Should I Continue Working Out with a Muscle Inflamation?

One of the most frequent questions I get at least once from every person I’ve trained is “Should I continue working out if I have a muscle inflammation?”.

You can get muscle pain, or inflammation, for several reasons, the most common of which is if you just start training. However, it can also occur when you exercise after a long break, and even if you regularly train, but your last training was more intense than usual.

Muscle inflammation is actually a natural reaction your muscle tissues produce due to exercise which micro-damages them. Although you have muscle inflammation, you should go to your next planned work out because muscle inflammation subsides substantially on the second day. However, avoid pre-intensive work outs if you feel that you are not yet ready for them, especially if you have had such severe pains that you could not walk!

Inflammation can be completely avoided or at least significantly reduced by following certain instructions. First, before training, warm your muscles using a cardio trainer (minimum 7 minutes) or do a set of aerobic exercises. After training, stretch the muscles and eat foods rich in proteins and carbohydrates. If you have an extremely severe inflammation, a light walk will help you bear the pain until the next training session.

If you have made a big break from working out, do not lift the same amount of weight you lifted before the break. From my personal experience, I advise you to start slowly. A while back, I took a break of 3 weeks due to health problems. Once I returned to exercising, I continued lifting the same amount as before and I got not only a severe muscle inflammation, but also a fever.

Repeating the same workout over and over again (at least 3x per week) leads to neuromuscular adaptation, meaning the organism will become more resistant to a progressive increase in the load. So, train regularly and you will not get painful muscle inflammation. The mild, tingly feeling you may get will be your motivation for every next training session.

Janka fitness instructor

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