Symptoms of Overworked Abs
FitnessHealth Impacts
Explore This Topic

What to Do If You’ve Overworked Your Abs During Exercise

What to Do If You’ve Overworked Your Abs During Exercise
SeventyFour/iStock/GettyImages
By
Updated on July 31, 2025
by

When you work out, you want to feel the burn. However, you can sometimes overdo it. Overworking your abs can cause symptoms that can be unpleasant or painful. Muscle soreness, spasms, and cramps are some of the typical negative side effects of an ab workout.

Symptoms of Overworked Abs

You can expect ab muscle soreness after any good core workout. This phenomenon is known as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). It occurs due to the stress you place on your muscles during exercise.

When DOMS occurs, your muscles are essentially developing inflammation. This leads to unpleasant symptoms like pain, muscle stiffness, swelling, and tenderness.

Although DOMS can be unpleasant, it doesn’t mean you have an injury. DOMS is an entirely normal part of muscle building, and you’ll normally feel it around 24 to 48 hours after an intense workout. It gradually starts to feel better afterward. The symptoms it causes are part of the rebuilding process that helps you grow and strengthen muscles.

You're particularly likely to experience DOMS if you've just started a new type of workout program or integrated a new type of exercise into your workout routine. It also commonly occurs when you've increased the intensity of your workout or if you've repetitively performed a certain exercise without taking adequate breaks.

You should be aware that it's possible to experience symptoms that are unrelated to DOMS. For instance, if the pain in your abs suddenly occurred after a particular exercise, it's usually not DOMS. Bruising and swelling may be signs of an abdominal muscle strain. Muscle strains can occur if you overwork muscles in the abdomen.

Likewise, abdominal pain and cramps can point to digestive issues, the effects of the menstrual cycle, or inflammation. Severe abdominal pain may be a sign that a doctor’s visit is necessary, as depending on where it is in the abdomen, it can point to issues with different organs, such as the liver, kidneys, stomach, or gallbladder.

Managing Symptoms of Overworked Abs

The negative side effects of an abs workout can be unpleasant, but they are typically manageable. Effective muscle pain relief methods can include:

Rest, which can help small tears in your overworked muscle fibers recover

  • Pain relief strategies include:
  • Gentle stretching, to prevent stiffness
  • Massage, which can reduce muscle tension and support faster healing by improving blood flow to affected areas
  • Cryotherapy and cold water immersion
  • Over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen or aspirin
  • Topical pain relief, which can relieve muscle pain in specific areas
While it’s uncomfortable, resting up and applying over-the-counter or home remedies can be enough to soothe symptoms after you’ve overworked your ab muscles.

However, if muscle soreness lasts for more than a few days or gets worse even though you’re resting, contacting a doctor can help you connect with prescribed medications, physical therapy, or even surgery if necessary.

Complications of Overworked Abs

Overworked abs can happen to anyone on occasion. However, recurring or severe muscle soreness can be harmful, causing serious injuries such as muscle tears. It can take a long time to recover from a torn muscle. You may even injure other parts of your body if you try to exercise with an injury and push through the pain or don’t give yourself enough rest.

Very rarely, intense physical exercise can even lead to rhabdomyolysis (rhabdo).

 Rhabdo is a serious condition that occurs when your muscles are so overstressed that their cells burst.

When this happens, burst muscle cells enter your bloodstream and cause issues like weakness, soreness, pain, and dark urine. Rhabdo can even lead to kidney problems and hospitalization. See a doctor immediately if you notice these symptoms.

Any form of muscle damage can cause rhabdomyolysis, but high-intensity exercise can be a culprit.

 Rhabdo is more likely to occur if you've suddenly gone from barely exercising at all to attending high-intensity workout classes at your gym.

Rhabdo is only likely when your body isn't used to a dramatic increase in the level of exertion you're putting it through, or you don’t rest. Although this may not occur often as a specific result of ab exercises, it could be that your ab routine is part of a higher-intensity routine that your body isn’t used to, such as intense military training, and this may mean you feel both ab soreness and rhabdo symptoms.

Preventing Symptoms From Overworked Abs

It's important to prevent recurring overworked abs. Doing so may require that you adjust future workouts. If you haven’t worked out in a while, start slowly, focus on form and quality, and gradually increase the number of reps.

First, find the level of repetitions you feel comfortable performing while maintaining the right form. Alternatively, you might want to try doing fewer sets, which is usually a group of 12 to 15 reps. You might be comfortable with a single set of a difficult exercise, but two sets could be what triggers overwork symptoms. However, one set is enough to reap fitness benefits.

In some cases, you might be doing just one exercise — but for a long period of time, such as a plank or hover. You might easily be able to hold it for 30 seconds at a time. One minute, on the other hand, might be out of the question.

In this case, you'll want to start out slowly and gradually increase the time you're holding the exercise for. Try a 30-second plank or hover for the first few days. Then gradually add another five seconds at a time. Slowly building up to the desired duration will help prevent overworked abs.

However, a balanced routine that focuses on other muscle groups and gives your abs rest, a daily routine that involves plenty of physical activity, a thorough and targeted exercise plan, and ample recovery time can help you stay active without overtraining your abs.

The Takeaway

  • Overworking your abs can lead to symptoms like soreness, stiffness, and tenderness. Occasionally, more severe conditions like muscle strains or, in very rare circumstances, rhabdomyolysis may develop.
  • To manage such symptoms, consider rest, gentle stretching, and over-the-counter pain relief, but seek medical attention if symptoms persist or become severe.
  • Avoid overworking your abs by gradually increasing exercise intensity and ensuring your workout routine includes adequate recovery time.
  • If you experience severe abdominal pain or symptoms commonly associated with rhabdomyolysis, such as dark urine or muscle weakness, see a healthcare professional immediately.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
  1. What Is Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness? Cedars Sinai. January 1, 2025.
  2. Reduce delayed onset muscle soreness after workouts. Utah State University. March 23, 2020.
  3. Abdominal Muscle Strain. Cleveland Clinic. September 15, 2021.
  4. Abdominal Pain. Cleveland Clinic. April 18, 2022.
  5. Myalgia (Muscle Pain). Cleveland Clinic. October 1, 2024.
  6. Muscle Strain. Cleveland Clinic. February 18, 2022.
  7. Rhabdomyolysis. Cleveland Clinic. February 24, 2023.
  8. Rhabdo: A rare but serious complication of... exercise. Harvard Medical School. October 27, 2020.
  9. Risk Factors for Rhabdomyolysis. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). May 21, 2024.
  10. The best core exercises for older adults. Harvard Medical School. April 1, 2021.
  11. Fitness program: 5 steps to get started. Mayo Clinic. December 5, 2023.
  12. SuperAbs Resource Manual. University of New Mexico. December 5, 2023.
Meet Our Experts
See Our Editorial PolicyMeet Our Health Expert Network
Kara-Andrew-bio

Kara Andrew, RDN, LDN

Medical Reviewer
Member of American College of Lifestyle Medicine

Kara Andrew, RDN, LDN, is the director of health promotion for Memorial Hospital in Carthage, Illinois. She is also licensed as an exercise physiologist and certified in lifestyle medicine by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. Her experience includes corporate wellness, teaching for the American College of Sports Medicine, sports nutrition, weight management, integrative medicine, oncology support, and dialysis.

She earned her master's in exercise and nutrition science at Lipscomb University.

Andrew has served as a president and board member of the Nashville Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She was recently elected a co-chair of the fitness and medicine group in the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.

See full bio

Adam Felman

Author
Adam is a freelance writer and editor based in Sussex, England. He loves creating content that helps people and animals feel better. His credits include Medical News Today, Greatist, ZOE, MyLifeforce, and Rover, and he also spent a stint as senior updates editor for Screen Rant.

As a hearing aid user and hearing loss advocate, Adam greatly values content that illuminates invisible disabilities. (He's also a music producer and loves the opportunity to explore the junction at which hearing loss and music collide head-on.)

In his spare time, Adam enjoys running along Worthing seafront, hanging out with his rescue dog, Maggie, and performing loop artistry for disgruntled-looking rooms of 10 people or less.

See full bio
See Our Editorial PolicyMeet Our Health Expert Network