10/05/2021
Why am I hurting?
Have you ever felt your muscle suddenly twinge and hurt? Do you have a dull ache when you have been sitting at the desk too long and finish gardening? Its not as if you have been going ‘all out’, has it ever made you wonder ‘how did that happen?’ Well, more than likely the muscle has developed an area of injury through repetitive strain.
What is a strain?
When a muscle goes beyond its ability to stretch it becomes torn. Classically, this happens when a muscle extends beyond the joints’ normal range of movement and results in a strain injury, however at times individual muscle fibres can become tight and cannot stretch sufficiently, resulting in microtears of the muscle.
Muscle fibres work together
When a muscle fibre is used repeatedly, it will tire and build up waste products. The waste products cause an inefficiency of the muscle fibre (think of walking across an empty room compared to walking across a room filled with boxes of clutter), making it harder for the muscle fibre to function and more waste products are produced as a result.
Now, imagine one muscle fibre in a group of 100 is more fatigued than the rest. The whole muscle is moved into a stretch and every fibre, except one, can stretch further. The one restricted muscle fibre takes the entire force of the stretch and becomes torn, thereby developing a microtrauma.
Muscle fibres fail together
It may seem that losing one muscle fibre in 100 is inconsequential, but a problem arises over time. The single muscle muscle fibre now has scar tissue and cannot function like it once did. The work must now be taken over by the surrounding muscle fibres, and consequently have more work to do and become fatigued. The surrounding fatigued fibres may not be able to stretch and, in turn, get torn themselves. In consequence, the single torn muscle fibre becomes a weak focal point, from which the surrounding fibres can become damaged and resulting in a serious injury gradually developing.
How do repetitive strain injuries occur?
As an action is repeated, the microtears can develop a weak focal point and create a repetitive strain injury. In an ideal world, the muscle fibres would be able to rest to allow the body to break down any waste product build up and heal any damaged fibres. However, with modern jobs most people do the same actions hour after hour, day after day, not allowing any time to rest. Once the injury has occurred, even if the muscle has been able to rest afterwards, the area is often prone to injury due to small amounts of scar tissue. The scar tissue is relatively inextensible and inactive compared to the surrounding tissue, so again the surrounding muscle fibres must work harder to compensate.
What can I do?
Rest and letting the injury repair itself is ideal. But sometimes we don’t have the time or the injury is too far gone to fully recover by itself.
Regular stretching and gentle exercise such as yoga is amazing at keeping those muscles loose and mobile. However, stretching is best used to prevent rather than reverse repetitive strain injuries.
Massage can be a great as both a preventative tool to stop microtrauma developing into something more serious, and also help reverse the injury damage. The therapist can identify the area of damage and can treat that area with massage. By increasing the local circulation and breaking up scar tissue (knots), the damaged muscle fibres can heal more effectively and the microtrauma progression is limited.
Are you experiencing any injuries or have aches and pains you need help with? Let me know and we can have a talk about your problem. I am always happy to help!
