To train or not to train when sore?

After a work out many individuals experience soreness in the targeted muscle groups otherwise known as DOMS(delayed onset muscle soreness). This soreness leaves many individuals wondering if they should go back to the gym.

I vote yes, you’re going to want to back to the gym and train, BUT the way you train is going to have to be different. The reason why you’re going to want to go back to the gym and train is because you want to train your nervous system to remember and respond to the ranges of motion associated with the exercises that you’re going to need to do later on. What happens is after the acute experience of the soreness goes away (I’ve experienced this myself and have seen it in other people) is that the restricted range of motion becomes chronic. Because of the apprehension in moving into these ranges of motion because of pain, people don’t do it for days or even weeks. Once it comes time to go back to the gym your subconscious becomes apprehensive towards those ranges of motion and then you end up avoiding them. Such can be seen more so in compound movements (squats deadlifts). So, what you don’t want to have happen is an acute response to soreness lead to a chronic deterioration of your ranges of motion. One of the best ways to avoid that is to go to the gym and stretch. What you’re going to want to do is to static stretch into a deep squat, a deep bend or press and hold that stretch. You’re going to want to stretch everything from your legs to your neck. If you have foam roller use a foam roller. The thing is you don’t want to allow that mummified body of yours (due to the soreness) to become a chronic condition. In other words yes, get to the gym and train but do it more so for your nervous system and it WILL also help your muscular tissue recover faster.