Having aching muscles after lifting a heavy weight or two, or doing a full-on fitness routine is normal, and quite enjoyable, as it reminds you of the hard work that you have done, and actively makes you feel as if you are making a difference to your wellness and wellbeing. The next day, however, when your muscles are still aching, it starts to get a bit less enjoyable!
Sometimes, the pain of sore muscles the next day can be bad enough to prevent you from working out, which can be very frustrating. Warming up and cooling down exercises are the best way to help prevent sore muscles, but you will still often find that your muscles are sore anyway.
First of all – you can always just push through it. It’s normal for muscles to hurt a bit from use, so you can always start by trying a bit of exercise and seeing how they feel. Muscles that are just fatigued in a normal way will feel fine once you get them moving, and the sore feeling will disappear (at least until the following day!) If the muscles continue to hurt after a few minutes, however, you should stop the exercise, as this may be an indicator that you have actually done some damage, and exercising too much in this case can help to worsen the damage and prolong the injury.
Bathing an injury may sound simple, but it’s very effective. Have a lovely warm bath and soak your muscles for half an hour. This will relax and loosen up tight muscles, and the heat can also work better on muscles when they are at rest, as you chill in the bathtub (perhaps with a glass of wine…)
Ice can also help to soothe your muscles if they are a little swollen.