.

There must be a common ground.

Feeling too much pain in your muscle groups could be a sign of something worse, such as an actual injury. You want to avoid pushing yourself to the potential of injury! Know your limits because if you’re injured, you obviously can’t exercise and you can potentially lose progress.

I pushed myself too hard on many occasions and had to miss weeks and even months of workouts.

There is no benefit in pushing this hard with the high risk of having to restart reaching all of your goals.

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Pains Before Lifting?

This is another important topic to discuss.

If you are feelings pains in muscle groups or parts of your body before lifting you must always be careful, or better yet, take a few days off!

Let me give you a personal example.

One day at the gym, I pushed myself way too hard and tweaked my neck. I had neck pains and limited neck movement for the next week at least.

Knowing that I had these pains, I hit the gym two days later hoping I could at least accomplish something. I decided to go into my first lift by dropping quite a few pounds off the exercise.

Instantly, I knew it was a mistake to be there. I felt surging pain into the same area I had previously injured. I decided to quit and head home because I probably just hurt myself even more, which means more time out of the gym.

The moral of the story here, is if you’re feeling, for example, neck pains before you lift, you need to be extra careful because if you tweak the muscle again, you could be looking at a prolonged recovery time keeping you out of the gym.

It is best to take a few lift days off as to allow your body to recover. Missing one or two workouts isn’t going to be the end of the world, but if you push yourself while injured and have to miss an extended amount of time in the gym, you will definitely notice your progress fading.

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Be Proactive! 

By being proactive and utilizing a stretching routine before and after exercise, your body will thank you in a few different ways.

First, stretching is proven to help avoid injury.

It seems that the older we get, the easier it is to injure ourselves exercising. The best way to avoid this, is to stretch and know your limits.

Stretching is often overlooked by so many people. I would bet that 7/10 people skip stretching all together. In fact, I didn’t stretch for the first few years of my lifting career and a severe back injury made me realize how important it is.

Stretching helps prepare your body for exercise and allows flexibility of your muscle groups. If your muscles are stiff and unprepared to move, that is when injury occurs.

Not only will stretching help prevent injury, but it can even help soreness in your muscles after a lift.

You also need to know your limits. A lift, exercise, or stretch should never be painful. If it’s truly painful, you aren’t performing it correctly or you’re pushing yourself too far.

If you’re unsure what kind of stretches to use, just do some research. There are plenty of great stretching routines online that you can copy.

Personally, I do a full body stretch with a focus on the type of muscles I will be working that day.

Find what works for you and run with it!

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Key Takeaways

Overall, the message I wanted to get across today, is that if you’re feeling pains in your muscles after the gym, it is not something to be overly concerned about right away.

Give your body some time to rest and recover because it is very normal to be sore after a good workout.

If your pain is significant and doesn’t fade away, I urge you to see a doctor or, if not severe enough, simply take some time off from the gym.

The only way to get better from an injury, is to rest. Pushing your injury too far in the gym will only lead to extended time needed to recover and could result in hurting yourself even more.

Lastly, use stretching to your advantage!

Stretching is a very powerful tool and can help avoid soreness, muscle pains, and injury. Use it to your advantage!

Thanks for reading and comment any tips or advice towards dealing with injury or pains!

Russell

Founder of https://myshakercup.com