Exercise Makes Me Feel Worse!

Starting an exercise program, especially for those who have never exercised or have not done it for several years, can be a frustrating and painful process.

Sometimes when I suggest exercise to a patient, he or she may be resistant because past attempts left them with severe pain and/or fatigue.

“I can’t exercise, it only makes things worse!”

Post-exercise pain is pretty common, but it’s usually pretty tolerable for those who are used to exercise and they’re willing to trade some minor temporary soreness for the benefits that exercise provides. But for those inexperienced with exercise or with a particular new activity, the pain can be more severe and lasting and can be a bit scary. On the extreme end, post-exercise muscle reactions can leave you in a state where it’s so painful you can hardly move, and this can last for a week or more!

Even someone who is relatively fit may experience a concerning amount of pain that last for days when trying a new exercise. This is because although their muscles are generally used to exertion, specific parts of some muscles may not be – different movements and positions stress different parts of the involved muscles.

While post-exercise pain usually doesn’t indicate an injury, nor that the exercise in question is “bad” for you, it can certainly feel like you’ve been injured. Although actual injuries can cause delayed symptoms, most of the time you will feel at least some pain or alteration in mobility in the moment an injury occurs, or at least within a few hours. If you only feel pain a day or two (the second day after exercise is often the worst) after the activity, and none while you are doing it, chances are you are not experiencing an overt injury.

Regardless of pain, new exercise can really take it out of you and leave you feeling sore and exhausted. You may be able to get some relief through low-intensity activity such as walking and gentle stretching, or using over the counter pain medication. Heat from a hot pack or hot shower or soak will increase circulation to the muscles and often eases post-exercise soreness.

To avoid significant soreness and fatigue problems, I suggest starting exercise for the first time or starting a new exercise activity very slowly, doing only what feels ridiculously easy. Keep the duration and intensity of the activity very low for the first few times you do it – you might be surprised at how much pain an easy exercise session can cause if you’re not used to it, so I mean it when I say “ridiculously easy!” If the soreness and fatigue over the next couple of days are within your comfort zone, you can then gradually increase the duration or intensity - I don’t recommend increasing both simultaneously – choose one!

If you’re new to exercise of any kind, it might take several weeks to get your body to the point where you can feel like you’re legitimately exercising without getting super sore the day or two afterwards. It might be a little frustrating waiting to get to there, but patience and persistence will usually pay off in the long run.

Trying to rush things will often only delay your progress if you overdo and get so sore it’s painful to do even simple movements, or sustain an actual injury!

Another thing to consider is recovery time. When you’re starting out on a particular exercise regimen, you may need more time in the early days to allow your body to recover from the new stresses – you may need more than one day in-between workouts initially to let the soreness subside. Recovery time is always important, but especially so when starting out, because your body has to get used to the new movements and positions and figure out how to allocate resources to remodeling your muscles and other tissues and modulating your metabolic functions to manage your energy.

Most people will also require more recovery time as they age. The exercise regimen you may have had when you were in your 20s and 30s may not work the same for you when you’re in your 40s, 50s, or older. Muscle strength, endurance, and cardiovascular fitness can be improved at any age, but how you go about doing it may need to be modified somewhat, and recovery time usually needs to be extended as we get older.

If you do wind up overdoing and are in pain, most of the time it will start to fade after a few days and be mostly gone within a week or so. Light activity as discussed previously will usually help and when the symptoms are mostly resolved, you’ll be fine to start your exercise routine again, although dialing back the duration and/or intensity is highly recommended to allow your body to adapt before gradually increasing the exertion level.

If significant post-exercise pain persists for longer than a week, it is advisable to get checked out by a chiropractor or other musculoskeletal specialist to make sure you haven’t sustained an injury, and/or to work out any areas of musculoskeletal dysfunction or joint misalignment that may be delaying your recovery.

Until next time…

George F. Best, D.C.