Question: Can you work out when you’re sore?
Answer: Although there are no definitive guidelines as to whether it’s beneficial or detrimental to work out when you’re sore, I’ll give you my educated guess. And for the record, most top trainers and strength coaches agree, so I’m not out on a limb with my theory.
Since muscle soreness is a result of microtrauma and inflammation to the muscle, it makes sense to allow it to recuperate (heal) prior to training that particular muscle again.
Much like the fact that it’s not optimal to tan again when you’re still red or pink from your last exposure to UV rays. As you would probably agree, it’s not good to be chronically burned from tanning. Doing so would lead to skin damage.
My rule of thumb is that a muscle should not be sore for at least 24 hours before training it again. Otherwise, overtraining could (and would) ensue rather quickly.
Dr Clay
