What to Actually Do When You're Really Sore
Embrace Your Real
Julie Ledbetter
5.0 • 981 Ratings
🗓️ 9 April 2026
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Most people treat soreness as proof that a workout worked, the more destroyed you feel the next day the better the session must have been. But soreness is not a measure of effort or progress, and training through it the wrong way is one of the most common reasons people plateau, get injured, and end up taking more rest than they ever intended to.
In this episode of Embrace Your Real, I break down the science of what is actually happening in your body when soreness hits and why the conventional wisdom of either pushing through it or resting completely is getting it wrong. I also get into why active recovery beats both of those options in most cases, what protein, carbohydrates, hydration, and sleep are each doing for your recovery at a cellular level, and how smart programming eliminates the guesswork entirely so your body is always training hard and recovering smarter.
What's Discussed:
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Why soreness is not proof your workout worked and what it actually means
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What DOMS is, why it happens, and when it peaks
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The difference between normal soreness and pain that is a genuine warning sign
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Should you train through soreness and the honest answer
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What active recovery actually is and why it beats complete rest
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How to program around soreness so you never hit the same muscle group twice
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Why protein is the most important recovery tool you have
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Why carbohydrates matter more than most people realize after a hard session
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How dehydration is quietly making your soreness worse than it needs to be
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Why sleep is where most of your muscle repair actually happens
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How to know when soreness is information and when it is a warning
If you want a workout program that already has recovery built into the structure so you are never guessing which muscles to train or when to pull back, head to movementwithjulie.com to get started inside the Movement With Julie app.
If you loved this episode, you'll also love: Episode 413: The Importance of a Rest Day.It will help you take everything you learned here and apply it in a way that actually protects your progress instead of quietly undermining it.
If you want more from me, be sure to check out…
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Follow me on Instagram: @juliealedbetter | @embraceyourreal | @movementwithjulie
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Movement With Julie | App: https://sale.movementwithjulie.com/
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Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy: https://www.macrocountingmadesimple.com/
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Website: www.juliealedbetter.com
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, hey, beautiful human. Can I steal five minutes of your time? I have something super important to share with you, but I promise I'll be really quick. You're listening to my weekly bonus episode of Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Labbetter. I'm about to give you a quick tip for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned. If you're ready to embrace a real. Let's get it. Let's go. |
| 0:32.3 | Hello, hello, and welcome back to another bonus episode on the Embrace Your podcast. |
| 0:39.3 | Today's episode is really quick, |
| 0:43.3 | but it's going to be really practical because if you've ever woken up the morning after light day and you genuinely question whether you be able to walk down the stairs, this one is for you. |
| 0:48.6 | Soreness is one of those things that confuses people a lot. Like should you just push through it? |
| 0:52.6 | Should you rest completely? Is this a sign that your workout worked or is this a sign that something went wrong? And so in today's episode, we're going to be clearing all of that up for you. Here's what you're going to be walking away with today. You're going to know the difference between normal soreness and pain that is actually a warning sign, what to do, what not to do. And when you're really sore, how to use your nutrition, |
| 1:13.0 | your hydration, and smart programming to recover faster and feel better sooner. Before you dive in, |
| 1:18.8 | I want to share this review, though. She gave a five-star review and said, wow, exactly what I needed |
| 1:23.5 | to hear. I've been struggling with feeling confident and just feeling very defeated the last few |
| 1:27.4 | weeks. |
| 1:27.6 | And today's episode really helped me in so many ways. As I listened, I kept pressing each additional |
| 1:33.1 | link about confidence and not caring about what others think. Thank you, Julie, for all the tools |
| 1:38.7 | and the friend talk that I needed. I love the simplicity of just recognizing the negative mindset and saying, |
| 1:44.7 | that's not relevant. Keep being amazing you. Or keep being amazingly you. Thank you so much. |
| 1:51.1 | I'm so grateful for you. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day. I'm grateful that |
| 1:54.7 | these podcasts are helping you. That is exactly what my hope and prayer for for every single |
| 1:58.6 | episode is, is that you walk away feeling empowered, educated, just encourage in some way, shape, or form. So thank you in advance, you guys, for tuning into the podcast and also be sure to follow the show on whatever platform you are listening on. And if you could, scrooge over and leave a rating interview on Apple Podcasts, that would mean the absolute world to me and our team. |
| 2:34.5 | All right, let's just get right into it. So first things first, the soreness that you are feeling 24 to 48 hours after a tough workout, that actually has a name. It's called DOMS, D-O-M-S, which stands for delayed onset muscle soreness. And that's completely normal. It's not dangerous. it's actually a sign that your muscles were challenged. And now in the process of repairing and getting stronger, it tends to peek |
| 2:39.9 | around the 48 hour mark and then gradually ease us off. So Dom's feels like a deep muscular ache. |
| 2:46.3 | It tends to be tender to the touch. It gets worse when you move the muscle and better once you warm up. |
| 2:52.8 | And that's totally normal. That's your body doing exactly what it's supposed to do. |
| 2:56.6 | What is not normal is really sharp pain or joint pain or pain on one side that you don't feel |
... |
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