A tough workout can haunt you. When you wake up the next morning and try to get out of bed, everyday movements like turning over and standing up can leave your muscles screaming in pain. Maybe you’ve been meaning to get back to working out, but now you’re wondering: Can I still work out when I’m in so much pain?

Well, it depends.

“Muscle soreness isn’t necessarily a bad thing,” says exercise physiologist Alyssa Olenick. Some level of muscle soreness is normal when you train hard or push your muscles in new ways. It’s a natural effect known as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), which typically peaks within 48 hours of exercise and then usually resolves within 72 hours. It occurs because different or higher-than-usual loads can lead to tissue breakdown, which triggers an inflammatory response. (Don’t worry—this breakdown isn’t bad; the subsequent repair process is actually what makes our muscles stronger.)

“Your body is basically sending a lot of immune cells into the muscle tissue because it wants to eliminate the muscle breakdown,” Olenick explains. “And the pain you feel is actually just the swelling and all those cells eliminating that breakdown and putting pressure on the nerves in your muscles.”

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The most important thing to pay attention to is How Pain you’re feeling. If the pain is around a “three” on a scale of one to 10, it’s OK to keep going, according to Rick Richey, an instructor at the National Academy of Sports Medicine. You may just need to adjust your workouts to suit your pain level, Olenick adds, such as lifting lighter weights or walking at a more relaxed pace.

However, if your muscle soreness is more than just a slight ache, you should take that as a sign to stop. “Your body is smart: It tells you that you’re sore so you don’t do it again,” says Richey.

In this case, it’s best to give your body time to recover—even if your fitness tracker says it’s time to really push yourself. Some trackers come with a “recovery” or “readiness” score based on your heart rate variability, which tracks your body’s overall systemic stress. (Reduced variation between heartbeats is a signal that your nervous system is more in fight-or-flight mode.) “Your heart rate response doesn’t necessarily know that your muscles are sore,” Olenick says.

Trying to push through extreme pain can hinder the recovery process and undermine your efforts. “Recovering from exercise is when protein synthesis actually happens and you start to build muscle and strength,” Richey adds. “If you cut recovery too short, you won’t get the benefits you want.”

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In addition, it is not very beneficial to exercise with extremely sore muscles. “When you are very sore, it affects the strength of your muscles,” says Carol Ewing Garber, professor of exercise science and education at Columbia University Teachers College. Sore muscles cannot generate as much force and usually fatigue more quickly. So even if you wanted If you try to do 20 push-ups, you may not be able to do all of them or go as deep as you normally would. Richey adds that severe muscle soreness can affect your posture, so you may not get the intended benefit from the exercises – and could even end up injuring yourself.

There is also a rare but serious condition called rhabdomyolysis – often abbreviated to “rhabdo” – that can occur. “It occurs when someone Really “If you overdo it, it causes a lot of muscle damage,” says Garber. Rapid muscle loss can lead to kidney damage, which in extreme cases can be life-threatening.

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So what should you do if you’re in so much pain that you can barely move? Listen to what your body is asking for and take a rest day. That doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t need to move, though. In fact, doing a little exercise, like walking, low-intensity biking, or gentle yoga poses, can help. Although it may hurt at first to get up off the couch and start moving, you’ll probably feel a little better when you sit back down. “Blood flow to those tissues can help the body clean out the cells it’s trying to clear,” says Olenick. Massage might also be useful for the same reason, adds Garber.

If you feel like another hard workout, you can focus on the muscles that not Pain – for example, do a leg workout if your arms hurt. “If you have pain in one muscle, it’s localized,” says Richey. “You have a whole other part of your body that you can train.”

However, even if you’re following a specific training program or training for something big like a triathlon, a day or two off won’t undo all your hard work. Remember, recovery is where the magic happens. “A little soreness is a good thing in the long run because then as the muscle recovers, it gets stronger and is more resilient to future soreness,” says Garber. So give your body the time it needs to heal. “It’s good to have a little patience.”