Should I train through soreness or back off? The MAP Team

Soreness is one of those topics where every lifter you ask will give you a slightly different answer. Most of the advice online lands at one of two extremes: always push through, or always rest. The honest answer lives in the middle, and it requires you to pay attention to what your body is actually telling you on a given day.

This week, we put a question to the MAP coaching team that comes up almost every week with clients: when you wake up sore, do you train or back off? Below, each coach walks through how they think about it. Read them all, because the nuances matter, and you'll likely find one perspective that fits your situation more than the others.

Paul

The benefit of my being the one who sends these emails out is that I get to see the answers before I write mine. What you're going to read below is all really good advice, and I agree with it, but my personal take is a bit different.

We know from research that soreness is not a reliable indicator of anything. It doesn't tell us if we're building muscle, and it doesn't really tell us that we're underrecovered. That said, if you are so sore that you cannot perform a training session at 100% effort, you're probably best to rest, BUT the only way to know that is to go in and train. This is the basis for my stance here - maintaining the habit of training is the most important variable.

My other point here is that unless you've been training for years (like 5-10+ years), you have no idea what your true capacity for work is. Times when you're beat up and sore are a phenomenal way to explore this. Do I think you should hurt yourself in the process? Of course not, but your mind is much weaker than your body, and your propensity towards self-preservation will always give you reasons why you shouldn't train. Rationalizing easy choices becomes the new habit.

My advice to 99% of my clients when they're sore is, "Good, you'll be more conscious and aware of where your body is in space and probably perform better as a result."

Olivia

It depends on how sore you actually are. If there's some tenderness, but it isn't affecting your range of motion, changing the way you move, or making you feel weak, go ahead and train.

If you're so sore that you're limiting the range of motion because it's too uncomfortable to fully stretch the muscle and your strength feels compromised, shift to something more restorative, like walking or mobility work, or train a different body part entirely.

DOMS is a result of muscle damage, and if the soreness is significant, you'll benefit far more from giving that muscle another day to repair than from breaking it down again before it's ready.

Claire

It typically depends on what the soreness actually feels like. If your muscles feel achy, tight, or a little tender, especially a day or two after training, that's normal, and you can usually still train. Moving often helps it feel better.

But if you're experiencing sharp pain or joint pain, or compensating in your movement because something hurts, that's your cue to back off. When in doubt, lower the load, slow the movement down, and pay attention to how it responds.

The goal isn't to avoid soreness completely. It's to train consistently without running yourself into the ground.

Carly

Soreness requires you to distinguish between two very different things: pain and soreness. Your body is smart and sends clear signals when something isn't right.

Sharp, pinching, or compressing sensations in a specific area are red flags worth taking seriously. Soreness, on the other hand, tends to be more diffuse, a longer portion of the muscle feeling tender, or discomfort that eases as you slow the movement down and work into range.

If what you're feeling falls into the first category, back off, modify the movement, and take a closer look at what's causing it. If it falls into the second, movement is usually your friend. Get blood flow to the area, ease into your range, and give the first few reps time to loosen things up.

Nat

The key distinction is whether you're dealing with normal muscle soreness or something your body is flagging as a problem. Regular post-training soreness typically feels like a general muscle ache that eases as you start moving and warming up. In that case, training is usually fine, and the session may actually help you feel better.

Use your warm-up as a test. If blood flow and controlled movement through a full range start to loosen things up, you're likely good to proceed. If you warm up properly and things still feel tight, weak, or restricted, the odds of a productive session drop significantly, and that's the signal to adjust.

Back off when you're dealing with sharp pain, pinching, joint pain, compensation in your movement patterns, an inability to hit the normal range of motion, or noticeable weakness in the muscle. In those situations, swap the movement, train a different body part, reduce load and volume, or make it a restorative day.

One additional note: if you come from a background where rest wasn't considered an option, your ability to self-assess soreness may be less reliable. In that case, lean less on how you feel and more on what actually happens during the warm-up.

Jaden

This is highly individual, and the answer depends on the source of the soreness. Soreness from a new stimulus is different from soreness driven by muscle breakdown from training itself. If it's the latter, backing off will serve you far better than pushing through.

It's also worth factoring in your recent training history and your last deload. If the soreness is simply a response to a new movement or stimulus, continuing to train as prescribed is generally the right call.

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