How to Get Rid of Sore Muscles: 10 Relief Tips

It’s common for your muscles to feel sore after a workout, particularly if it’s a new exercise for you or a more intense session. Experts call this delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS), and it happens after physical activity that puts an unaccustomed load on your muscles.

Whether muscle soreness is mild and barely noticeable or extremely painful, there are several ways in which to relieve discomfort and possibly recover faster.

1. Hydrate During, Before, and After Your Workout

If you’re dehydrated, your heart won’t be able to adequately push blood throughout the body, starving your muscles of oxygen and nutrients. Plus, your muscles won’t be able to remove waste products effectively, allowing for more muscle weakness and fatigue.

You can prevent this by staying hydrated before, during, and after your workout. Experts recommend getting in between 9 and 13 cups of fluids daily to remain hydrated.

A general suggestion for fluid intake pre- and post-exercise includes:

• 2 to 2.5 cups of water a couple of hours before exercise
• 1 cup of water during your warm-up
• 1 to 1.25 cups of water every 10 to 20 minutes during exercise
• 1 cup of water no more than 30 minutes after exercise

2. Use Ice or Heat Therapy

You may choose to treat post-workout muscle soreness with temperature-based therapy. Applying ice or using an ice bath to treat inflammation is a common recovery method when initiated in the first few days after exercise-induced muscle soreness.

Applying heat can be beneficial for relaxing tense, stiff muscles as it increases the flexibility of tissue blood flow. Research shows reduced DOMS symptoms when heat is applied immediately after exercise.

3. Try a Foam Roller or Massage Gun

Massaging stimulates blood flow to sore parts of the body, potentially reducing muscle swelling. Research shows that massage techniques can be effective in helping muscles recover more quickly.

For post-workout soreness, a foam roller can help place body weight pressure on a muscle group, releasing and stretching the fascia (soft connective tissue). Studies show that this practice has short-term effects in reducing perceived pain after exercise and increasing joint range of motion.

A massage gun tool can improve circulation, loosen tight fascia, and reduce perceptions of pain and soreness after exercise. Evidence suggests these tools may reduce stiffness and improve flexibility and short-term range of motion.

4. Eat Within the Half Hour After an Intense Workout

Post-workout nutrition may help relieve muscle soreness. Add snacks like bananas, berries, spinach, and eggs to help your muscles recover faster, fight inflammation, and potentially lessen next-day soreness.

Experts recommend replenishing with nutrition, especially carbohydrates and protein, shortly after exercise, preferably within 30 minutes, to aid muscle recovery. Optimum protein consumption is crucial to stimulating muscle protein synthesis and facilitating repair.

5. Wear Compression Gear

Compression gear (specialized clothing that fits tightly around the skin) can help heal wounds, inflammation, athletic performance, and recovery.

Wearing compression clothing during a workout reduces soreness, thanks to the tight gear’s pressure on certain muscle groups. Compression clothing may also positively impact post-workout recovery. However, more research is needed on the specifics of compression gear.

6. Try Kinesiology Tape

Kinesiology tape, a special type of stretchy but sturdy tape, is used to support muscle function and joint stabilization. It may also help decrease muscle pain and swelling.

When strategically placed across muscle groups, kinesiology tape slightly lifts the skin and allows for space between the fascia and underlying tissues. This promotes circulation, reduces swelling and inflammation, and facilitates the healing of sore muscles.

For DOMS specifically, research suggests that using kinesiology tape for more than 48 hours post-exercise could improve muscle strength and relieve pain.

7. Apply Essential Oils Topically

Some essential oils contain vitamins, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory properties that help ease joint and muscle pain and swelling.

While more evidence is needed, initial research indicates that lavender and rosemary essential oils may be beneficial for relieving muscle pain and stiffness. When massaged topically, lavender may reduce pain and fatigue in people with rheumatoid arthritis. Rosemary appears to have similar anti-inflammatory effects on pain, swelling, and stiffness.

8. Get Plenty of Sleep

Getting enough sleep and rest allows your muscles to recover from exercise. It will enable tiny tears in your muscle fibers to heal, making them stronger. Muscles need anywhere from 24 to 48 hours to fully heal and up to 72 hours for a particularly intense workout.

Aim to get enough quality sleep every night to prevent sleep debt from adding up, which can impair muscle recovery.

9. Stick With Light Exercise the Next Day

If you still want to work out but don’t feel like going full force, try low-impact exercises or train different areas of the body than those that are sore the next day. Low-impact exercise stimulates blood flow to the muscles and may help reduce some pain without further damaging the muscle fibers and connective tissues.

10. Consider Steering Clear of NSAIDs

You may want to reconsider over-the-counter (OTC) pain relievers when your muscles are sore. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like Aleve (naproxen) or Advil and Motrin (ibuprofen) help decrease pain by reducing inflammation. However, when your body is healing a muscle, anti-inflammatory medications can hinder that rebuilding process.

Some studies also suggest that taking NSAIDs before a workout session doesn’t effectively reduce muscle soreness. Additional research is needed on this topic.

Check with a healthcare provider about NSAID safety and efficacy, as they have common stomach and kidney side effects.

A Word From Verywell

While delayed onset muscle soreness is an inevitable part of any workout journey, implementing effective recovery strategies can help shorten its duration and get you back to peak performance faster.

What Causes Muscle Soreness After Exercise?

Researchers theorize that exercise causes acute trauma to muscles in the body, leading to connective tissue damage, muscle spasms, and inflammation. As the body naturally heals from this damage, the soreness you feel is a side effect of the muscle repair process.

The severity of muscle soreness also appears to vary based on the activity and duration, along with other factors. An intense exercise (strength training, jogging, jumping, or step aerobics) may lead to more muscle damage.

As a result, you’re more likely to experience more intense post-workout muscle soreness. While all types of exercise may induce muscle exhaustion, DOMS is mainly caused by eccentric contraction, for example, downhill running, ballistic stretching, and plyometrics.

How Long Does Muscle Soreness Last?

Muscle soreness usually starts to develop 12 to 24 hours after a workout. It typically lasts three to five days, with symptoms peaking between 24 and 72 hours after exercising.

For most people, the soreness will improve within a week. However, if you’ve been experiencing abnormal muscle soreness and fatigue for more than two weeks, check with a healthcare provider.

Does Warming Up Reduce Post-Workout Muscle Soreness?

While warming up before a workout is considered essential, there is little evidence that a warm-up alone significantly prevents post-workout muscle soreness.

Still, ensure you take time to do a dynamic warm-up to get the blood flowing through your body and to your muscles. This helps prevent muscular injury, cramps, or strains during your workout. A simple warm-up hack is to exercise slowly for the first few minutes of your workout before picking up the pace. This could include walking briskly for five or 10 minutes before you start running.

Summary

Muscle soreness after a workout is known as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). While the discomfort usually subsides after a couple of days, there are some self-care and home remedies that may help you find faster relief.

These measures include getting plenty of rest, doing light exercise, using kinesiology tape, staying hydrated, wearing compression gear, and more. Check with a healthcare provider if you have any questions about whether these tips are right for you or if you’ve been experiencing severe or ongoing muscle pain for more than a week.