Among the sacrifices you will need to make on your fitness journey is pushing through a workout with sore muscles.  Let’s face it, you are going to be sore, possibly very sore when starting P90X or any other fitness program.  Whether it’s muscle soreness during your workout caused by lactic acid production or delayed onset muscle soreness (D.O.M.S.) that hits you a day or two later, soreness is a good sign that you are using your muscles in a manner that they are not used to and your body is responding.  Beginners will almost certainly feel more soreness than those who have been exercising regularly.  My experience, especially with P90X ,has been that the soreness will decrease considerably after the first 5-8 days.

Should I Workout With Sore Muscles?

The answer to this question is yes and no.  Most experts agree that you should without question, rest the muscles trained during a weight-training workout at least 1-2 days before training them again.  Not letting your muscles recover will actually allow the breakdown process to continue and impede the muscle-building process.  Resting these muscle groups does not necessarily mean not working out.  Quite the contrary, being that exercising and going through with your workout with sore muscles promotes better circulation and  recovery, doing nothing may actually increase your level of soreness.  The schedules associated with Beachbody programs are designed to give specific muscle groups at least one day of rest in between workouts.  Your chest and back may be begging for mercy from yesterday’s workout, but there is no reason you can’t do cardio today.  That being said, if you are scheduled to workout a specific muscle group that is still very sore even after a day or two of rest, it would be wise to take another day off and focus on other body parts/systems.

Embrace the Pain!

One of the most common quotes associated with fitness is “no pain, no gain”.  There is a lot of truth in that statement.  Drinking the P90X Results and Recovery Formula will help but the soreness is coming.  It might even be very bad in the beginning, but it will subside.  Just look at it as a sign your body is changing for the better!  Your soreness is just a small speed bump along your road to greater fitness. To paraphrase Tony Horton, if the top is broken, work the bottom, if the bottom is broken, work the top, if the top and bottom are broken, work the core.

While it is best give sore muscles a rest from training them directly, it would be better to do some type of workout with sore muscles than to do nothing at all.

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