A common situation that happens in the gym that when someone feels a strain in their muscles like in their back muscles. But they are not sure if the Back hurts from that exercise or it is just sore?

Why knowing this difference important?

First of all, knowing the difference is important because how you handle the two cases are quite different.

For muscles soreness after a workout – rest or massage to flush out the lactic acid buildup in the muscle.

A visit to your favourite sports massage therapist will help you bounce back to another day at the gym. This muscles soreness or often referred to as Delayed Onset of Muscles Soreness (DOMS).

Managing DOMS is a crucial part of anyone’s training regime to maximise recovery and performance. Top performing athletes always get a good rub-down after training so that they can get back to it the very next day.

Soft Tissue Damage

If unfortunately, the other scenarios, where you have injured yourself, then massaging an area where there is soft tissue damage is only make things worse.

The first thing first, is to identify what is wrong. While it is unlikely that you broke a bone if you are wondering maybe it is just muscle soreness. But you could have strained your ligaments or tendon.

Strained ligaments and tendons have a big impact on joint stability. So if you continue to train or practice, you are open to injury and twisting something.

You should also not just rest. Injuries that are not treated appropriately have a tendency to develop into chronic pains which are much much harder to resolve.

Related: What Causes Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS)?

So how to you differentiate between Injury and Muscle Soreness during exercise?

As a rule of thumb, DOMS tends to develop gradually after exercise. You’ll start to notice it six to eight hours after your workout, with it peaking 24 to 48 hours later and disappearing 72 hours post-workout.

When pain happens suddenly while or immediately after exercising, this is not normal and is usually a sign of soft tissue injury. 

We recommend that you seek medical advice quickly if the pain doesn’t go away after 2-3 days. Delaying treatment might make it much harder to recover.

Either Back Hurts from that exercise or it is just sore, Sports massage therapy aims to rebalance the body and relieve aches, strains arising from related issues or repetitive strain injuries.