Pain–is it Muscle Soreness or a Symptom?
When you work out your muscles are sore. However, your muscles are not supposed to stay sore beyond 48 hours. Moreover, your joints are not supposed to hurt. In most cases soreness should be in the muscles, only temporarily, after hard work.
Any pain caused by an injury can also be discerned if you are able to ascertain the cause. For example, any pain caused by a single episode, collision with an opponent, or injury is very easy to detect. GRAY Cook, the author of Athletic Body in Balance, physical therapist, and a strength coach says, “However, if a nagging pain comes on slowly and lingers, it is important to find out what caused it, where the pain is coming from, and what can be done to correct it.”
Yet most of the times we cover up the symptom (pain) and push the joint further and further into activity, which can cause significant amount of damage. We would like the pain to go away so that we can continue to hit the gym or whatever activity we are into. It is very important to understand pain. “Pain is simply a signal alerting you to a problem or a potential problem.” Gray Cook.
Moral of the story: Don’t neglect pain. Know the cause of it and ask how to correct it. For example, the knee pain could simply be caused by tightness in the adjoining muscles—the hip or the ankle. Moreover, if you neglect pain the body compensates or uses awkward or unnatural movements to avoid the pain. This can create more problems.
Differentiating between muscle soreness and joint pain can be discerned if you keenly observe the symptoms.