We’ve all felt it. You wake up, swing your legs out of bed, and immediately regret everything you did the day before. Sitting down feels like a negotiation. Stairs become a personal challenge. Even reaching for something feels ambitious. And somewhere in the middle of that, you wonder: did I sleep wrong or did I overdo it yesterday?
There was a time when I would have shrugged it off and kept going. These days, I’m more interested in figuring out what my body is trying to tell me before I decide what to do next.
Muscle soreness is easy to misread because every body is different, and every kind of soreness is different too. What feels normal and temporary in your body may feel more intense, more lingering, or more concerning in another. And what brings relief for one person may not be what your body needs at all. The body communicates through signals, and when we slow down enough to notice them, it’s pretty amazing what they can tell us.
Some soreness is simply your body adapting. You used muscles in a new way, asked a little more of them than usual, or moved with more intensity than your body was ready for, and now they’re responding. That kind of soreness tends to feel fairly even, predictable, and temporary. It shows up later, lingers for a bit, and then fades as your body adjusts.
But sometimes soreness has a different tone. It’s sharper, more localized, or doesn’t improve as the day goes on. It feels like something is off. And sometimes what you’re feeling isn’t even from intentional exercise at all. It can be tight shoulders from stress, that sharp pain in your upper back that seems to come out of nowhere, a stiff neck from too much time at a screen, or hips that feel locked up after sitting too long.
My massage therapist always tells me I carry the weight of the world on my shoulders, and when I go in for a massage, half the time he’s working knots out of my upper back.
Muscles can hold more than movement. They can hold tension, fatigue, and the wear and tear of how you’ve been living.
This is where we might want to shift our thinking. Instead of asking, “How do I get rid of this soreness, and quick?” a better question is, “What is my body actually asking for right now?” Not a quick fix. Not something to override the signal, but something that works with the body instead of against it.
I was reminded of that recently after an extended weekend that included a lot of hill climbing. It’s not like I never walk at an incline. I’ve been walking on the treadmill and in my own neighborhood for years, sometimes at a 6 to 10 percent incline, but the hills I walked that weekend were clearly a little steeper than what I had trained for. And I felt it after the second day, not the first. That was my cue to shift my thinking and ask both questions: how do I support my body, and how do I give it some physical relief? I slowed my pace, slept longer, drank more water, added electrolytes to my water, and even took an Epsom salt mineral bath. But the discomfort hung on. Every soreness is different, which means what helps one time may not do much the next.
That’s where simple things can make a difference. A walk instead of another hard workout. Or a change of pace altogether. Instead of lifting weights again, do some gardening or rearrange the garage. Stretch instead of scroll. Give yourself a day of rest or an extra hour or two of sleep. Drink an extra glass of mineral water. Let your body catch up instead of forcing it to keep up. And sometimes, when your muscles are still letting you know they’re unhappy, support can come from more than one direction.
I make a homemade balm and use it when I want a little physical relief without automatically reaching for ibuprofen or a store-bought topical balm. In this case, I think it was the balm along with a yoga class that helped shift me out of real unbearable discomfort and toward healing. That’s part of what I love about yoga too. It isn’t just physical. It supports the mind, body, and soul all at once. The balm wasn’t a cure-all, and neither was the yoga class by itself, but together they gave me enough relief and support to help my body move through what it needed to move through. If you want the balm recipe, you can get it HERE.
And if you want a broader look at recovery, I also wrote about this a couple of years ago in my Muscle Meltdown article, where I share additional ways to support the body when your muscles are asking for care.
Sometimes the most supportive thing we can do is stop ignoring the body or dismissing the signals it gives us. Pause, ask what it needs, then listen for the answer.
That idea sits at the heart of The Awakened Body. The body is always communicating, but so many of us have been conditioned to override it, numb it, distract it, or push past it. Learning to listen is where things begin to change.
Soreness isn’t always a sign that something major is going on in your body, but it isn’t something to ignore either. It’s feedback. Sometimes it’s telling you to slow down. Sometimes it’s telling you your body is adapting. And sometimes it’s asking you to pay attention in a way you haven’t been. The body is always communicating. The question is whether we’re willing to listen.