What to Actually Do When You're Really Sore

What to Actually Do When You're Really Sore

From Embrace Your Real by Julie Ledbetter

April 9, 2026 · 11 min

About this episode

Julie Ledbetter discusses the misconceptions about workout soreness and the importance of active recovery for optimal fitness results.

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: Why soreness is not proof your workout worked and what it actually means What DOMS is, why it happens, and when it peaks The difference between normal soreness and pain that is a genuine warning sign Should you train through soreness and the honest answer What active recovery actually is and why…

People in this episode

Host: Julie Ledbetter

Topics covered

  • soreness
  • active recovery
  • workout recovery
  • nutrition
  • fitness
  • muscle recovery

Keywords

  • soreness
  • DOMS
  • active recovery
  • protein
  • carbohydrates
  • hydration
  • workout
  • fitness
  • recovery

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