What if it’s rhabdomyolysis?

There is an extreme type of muscle soreness that can cause serious health complications, and it’s called rhabdomyolysis, or “rhabdo” for short. In rhabdo, you have so much damage to your muscles that your body, and especially your kidneys, can’t handle the resulting metabolic waste products that end up in your bloodstream. That said, it’s not very common. If you just did a new workout and you feel sore all over, it’s far more likely that you have a bad case of DOMS. To give you an idea of how rare, this study found 29 cases over a period of four years (2010-2014) in one of New York City’s hospitals.

Since it’s just one hospital, there must have been more cases in the city in those years than just 29; but on the other hand, that’s still a teeny-tiny fraction of people who exercise. But rhabdo does happen. And because it happens more frequently in absolute beginners who go too hard than in experienced athletes (who presumably know when to stop pushing themselves), you may be facing your first bout of extreme soreness and not knowing whether you’re unusually sore or not.