sudden muscle pain during a workout?

Hi, I have started to workout in a gym recently. It seems that I have put on few extra pounds during the winter and I have decided to lose them in the gym. During the first workout I didn't strain myself too much, since I was new to all this. The next time I started to work a little bit harder and that is when it happened. I felt sudden pain in my upper arm muscle during a workout. The pain was very strong, so I had to stop the workout all together. Since then, I am reluctant to go back to the gym. Why did this happen?

Hi, when you first start to workout, you will inevitably feel muscle pain during the workout and even few days afterwards, because your muscles are not used to this kind of stress and need time to adjust to new situation. That is why it was a smart to start to workout with less weight and fewer raps. However, this sudden pain you have described is not the pain of the over worked muscle. When the pain is so severe, it usually means you have hurt the muscle. That is why it is very important to properly warm up before every work out. If you start to lift weights before you have warmed up, you can get seriously injured. Also if you try to lift heavy weights right away, you can also get injured. You shouldn't go back to the gym before the doctor examines your injury. When he says it is ok for you to go back to lifting weights, you can return to your workout. Follow these tips and you will avoid any further damage.