Soreness, Injury, etc. (Beginner - Real Green)

Training
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I’m in my 2nd week of weightlifting (haven’t lifted weights for probably 15 years). I’m starting with the following plan: How to Build Muscle Naturally: An Unexpected Plan - Bigger Stronger Leaner - COMMUNITY - T NATION

I have done about 7 months of 30-45 minute TRX workouts leading up to getting in the gym, so I’m starting with decent core and stability strength. I’m 5’6” and 162ish lbs. I’m 35 years old.

Given it is my first couple of weeks and my age, I’m sore from every workout and parts of my body that haven’t hurt before are hurting now. I obviously do not want to injure myself and start off on the wrong foot, but I also don’t want to mistake normal soreness for injury and go easy when I could be maximizing my time/effort in the gym. I was wondering how do I approach diagnosing soreness vs. injury and is it possible or normal to have soreness in joints that are not injuries? Or is all joint pain related to injury? Also, I try to maintain proper technique so that I know if I fail at a rep it is because of weight and not technique or something else. That being said, it IS my second week so I’m not exactly an experienced lifter with technique I have perfected over time.

My current soreness is in my right inside elbow. It does not hurt when I do the arm exercises from my upper body workout. I also played volleyball the other day so it could be that. BUT my general question is still how do I go about diagnosing soreness or non-injury related pain from injury? Any heuristics or self diagnosing processes?

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Super short answer

If hurts when you’re sitting around, but feels better when you start moving and training, it’s just soreness.

If it hurts when you move around and train, but feels better just sitting around, you’re injured.

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Hey @LoganAY - great job getting back into training after such a long layoff!

When it comes to differentiating soreness from training versus injury, a good rule of thumb is to key into where and when you’re feeling discomfort.

If you feel soreness or pain in the muscle when performing an exercise but can still perform it through a full range of motion through all your sets and reps, it’s likely just soreness. It’s possible to feel a bit more sore given your long layoff as your body reacclimates to training as well.

However, if you can’t complete a full rep without compensating (i.e., you’ve lost function), feel sharp pain in your muscle/joints, or have pain in everyday life, it could be an injury. In that case, it’s worth either 1) resting for a few days, then reassessing, 2) swapping exercises to see if one hurts less, and/or 3) seeing a doctor to get a test and diagnosis.

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