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This common phenomenon, often called delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), is a natural response to challenging physical activity. While uncomfortable, it plays an important role in the process of building stronger, healthier muscles.

In this article, we’ll explore what happens to your muscle tissue during exercise, why soreness occurs, how it contributes to muscle growth, and practical strategies to reduce soreness so you can recover faster and stay consistent with your training.

Why Do Muscles Feel Sore After Exercise?

When you engage in resistance training, running, or any form of high-intensity physical activity, your muscle fibres experience microscopic damage. This is especially true during eccentric movements (when muscles lengthen under tension, such as lowering a weight or running downhill).

The tiny tears in the muscle fibres trigger an inflammatory response. Your body increases blood flow to the affected area, delivering oxygen and nutrients while removing waste products. This process, combined with a temporary increase in sensitivity of nerve endings, is what causes the stiffness, tenderness, and reduced strength often felt 24–72 hours after exercise.

This soreness isn’t a sign of injury, but rather of your muscles being challenged beyond their usual workload.

Muscle Soreness and Muscle Growth

While muscle soreness isn’t the direct cause of muscle growth, the repair process that follows is where progress happens.

1. Muscle damage stimulates the activation of satellite cells (specialised muscle stem cells).
2. These cells fuse with existing muscle fibres to repair damage.
3. The fibres become thicker and stronger in response to the stress they endured.

This adaptive process is called muscle hypertrophy. Over time, your body learns to handle similar workloads with less soreness, a sign of improved strength and endurance.

So while soreness can indicate your muscles are adapting, it’s not the only marker of a productive workout. Consistency and progressive overload—gradually increasing resistance or intensity—are the true drivers of growth.

How to Reduce Muscle Soreness

Although DOMS is normal, excessive soreness can interfere with training frequency and performance. Fortunately, there are proven strategies to reduce muscle soreness and speed up recovery:

1. Active Recovery

Gentle movement such as walking, cycling, or light yoga promotes circulation, delivering nutrients to sore muscles and helping flush out metabolic byproducts. This accelerates the healing process.

2. Stretching and Mobility Work

Dynamic stretching before exercise helps prepare muscles for activity, while light static stretching after training can relieve tightness. While stretching won’t eliminate soreness entirely, it can improve flexibility and reduce stiffness.

3. Hydration and Nutrition

Muscles need protein to repair damaged fibres and carbohydrates to replenish energy stores. Staying hydrated supports nutrient transport and helps regulate inflammation. Consuming a nutrient dense diet ensures your carbohydrate and protein requirements are met. There is much debate on the amount of protein one should aim for, but the truth is that this oversimplifies the variances in sex, age, health, diet and a range of other lifestyle factors. The timing of protein intake to exercise completion has not been definitively proven through any peer reviewed clinical trials, except for older adults that engaging in resistance training. In this group, it was found that the measure of gait speed increased with supplemental protein prior to resistance training compared to the placebo group.

(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38753309/)

4. Massage and Foam Rolling

Self-myofascial release with a foam roller or professional sports massage can increase blood flow and reduce muscle tension. This can ease soreness and improve range of motion.

5. Sleep and Rest

Muscle repair is most efficient during deep sleep, when growth hormone release peaks. Aim for 7–9 hours of quality sleep per night to support recovery.

6. Contrast Therapy and Cold Immersion

Some athletes find relief from alternating hot and cold water (contrast showers) or ice baths. These techniques may reduce inflammation and muscle damage, helping you feel ready for your next training session. Please see our article on cold therapy explaining the process and associated risks.

7. Smart Training Progression

Perhaps the most important prevention strategy is to increase intensity gradually. Sudden spikes in training load are the biggest cause of extreme soreness. Follow the “10% rule”—don’t increase weight, distance, or intensity by more than 10% per week. The advice from your professional exercise physiologist should always be followed firstly.

Should You Train Through Soreness?

Mild to moderate soreness doesn’t mean you should skip exercise. In fact, light activity can speed recovery. However, training the same muscle group at maximum intensity while still very sore can increase risk of injury and hinder performance.

A practical approach is to rotate muscle groups (upper body one day, lower body the next) or use a push/pull/legs split. This way, each muscle group gets adequate recovery time while you maintain training frequency.

Key Takeaways

• Muscle soreness (DOMS) results from microscopic damage to muscle fibres during exercise.
• The repair process leads to stronger, larger muscles over time.
• Effective recovery strategies include active recovery, stretching, proper nutrition, hydration, massage, foam rolling, quality sleep, and gradual training progression.
• Mild soreness is normal, but extreme soreness can be minimised with smart training and recovery practices.
• If muscle soreness continues, seek professional medical advice.

Final Word

Experiencing muscle soreness after exercise is a sign your body is adapting to new challenges. By understanding what’s happening within your muscle tissue and applying recovery strategies, you can reduce soreness, optimise growth, and stay consistent with your fitness journey. Remember: soreness is temporary, but the strength and resilience you build from pushing through it last much longer.

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