06/04/2024
Nerve & Tendon Overuse Injuries
It makes sense that weak muscles become strained more easily than strong muscles if the athletic activity is performed with poor motor control. Muscles that are habitually used in either stretched or shortened positions are weaker and more prone to injury. Try this exercise: Make a fist with your wrist straight. Now flex your wrist to stretch the forearm extensor muscles, and then extend to shorten the same muscles. Notice how your wrist weakens in this flexed position. This even applies to the large back muscles, but it is particularly problematic in muscles that cross two joints, such as the hamstrings (the hip and knee), the calf (the knee and ankle), and the quadriceps (the hip and knee).
Shear, torsion, compression, tension, and bending are the injury mechanisms we tend to see in such cases. Mechanical strain in tendons, ligaments, nerves, and other connective tissues results in fatigue and may lead to body-wide compensations, reactive spasm, and — if the brain senses threat — pain.
During the early stages, there is little or no pain and the person might unknowingly continue to place pressure on the injured area. As a result, the involved tissue doesn’t have the necessary time to heal. Repetitively applied stresses that are below the tensile limit of the injured tissue typically result in positive remodeling, but not without adequate rest, retraining, and skilled bodywork.
In disorders such as piriformis and thoracic outlet syndromes, nerve tissues are at particular risk for ischemic injury. Compression, nerve entrapment, and eventual loss of blood supply may lead to characteristic changes in the nerve itself. The length of time a tissue can survive oxygen deprivation varies, but all ischemic tissue will eventually become… Click here to read more and view a median nerve (carpal tunnel) technique:
https://mailchi.mp/erikdalton/a-surge-in-overuse-injuries-9634632
