Ease muscle soreness with light exercise

If you're feeling sore from yesterday's heavy workout, conventional wisdom dictates that you should take the day off. Not necessarily, says a recent report in the European Journal of Applied Physiology.

In a study of 18 volunteers who performed intense workouts over a fourteen day span, 9 of them also performed lighter sessions the next day. Researchers found that both groups reported equal amounts of muscle soreness, indicating that performing the light workout did not cause any additional pain or damage to the body during its recovery from the heavy workout the day prior.

Some doctors actually suggest doing a light workout to help alleviate muscle soreness, as keeping your muscles in motion may provide some relief.

Whether you choose to take the day off, or ease the soreness through light exercise, just make sure that you don't perform a heavy workout on consecutive days (unless you are working completely different body parts on each day).