Can Excercise Worsen Gallbladder Pain?
Digestive HealthGallbladder

Can Exercise Worsen Gallbladder Pain?

Exercise offers many benefits, but if you’re experiencing gallbladder pain after a workout, here’s why.

Can Exercise Worsen Gallbladder Pain?
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Updated on August 29, 2025
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Your gallbladder is a small organ in the upper right side of your abdomen that stores and releases bile and helps digest fats in your body. When your gallbladder releases bile, it contracts and expels a small amount of bile through your bile ducts and into your small intestine to aid with digestion.

However, if you have an underlying gallbladder condition or if there’s a blockage in your bile ducts, you could have pain. While exercise can typically help prevent these problems, sometimes physical activity can worsen symptoms. Here’s what can cause the pain and why it might hurt more during exercise.

Gallstones

Bile is a digestive waste product that consists of water, fat, cholesterol, protein, bile salts, and bilirubin.

 An imbalance of these substances in the bile can cause it to crystallize and form into hardened deposits known as gallstones.

Gallstones are more likely to form if your gallbladder empties infrequently or if the bile contains too much cholesterol or bilirubin. When gallstones develop, your gallbladder might develop one large stone, hundreds of small stones, or a mix of large and small stones. If the gallstones remain in your gallbladder, they typically cause no symptoms. But when they block your bile ducts, they may cause pain.

Exercise may actually help prevent gallstones.

 But if you have stones that are already causing pain, you might make it worse by doing strenuous exercise.

Gallbladder Attack

In some cases, gallstones can move out of the gallbladder and become lodged in a bile duct. When this happens, the normal flow of bile becomes obstructed, and the gallbladder can become inflamed and infected. When gallstones obstruct the flow of bile, a gallbladder attack occurs.

Symptoms of a gallbladder attack are often severe and intense. Although pain begins in the upper-right abdomen, it might spread to the right chest, side, shoulder blade, and back. The pain often becomes worse with any type of activity or even with deep breathing. So if you’re having a gallbladder attack, you could make your symptoms worse by doing exercise. Attacks should only last a few hours. But if you have symptoms for longer than that, it’s important to seek medical help.

When to Call for Medical Help

Many people with gallstones may never know they have them.

 These are known as dormant or silent gallstones, because they’re in your gallbladder but they don’t cause any symptoms. Stones usually only lead to symptoms when they get stuck in or block your bile ducts.

So if you don’t know you have gallstones because you’ve never had symptoms, you likely won’t expect to have a gallbladder attack. Getting this sudden, excruciating pain — during exercise or not — may alarm you. If this happens, it’s important to see your healthcare provider as soon as you can. While pain should only last a few hours, some cases may require more treatment if symptoms are severe.

Exercising With Gallstones

If you have gallstones, don’t be afraid to exercise. Getting regular physical activity is good for your gallbladder function and overall health. But if you’re concerned about your symptoms or you have new pain after working out, talk with your healthcare provider about how much exercise you need and which workouts are right for you.

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. Gallbladder. Cleveland Clinic.
  2. Gallstones. Mayo Clinic. April 16, 2025.
  3. Ye Z et al. Physical Activity and Risk of Cholelithiasis: A Narrative Review. Frontiers in Medicine. December 15, 2024.
  4. What Causes a Gallbladder Attack? Johns Hopkins Medicine.
  5. Gallstones. Cleveland Clinic. January 15, 2024.
Additional Sources

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    Waseem Ahmed, MD

    Medical Reviewer

    Waseem Ahmed, MD, is an assistant professor of medicine in the Karsh Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and serves as Director, Advanced Inflammatory Bowel Disease Fellowship and Education within the F. Widjaja Inflammatory Bowel Disease Institute.

    He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and attended medical school at Indiana University. He then completed an internal medicine residency at New York University, followed by a fellowship in gastroenterology and hepatology at Indiana University, and an advanced fellowship in inflammatory bowel disease at the Jill Roberts Center for Inflammatory Bowel Disease at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medicine. Prior to his current role, Dr. Ahmed served as an assistant professor of medicine within the Crohn’s and Colitis Center at the University of Colorado from 2021-2024.

    Dr. Ahmed is passionate about providing innovative, comprehensive, and compassionate care for all patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). His research interests include IBD medical education for patients, providers, and trainees; clinical trials; acute severe ulcerative colitis; and the use of combined advanced targeted therapy in high-risk IBD.

    He enjoys spending time with his wife and dog, is an avid follower of professional tennis, and enjoys fine dining.

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    Krista Sheehan is a registered nurse and professional writer. Her nursing experience includes the neonatal intensive care unit, geriatrics, pulmonary disorders, and home health care. Her professional writing focuses mainly on physical health, fitness, nutrition, and positive lifestyle changes.

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