Gently massaging your sore muscles, such as by kneading or stroking them with your hands for 10 to 15 minutes, may also help, Dr. Richardson added. In a 2018 systematic review and analysis of 99 studies, researchers found that massage was one of the most effective ways to reduce the pain and fatigue of exercise-related muscle soreness, but more research on the topic is needed. Wearing compression garments around sore muscles and taking 10- to 15-minute-long cold-water baths were also effective, the scientists found.
If you experience severe muscle pain or weakness hours or days after a particularly intense workout, or if your urine darkens to a brown color or you aren’t urinating much at all, that could be a sign of a rare, potentially life-threatening condition called rhabdomyolysis, and you should go to the emergency room, Dr. Jotwani said.
For muscles that are only slightly tender or stiff, it’s OK to work them again with the same form of exercise that caused the soreness in the first place, but reduce the intensity of your workout, Dr. Bryant said. If the soreness is a little more intense, meaning you can still move but with some discomfort, he suggested more gentle movements, like walking, swimming or yoga — or low-intensity resistance training, like lifting light weights or doing body weight exercises, to promote blood flow and reduce stiffness.
It can sometimes help to “keep moving through the soreness,” even if you’re moving just a little bit, Dr. Richardson said.
If your muscles are painful to the touch, you have a limited range of motion or your strength is very reduced, Dr. Bryant said, it’s best to allow the muscle more time to recover and take a day off.
“A good rule of thumb,” he added, “is to listen to your body.”
