Soft Tissues Under Load - Why timing matters.

Why you feel “fine today”… then your body files a complaint tomorrow

Ever had this happen?

You train hard and feel great straight after. Then the next morning your Achilles feels like a rusty hinge. Or two days later your legs are so sore you’re negotiating with the stairs like they’re a hostile worksite.

People usually ask:

“Was that session too much?” “Did I hurt something?” “Why am I sore now instead of then?”

Here’s the missing piece most people never get shown:

Your tissues don’t respond to load on the same timeline.

Muscle, tendon, fascia, nerves, and blood vessels all react and adapt… but they do it on different clocks. Once you understand those clocks, a lot of confusing “why am I worse the next day?” situations suddenly make sense.

Tissue biology doesn’t care about your calendar

Your body is brutally honest. Race dates, work deadlines, and “I need to be right by Saturday” don’t magically speed up repair and adaptation.

Your job (and mine as your therapist) isn’t to override biology. It’s to match the plan to what your tissues can actually tolerate, and to be honest when the plan won’t bend.

The loop that runs after every hard session

After heavy lifts, sprints, a long run, a tough class, or even a big week of repetitive work, tissues don’t just “get tired” and bounce back.

They move through a consistent loop:

Load → Signal → Repair → Adaptation

In plain English: you apply force, your cells read it as information, the body starts a controlled repair response, and over time tissues remodel to handle that load better — if recovery matches stress.

The problem is that clients judge recovery by how they feel today, while tissues are often still mid-process. And different tissues run on slightly different clocks.

The recovery clock (in human language)

Use this as your internal “what’s happening inside?” guide after a hard but sensible session.

0–30 minutes: during & right after

You feel pumped, worked, tired, sometimes looser. Everything is fresh — which makes this a terrible time to judge whether the session was “too much.”

0–6 hours: early signalling

This is when people often say, “I’m fine.” The body is switching on repair messaging, but symptoms haven’t caught up yet. This is where recovery gets overestimated.

6–24 hours: ramp-up

Heaviness and stiffness creep in. Fluid shifts and nervous system sensitivity start to rise. Tendons often begin “grumbling” later that day or the next morning.

24–72 hours: peak soreness + connective tissue work

Classic DOMS window. This is also when collagen-building activity ramps up in tendon and connective tissue. You get the classic lines: “Stairs are awful,” or “My Achilles was fine yesterday and now it’s angry.” Often normal repair + sensitivity, not injury.

3–7 days: you feel normal… but the rebuild isn’t finished

DOMS fades and movement feels normal again — but internal remodelling can still be ticking along. This is where the “feel fine → smash it again → flare-up” cycle is born.

Weeks–months: long-term patterns

This is where most chronic issues live.

• Load + recovery → positive adaptation

• Load without recovery → chronic overload and sensitisation

• Most problems aren’t from one bad session — they’re from repeated weeks where tissues never catch up.

What different tissues do (and how it usually feels)

Think of this as a translation guide — not a checklist.

Muscle: fast to complain, fast to adapt

After novel or eccentric work, muscle soreness often peaks 24–72 hours (DOMS). Normal soreness is usually diffuse, symmetrical, and improves once you warm up and move around.

Concerning signs are sharp focal pain, significant bruising/swelling, or worsening function (not just discomfort).

Tendon: a spring, not a shock absorber

Tendons store and release energy. They like consistent loading and hate sudden spikes. Collagen-building activity tends to be elevated 24–72 hours post-load, which is why tendon stiffness often shows up the next morning, not during training. Warm-up relief is common, but if next-day stiffness escalates week to week, that’s often a load planning issue.

“Load it well and it gets stronger. Spike it too often and it stays cranky.”

Fascia: the force-transmission web

Fascia is a continuous connective tissue network involved in force transfer. It’s also heavily innervated, which makes it a big contributor to the “tight,” “stuck,” or “restricted” feeling. After new load, it can feel sore or stiff for a few days. Manual therapy plus varied movement can help change perception and improve glide.

“It’s not just muscle — the connective tissue web adapts too.”

Nerves & pain system: sensitivity control

Pain isn’t a tissue scanner — it’s a protection system.

Repair chemicals can temporarily turn sensitivity up, and sleep, stress, workload, and expectation all influence the output. Your nervous system often becomes more protective during repair. That’s normal — but it needs managing.

“Your system has turned sensitivity up while things repair. Our job is to keep it productive, not alarmed.”

What to do with soreness (simple rules that help)

• Don’t judge recovery in the first 6 hours. “I’m fine” can be misleading.

• Expect DOMS in days 1–3 if it’s diffuse and improves with movement.

• Expect tendons to complain the next morning more than during training.

• Be careful in days 3–7 — “feel fine” doesn’t always mean “fully rebuilt.”

• If pain is sharp and focal, there’s significant swelling/bruising, loss of strength, or symptoms worsen rapidly — get assessed.

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Where manual therapy actually fits

Manual therapy can be a powerful tool when it respects the timeline.

It can help reduce protective tone and sensitivity, improve movement options, and support training consistency — without trying to “erase” normal adaptation.

The goal isn’t rescue work.

It’s right dose, right tissue, right time.

If you’re stuck in a loop of feel fine → train hard → flare up, it’s rarely a motivation problem — it’s usually a timeline and load-matching problem. That’s what we troubleshoot at Rebound RMT: identify what tissue is most likely driving the symptoms, where you are in the recovery window, and what the next step should be so you can keep training without constant setbacks.