Muscle soreness after workout (DOMS): what to do

Muscle soreness after a workout, technically called delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS), is the dull ache and stiffness that shows up hours to a couple of days after a new or harder-than-usual session, and it is a normal response — not a sign of damage that needs treatment, and not a requirement for a workout to have "worked." Almost everyone who exercises regularly experiences it at some point, most often when starting a new program or returning after time off.

What causes DOMS

Physiologically, DOMS is most linked to eccentric muscle actions — the lengthening phase of a movement, like lowering into a squat or the downward phase of a bicep curl — which create microscopic damage and localized inflammation in the muscle fibers. This is a normal part of adaptation: the repair process is part of how muscle gets stronger and more resilient to that same stress next time. It is more common after starting a new program, changing exercises, increasing training volume sharply, or doing more eccentric-focused work than your body is used to — any change that presents your muscles with a genuinely unfamiliar stress tends to produce more soreness than repeating a familiar routine.

Typical timeline

How to relieve sore muscles

• Light movement (active recovery). A walk, easy cycling, or light mobility work increases blood flow to the area and can ease stiffness more than complete rest.
• Gentle stretching. Not a proven way to prevent DOMS, but many people find it comfortable and it maintains range of motion.
• Foam rolling or massage. Some evidence supports mild short-term relief of soreness and perceived recovery, though effects are modest.
• Sleep and protein. Both support the underlying repair process; poor sleep is linked to slower recovery.
• Heat or a warm bath for comfort, or an ice pack if a specific area feels particularly inflamed — either is reasonable, and neither dramatically speeds up the underlying repair timeline.

No remedy reliably eliminates DOMS entirely — mild soreness after a new stimulus is simply part of adapting, and the most effective long-term strategy is a gradual increase in training volume (see progressive overload) so future sessions cause less of it. Treat these remedies as comfort measures rather than a way to train harder without consequence.

Should you train when sore?

Mild to moderate soreness is not, by itself, a reason to skip training entirely. Light to moderate exercise, including training a different muscle group or an easier session for the sore area, is generally fine and can even help. Use these guidelines:

• Mild soreness, normal range of motion: train as planned, perhaps with a slightly lighter warm-up.
• Moderate soreness, some stiffness: train, but consider reducing weight slightly or training a different muscle group that day.
• Severe soreness limiting movement: an easier session, active recovery, or an extra rest day is reasonable — pushing through very severe soreness raises injury risk and rarely produces better results than waiting a day.

Rotating your workout split so different muscle groups train on different days naturally gives each area time to recover between sessions.

Do supplements help with muscle soreness?

A few supplements are commonly marketed for soreness relief, with mixed evidence. Tart cherry juice and omega-3 fatty acids have some research support for modestly reducing perceived soreness and inflammation markers after intense exercise, though effects are generally small. Anti-inflammatory medications can reduce soreness in the short term but are not recommended as a routine post-workout habit, since chronic use may blunt some of the muscle-repair signaling that soreness is actually part of — occasional, doctor-approved use for genuine discomfort is different from using them after every session. Adequate protein and overall calorie intake do more for the underlying repair process than any single supplement.

Soreness in different muscle groups

Some muscle groups are more prone to noticeable soreness than others for a given training program — the hamstrings, glutes and lats often feel sorer after eccentric-heavy or unfamiliar movements (like Romanian deadlifts or pull-ups) than muscles that are trained more constantly through daily activity, like the calves. This does not mean those muscles are growing more or less than others; it mainly reflects how unfamiliar the specific stress was and how much eccentric loading the exercise involved. Smaller, frequently-used muscles like the forearms also tend to adapt to soreness fairly quickly with regular training.

Is soreness a sign of muscle growth?

No — despite the popular belief, soreness reflects unfamiliar or eccentric-heavy stress, not the amount of muscle growth a workout produced. Experienced lifters often stop getting very sore from their regular routine even while continuing to make progress, because their muscles have adapted to that specific stress. Absence of soreness does not mean a workout "didn't work" — progress is better judged by strength, reps and consistency over time than by how sore you feel afterward.

Reducing soreness going forward

Increase training volume and intensity gradually rather than in large jumps — see our progressive overload guide for how to do that — include a proper warm-up before sessions, and expect more soreness whenever you introduce a genuinely new exercise or movement pattern, regardless of how fit you already are for other exercises. Beginners following our gym for beginners guide or a free plan from our builder should expect this normal adjustment period during the first few weeks.

DOMS vs other post-workout fatigue

Not all post-workout discomfort is DOMS. General muscle fatigue and tiredness right after a session — heavy, "worked" muscles, a raised heart rate, general low energy — usually resolves within hours and reflects immediate fuel depletion and nervous-system fatigue rather than the muscle damage and inflammation behind DOMS, which develops later. Both are normal, but they are different: fresh, immediate fatigue fades quickly with rest, while true DOMS builds over the following day or two and lingers for several days. Understanding this difference helps set the right expectations after each session and avoids confusing normal same-day tiredness with a sign that soreness is coming.

Why beginners get sorer than experienced lifters

New lifters almost always experience more pronounced DOMS in their first few weeks of training than they will later, even doing objectively easier workouts than they will eventually handle. This is because any new stimulus — an unfamiliar exercise, an unfamiliar range of motion, or simply a body not yet adapted to structured training — triggers a stronger initial soreness response, an effect sometimes called the "repeated bout effect": after just one or two exposures to a specific exercise, the same movement produces noticeably less soreness the next time. This is one reason a gradual introduction to a new program (see our gym for beginners guide) matters — not because harder training is dangerous, but because a body with no repeated-bout adaptation yet benefits from an easier on-ramp.

DOMS vs injury: when to be concerned

Ordinary DOMS is a dull, symmetric ache in the muscle belly that improves day by day. See a doctor if soreness is accompanied by sharp or localized joint pain, significant swelling, dark urine, or soreness so severe it does not meaningfully improve after about a week — these can indicate an injury or, rarely, a more serious muscle breakdown condition (rhabdomyolysis) that needs medical evaluation.

Ordinary muscle soreness, even when uncomfortable, is a normal and temporary part of training — it fades within days and is not a sign that anything has gone wrong. Learning to tell it apart from genuine injury pain is one of the most useful skills a new lifter develops in their first few months of consistent training.