The best things you can do for sore muscles are stay lightly active, apply the right temperature therapy, and give your body time. Most muscle soreness after exercise resolves on its own within about four days, but the right recovery strategies can reduce pain and get you moving comfortably again faster.
Why Your Muscles Are Sore
Muscle soreness after a workout, especially one that’s new or more intense than usual, comes from microscopic disruption to your muscle fibers. When muscles lengthen under load (think: lowering a heavy box, walking downhill, or the “down” phase of a bicep curl), individual units inside the fiber get overstretched and damaged. This triggers a local inflammatory response as your body repairs and rebuilds the tissue.
This is called delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS, because it typically peaks 24 to 48 hours after exercise rather than during it. Along with the aching, you might notice mild swelling, reduced strength, and stiffness in the affected muscles. All of this is a normal part of the repair process, and it generally clears up within four days.
Keep Moving at Low Intensity
It sounds counterintuitive, but light activity is one of the most effective things you can do when your muscles are sore. A gentle walk, an easy bike ride, or even tossing a ball around increases blood flow to damaged tissue without adding further stress. The goal is circulation, not challenge. If the activity makes you breathe harder or taxes the sore muscles, you’ve gone too far.
This kind of active recovery works better than sitting still because increased blood flow delivers oxygen and nutrients to the repair site and helps clear the byproducts of inflammation. You don’t need a structured routine. Anything that gets you moving gently for 15 to 30 minutes will do the job.
Ice First, Then Heat
If your soreness is fresh (within the first day or so), cold therapy is the better starting point. Ice constricts blood vessels, which limits swelling and numbs pain. Apply a cold pack for 10 to 15 minutes at a time, and don’t go past 20 minutes. Wrap the pack in a towel to protect your skin.
Once the initial inflammation settles, usually after 24 to 48 hours, switching to heat can help more. Warmth increases blood flow and relaxes tight, stiff muscles. A warm bath, a heating pad, or a hot towel works well. Keep heat sessions under 20 minutes, too. If you’re dealing with lingering stiffness days later, heat is generally the better choice over ice.
Foam Rolling
Foam rolling can meaningfully reduce soreness when done consistently in the days after a tough workout. One effective approach backed by research: roll slowly along the length of the sore muscle for about one minute, rest for 30 seconds, then roll again for another minute. Repeat on each muscle group that’s bothering you.
In one study, people who foam rolled for 20 minutes immediately after exercise and again at 24 and 48 hours reported significantly less soreness than those who skipped it. The key is consistency over multiple days, not one marathon session. Foam rolling also helps maintain range of motion, so your stiff legs or shoulders feel more functional even while they’re still healing.
What to Eat and Drink
Your muscles need protein to rebuild, so prioritize protein-rich meals in the hours and days after intense exercise. Beyond that, staying well hydrated supports the inflammatory cleanup process and helps prevent muscle cramping on top of existing soreness.
Tart cherry juice has gained attention as a recovery drink. Its natural compounds may help reduce inflammation, though research on the ideal dose and duration is still inconsistent. If you want to try it, 8 ounces of 100% tart cherry juice daily is the amount most commonly studied. It’s not a miracle cure, but some people find it takes the edge off.
Magnesium plays a role in muscle relaxation, and many people don’t get enough of it. Women need about 310 to 320 mg daily, and men need 400 to 420 mg. You can get magnesium through foods like nuts, seeds, leafy greens, and whole grains, or through supplements. Epsom salt baths (magnesium sulfate) are a popular remedy that can soothe sore muscles, though the magnesium doesn’t absorb meaningfully through the skin. The warm water itself is doing most of the work.
Think Twice Before Reaching for Ibuprofen
Over-the-counter pain relievers like ibuprofen can reduce soreness, but they come with a tradeoff worth knowing about. Research from the Journal of Applied Physiology found that daily use of standard ibuprofen doses (1,200 mg per day) impaired muscle growth and strength gains over an eight-week resistance training program in young adults. The same doses also decreased muscle protein synthesis in the 24 hours after exercise and blunted the activity of satellite cells, which are essential for muscle repair and growth.
If you’re exercising to get stronger or build muscle, regularly masking soreness with anti-inflammatory drugs may undermine the very adaptations you’re working toward. For occasional, severe soreness that’s keeping you from functioning, a short course is reasonable. But as a daily post-workout habit, it’s worth reconsidering.
Compression Garments
Wearing compression sleeves or socks on sore muscles can reduce swelling and may speed recovery. Compression works by gently squeezing the tissue, which helps push excess fluid out and supports blood flow back toward the heart. Low-pressure garments (under 20 mmHg) are widely available without a prescription and are sufficient for general exercise recovery. You can wear them during or after a workout, and some people find sleeping in them helpful after a particularly tough leg day.
Preventing Severe Soreness Next Time
The most reliable way to avoid debilitating soreness is to increase your training gradually. A widely used guideline is the 10 percent rule: don’t increase your weekly volume (whether that’s running mileage, weight lifted, or total sets) by more than 10 percent from one week to the next. This gives your muscles time to adapt to new demands without the extreme damage that causes days of hobbling around.
It also helps to remember that soreness is worst when you do something unfamiliar. The first time you try a new exercise, hike a steep trail, or return after a long break, your muscles haven’t yet built the protective adaptations that come with repetition. Starting conservatively and building up over two to three weeks dramatically reduces how sore you’ll get. Interestingly, once your muscles have adapted to a particular type of movement, they become resistant to damage from that same movement for weeks afterward, even if you take some time off.
When Soreness Is Something More Serious
Normal muscle soreness is uncomfortable but manageable, and it steadily improves over a few days. Rhabdomyolysis is a rare but dangerous condition where muscle breakdown becomes so severe that the contents of damaged cells leak into the bloodstream and can damage the kidneys. The CDC identifies three warning signs that set it apart from ordinary soreness:
- Pain that’s far more severe than you’d expect from the workout you did
- Dark urine that looks tea- or cola-colored
- Unusual weakness or fatigue, like being unable to complete tasks you could normally handle
If you notice any combination of these, especially dark urine, get medical attention promptly. Rhabdomyolysis is most common after extreme or unfamiliar exertion, particularly in hot conditions or when someone pushes well beyond their current fitness level.