You don\u2019t want to make a fuss, but the worry is there\u2014what if something is wrong?<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s a concern Dr Shady Hassan, MD, an interventional pain and sports medicine physician and the founder of NefraHealth<\/a>, encounters a lot with his patients.<\/p>\n \u201cThe question I get most, from new lifters and seasoned ones alike, is: Is this normal soreness or do I need to see someone?” he says.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n So I asked Hassan to outline what he considers normal, as well as the abnormal sensations that require professional investigation.<\/p>\n Abnormal pain <\/p>\n Here are three signs that your pain may need further investigation.<\/p>\n If you experience any of the following sensations, contact your healthcare provider.<\/p>\n 1. Unilateral pain<\/p>\n Hassan explains that if your pain is one-sided, that is a red flag. It is abnormal for pain to only appear in one limb or joint when you\u2019ve worked out both sides equally,<\/p>\n \u201cNormal soreness is usually bilateral. Both quads, both shoulders.\u201d<\/p>\n What to read next<\/p>\n 2. Sharp pain<\/p>\n \u201cSharp or stabbing sensations are the body’s primary alarm for structural distress,\u201d says Hassan.<\/p>\n This sort of sensation points to issues in hard tissue, such as bone, meniscus (hard cartilage between joints), or labrum (the fibrocartilage of a socket joint).<\/p>\n \u201cIf pain increases as you work out, that points toward something structural, like a stress fracture or a worsening tear.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen a patient describes a movement that triggers a sharp, lightning-bolt sensation, the directive is simple: stop the movement and come in,\u201d says Hassan.<\/p>\n \u201cIf a patient is having night pain that wakes them up, joint locking, or a limp they’ve developed to keep moving, those are signs to come in for a workup. Those aren’t things to train through.\u201d<\/p>\n 3. Numbness <\/p>\n \u201cNumbness, tingling, or pins and needles is a neurological signal,\u201d says Hassan.<\/p>\n \u201cIt tells me the issue is pressing on a nerve, either peripherally or at the spine level. Unlike muscle fatigue, this needs an exam quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n Normal pain <\/p>\n These three types of pain are less worrying and do not require immediate medical attention.<\/p>\n 1. Soreness<\/p>\n Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS<\/a>) tends to start about 12 hours after you\u2019ve put the weights down, when your muscles start to feel stiff and sore. If you\u2019ve ever done a workout, felt fine after, gone to sleep and then woken up feeling like the rusted-up Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz\u2014that\u2019s DOMS.<\/p>\n \u201cNormal DOMS peaks at 24 to 48 hours and is significantly better by 72. Pain that stays flat or gets worse after three days is worth a clinical look,\u201d says Hassan.<\/p>\n 2. Pain that disappears with movement<\/p>\n \u201cIf pain disappears once you start moving and the blood is flowing, it\u2019s usually a functional mobility issue,\u201d says Hassan.<\/p>\n 3. Aching<\/p>\n \u201cDull, achy, diffuse pain is generally lower priority,\u201d says Hassan.<\/p>\n \u201cThat heavy feeling usually points toward muscular fatigue or normal soreness, and it responds to active recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n About our expert Social Links Navigation<\/p>\n <\/a><\/a>Founder of NefraHealth, an interventional pain and sports medicine practice<\/p>\n Dr Shady Hassan MD is the founder of NefraHealth, an interventional pain and sports medicine practice. He is board-certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation with subspecialty certification in both interventional pain medicine and sports medicine.<\/p>\n He completed his fellowship in interventional spine and sports medicine at Alabama Orthopedic Spine and Sports Medicine Associates. He also served as chief resident during his residency at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n <\/a><\/p>\n Follow Fit&Well on Google News<\/a> (click on the star on the Google News page) and add us as a preferred source<\/a> to see all our workout ideas and wellbeing advice in your feeds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Have you ever been worried after a workout that something in your body just doesn\u2019t feel right? It…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":710588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[337,97],"class_list":["post-710587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-fitness","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=710587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/710588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Man](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/yw7KiXnJNNN84QjaPY7iYe.png\")
About our expertDr Shady Hassan MD<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2QYmdhPiGcD3qB8Lzvxwpm.jpg\")
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