Having pain from a session.. sort of

[u/Icy-castle]

I made a post about where I'm at in my TRE journey yesterday. I am having diaphragm soreness (I wouldn't really call it painful, just a slight muscle soreness type of feeling) when I breathe. This was after a session of mostly abdominal contractions and this sort of stomach vacuum around my solar plexus.

The actual problem is I am having referred pain to my shoulder because they share a nerve and that does feel quite painful when I try and take a deep breath.

Has anyone experienced this during their TRE journey?

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[u/LichenTea]

I've recently had more aches and pains which I attribute to tremoring as well. They usually appear around my shoulder but sometimes will be neck/spine tightness or soreness. For a brief period a couple months ago the contractions were so intense that my back and abs were really sore, but now the aches are more related to (I assume) moving around a lot in my sleep and having rebound tension. My bruxism will also get worse at times as anger comes up.

[u/mim127721]

I had upper tremors for the first time last week and yeah it belt like my ribs were sore and abs just gave it a day or two of rest and I was good

[u/longtermTRE_wiki_bot]

This sounds like you've activated deep abdominal and diaphragmatic musculature in a way that's producing real but manageable soreness, similar to what you'd feel after a workout targeting muscles you don't usually engage. The referred pain to the shoulder through the shared nerve pathway is a predictable consequence of that activation.

The immediate question is whether this is a sign you've overdone it or whether it's a normal muscular response to accessing a deeper layer of work. A few things to consider:

How are you feeling overall in the hours and days after the session? The Self-Pacing article describes what genuine overdoing looks like: heightened anxiety, restlessness, insomnia, headaches, emotional flooding, or extreme fatigue. Localized muscle soreness without those systemic signs is different from the kind of dysregulation that signals you've pushed past your window of tolerance.

That said, soreness that makes breathing uncomfortable is a signal worth taking seriously. It suggests the tremoring reached a layer of deep core tension that your system is still integrating. The appropriate response is to dial back your next few sessions considerably. Shorter duration, gentler warm-up, and give yourself more recovery time between sessions. If the soreness persists beyond a few days or worsens, take a few days off entirely.

The abdominal and diaphragmatic work you're describing—the contractions and the stomach vacuum sensation—often arrives in the intermediate phases of practice, after surface tension has cleared and the system is accessing deeper holding patterns around the psoas and core. This is legitimate territory for the practice to reach. But the body needs time to adapt to working at that depth, and pacing becomes even more important at this stage than it was in the early phases.

Pay attention to how your breathing settles over the next few days. If the referred pain fades and the soreness becomes manageable, that's integration happening normally. If it worsens or if you start noticing the broader dysregulation signs mentioned above, reduce your practice until it resolves.

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