Post-Workout Soreness: What to ignore and what to report

A healthy lifestyle should always come with a healthy dose of exercise. While a high intensity workout may lead to muscle soreness within 24-72 hours, not all types of discomfort is normal. 

To begin with, there are two types of muscle discomfort that you may experience: muscle pain, and localized soreness. Muscle pain is a sharp, piercing feeling in an area or region. Localized soreness is a blunt discomfort that hurts when you do activities you would otherwise be able to do without pain before your workout.

Muscle pain is often the result of improper posture during a workout and the wrong set of exercises and weights. This is also an indicator that you're doing something wrong in the workout. Perhaps your balance is a bit off, or you're putting too much pressure on an injury.

Localized soreness should only be experienced in areas you are exercising such as the abdomen for crunches or the biceps for push-ups. Unless it's the body part you used in the routine, it shouldn't give you any discomfort. Areas like the neck and the lower back should be checked by the doctor once you feel either soreness or pain. 

The old adage "no pain, no gain" is not at all true in all cases. Listen to your body, because it always knows what's good for it.