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You wake up the morning after yoga and notice that you feel a little stiff. Isn’t yoga supposed to make you feel better and not worse, you wonder.
But it’s normal to feel sore after yoga, especially if you’re getting back to your practice after some time away or you’re trying new-to-you postures. After all, one of the reasons a yoga practice can feel so transformative is it stretches muscles that you’re overlooking in everyday life.
Is It Normal to Feel Sore After Yoga?
Yes. And this experience has a clinical name: delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). Erica Yeary, yoga teacher and exercise physiologist, explains that yoga stretches can “cause microscopic injuries to the muscle and fascial tissues.” The result? “Our bodies produce an inflammatory response to these micro-tears and this causes muscle soreness,” she says.
DOMS usually occurs 12-48 hours after exercising. The level of soreness you feel depends on the intensity and frequency of your yoga practice, as well as your individual body type, says Loren Fishman, medical director of Manhattan Physical Medicine and creator of the Yoga Injury Prevention program.
But mild soreness can be a good thing when it’s sign that your muscles are getting stronger. This can be in response to stretching your muscles “in unfamiliar ways,” says Fishman, or “when they’ve been overused.” “Once your muscles recover, you’ll experience muscle growth and improved performance,” says Yeary.
What to Do When You’re Sore After Yoga
There are many ways to soothe sore muscles. Here’s what to do (and not do) as you cope with muscle soreness after yoga, according to medical and yoga experts. As always, if you experience pain, consult with a doctor.
1. Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate
Drink water, says Amy C. Sedgwick, an emergency medicine doctor and Yoga Medicine certified yoga instructor. “We want to help increase our blood volume so this fluid can be distributed more easily to the tissues to allow transfer of nutrition and flushing out metabolic waste. Hydration is the way that happens.”
2. Get Plenty of Sleep
Your body can’t allow the parasympathetic nervous system (rest-and-digest mode) to take over unless you experience adequate sleep and rest, says Sedgwick. “Without enough sleep, the neuroendocrine system will not prime the body and tissues for repair and relief.”
3. Exercise (But Gently)
The best way to experience relief from feeling sore after yoga, says Sedgwick, is more yoga. Or at least, more movement. Research shows doing the same muscle movements and sequences you did prior to feeling sore—but in a less intense way—can help relax muscle spasms and allow muscles, connective tissue, and joints to find greater range of motion, she adds.
4. Try Using a Foam Roller
Foam rolling for 20 minutes immediately after working out can help reduce tenderness— even if the rolling causes temporary discomfort, says Yeary. Take it slow and be gentle. You don’t want foam rolling to cause so much pain that it makes your soreness worse.
5. Eat Something
Make sure your post-workout refueling includes a balance of macronutrients. That means you want to include some protein, which repairs and builds muscle, and carbohydrates, which can help speed recovery, says Yeary.
6. Take a Hot Bath
This self-care go-to for many also helps initiate the parasympathetic nervous system, reducing tension and allowing the body to access a state of recovery, says Yeary.
7. Stretch
This increases circulation and range of motion while also preventing chronic tension and pain, says Yeary. And when you do, be sure to stretch through all planes of motion.
But don’t overdo it. Overstretching sore muscles can do more harm than good, says Yeary. “The tissues are already slightly damaged and working on healing.”
8. Continue to Practice Yoga
One of the best ways to cope with feeling sore after yoga is to do more yoga, says Fishman. “Concentrate on the areas that hurt and try to gradually relieve tension and tightness,” he says. “Becoming inactive because activity gives you some soreness is likely to leave you in even more pain the next time you practice.”
Opt for less intense yoga variations that allow increased circulation and range of motion, says Yeary.
9. Try to Avoid Anti-Inflammatory Drugs
It may seem like a smart idea to pop an aspirin when you’re feeling sore after yoga, but it’s not the best way to help speed your recovery, says Yeary. “Inflammation is how the body responds to any type of injury,” she says. “In order to properly repair any damaged tissue, you must have inflammation. If you take away that inflammation with a drug, you are hindering your body’s natural healing mechanisms.”
10. Don’t Down Energy Supplements
Unless you’re an ultra-endurance athlete, you are not likely depleting your system so much that you need caffeine, energy drinks, or supplements to support your recovery, says Sedgwick. “This only adds unnecessary calories and other substances to a body that simply needs gentle movement, hydration, and rest,” she says.
It’s likely not any single factor but rather a combination of strategies that will best address your recovery from muscle soreness. Try incorporating various methods after your next yoga class to learn what feels best to you.
This article has been updated. Originally published May 22, 2021.