FAQs

Muscle Strain Injuries: Recovery Time and Rehabilitation Options

How Long Does It Take For A Muscle Injury To Heal?

Muscle injuries are a common occurrence, and the duration of recovery varies depending on the severity of the injury. Muscle strains can range from mild to severe, with more severe strains requiring longer recovery periods. In some cases, surgical repair and post-operative physiotherapy may be necessary for a full recovery.

It is essential to seek professional assessment and guidance from a physiotherapist to ensure that your injury is treated correctly. They can provide you with specific instructions to aid in your rehabilitation and prevent re-injury.

To assist with your muscle strain rehabilitation, your physiotherapist may use a range of treatments. Acute muscle strain treatment options include early injury treatment, avoiding the HARM factors, using a brace or support, a TENS machine, and soft tissue massage. Subacute muscle strain treatment options may include acupuncture and dry needling, kinesiology tape, supportive taping and strapping, and heat packs. Medications may also be prescribed.

Later stage muscle strain treatment options may include foam rolling, stretching exercises, strength exercises, closed kinetic chain exercises, eccentric exercises, neurodynamics, proprioception and balance exercises, agility and sport-specific exercises.

Other factors to consider in muscle strain rehabilitation include biomechanical analysis, joint mobilisation techniques, gait analysis, running analysis, video analysis, prehabilitation, and yoga.

It is crucial to remember that the information provided in this article is general and should not be used as individual treatment advice. It is recommended that you seek professional guidance from a physiotherapist to receive appropriate treatment for your muscle strain injury.

Muscle Strain Rehabilitation Options

The following options are available to your physiotherapist to assist in rehabilitating your muscle strain. Please seek their professional advice before self-managing your injury to avoid aggravating your muscle strain. These are general guidelines only and should not be treated as individual treatment advice.

Acute Muscle Strain Treatment

• Early Injury Treatment
• Avoid the HARM Factors
• Brace or Support
• TENS Machine

Subacute Muscle Strain Treatment

• Sub-Acute Soft Tissue Injury Treatment
• Acupuncture and Dry Needling
• Soft Tissue Massage
• Kinesiology Tape
• Supportive Taping & Strapping
• Electrotherapy & Local Modalities
• Heat Packs
• Medications?

Later Stage Muscle Strain Treatment Options

• Foam Roller
• Stretching Exercises
• Strength Exercises
• Closed Kinetic Chain Exercises
• Eccentric Exercises
• Neurodynamics
• Proprioception & Balance Exercises
• Agility & Sport-Specific Exercises

Other Factors to Consider

• Biomechanical Analysis
• Joint Mobilisation Techniques
• Gait Analysis
• Running Analysis
• Video Analysis
• Prehabilitation
• Yoga

General Information

• Common Muscle Injuries
• Muscle Injury FAQs & Products

What are the Four Skeletal Muscle Injury Types?

An Insight from a Physiotherapist's Perspective

Introduction

Muscles, vital for movement and strength, come in various types, each with its own role in the body. This article, drawing from a physiotherapist's perspective, discusses skeletal muscle injuries, which are the most common. Understanding these injuries is crucial for effective prevention and treatment.

Skeletal Muscle Injuries: A Comprehensive Overview

Skeletal muscles, the type most susceptible to injury, can suffer from four main types of damage:

1. Muscle Strain or Soreness

Muscle strain injuries occur when muscles stretch or pull beyond their capacity, causing microscopic tears in the muscle fibres. Common sites include the hamstrings, shoulders, neck, and lower back.

Symptoms and Treatment: Symptoms like soreness, stiffness, weakness, swelling, and spasms are common. Most strains heal within days. Treatments include ice therapy, anti-inflammatory medications, massage, and gentle stretching.

Preventing Muscle Strain: Gradually increasing exercise intensity and duration is key to preventing strains, especially Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), a type of strain associated with eccentric exercises.

2. Muscle Tear or Rupture

More severe than strains, these involve partial or complete tearing of muscle fibres, often due to high-force activities or overstretching.

Symptoms and Treatment: A muscle tear causes sudden, severe pain, bruising, weakness, and swelling. It often requires a physiotherapist-guided rehabilitation and possibly surgical intervention in cases of complete rupture.

Physiotherapy for Muscle Tears: Tailored rehabilitation programs are essential for a faster and safer return to activity.

3. Muscle Contusion or Haematoma

Common in contact sports, these result from direct blows to the muscle, leading to internal bleeding and bruising.

Symptoms and Treatment: The injury presents as pain, swelling, weakness, and reduced motion. Mild cases respond well to rest and ice, while severe cases might need surgery.

Role of Physiotherapy: Physiotherapists play a crucial role in managing contusions, aiding in recovery and preventing future injuries.

4. Rhabdomyolysis

A rare but serious condition, rhabdomyolysis is where muscle fibres break down and release contents into the bloodstream, potentially causing kidney damage.

Symptoms and Treatment: Symptoms include muscle pain, weakness, and dark urine. Treatment often involves hospitalisation with intravenous fluids and, in severe cases, dialysis.

Recent Advances in Muscle Injury Treatment

Advancements in physiotherapy and medical science have brought new insights into muscle injury treatment.

For instance, the use of Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) therapy and advanced imaging techniques like MRI have improved the diagnosis and treatment of muscle injuries. Moreover, evidence-based exercise programs have shown significant success in both rehabilitation and prevention of muscle injuries.

What to Do? Seek Professional Advice

If you suspect a muscle injury, it's vital to consult a physiotherapist. They can provide a precise diagnosis and a tailored treatment plan. For more information, check out articles and resources at PhysioWorks, a trusted source for physiotherapy insights.

Conclusion

Understanding the four types of skeletal muscle injuries is crucial for effective management and prevention. Whether it's a strain, tear, contusion, or rhabdomyolysis, timely intervention and proper physiotherapy can lead to optimal recovery.

Always consult a professional for accurate diagnosis and treatment.

Further Reading and Resources

• Common Muscle Injuries
• Muscle Injury FAQs & Products

What Helps Muscle Strains Heal Faster?

Muscle Strain Treatment

Muscle strain treatment will vary depending on your health professional's accurate diagnosis. The severity of your muscle strain and what function or loads your injured muscle will need to cope with will impact the length of your healing and rehabilitation process.

Until you've been accurately diagnosed with a muscle strain, use the following guidelines:

• Ice and a compression bandage.
• Elevate the injured region swells.
• If it's painful to walk, you should be using crutches.
• Cease or reduce your exercise or activity level to where you feel no pain.

Muscle strain can take a few days to several weeks to rehabilitate successfully. Please seek the advice of your physiotherapist, doctor, or health care practitioner who specialises in muscle injuries, e.g. massage therapist, to guide your treatment.

Common Treatments for Muscle Strain

Many treatment options are available to your physiotherapist to assist in rehabilitating your muscle strain. Please seek their professional advice.

Acute Muscle Strain Treatment

• Early Injury Treatment
• Avoid the HARM Factors
• Brace or Support
• TENS Machine

Subacute Muscle Strain Treatment

• Sub-Acute Soft Tissue Injury Treatment
• Acupuncture and Dry Needling
• Soft Tissue Massage
• Kinesiology Tape
• Supportive Taping & Strapping
• Electrotherapy & Local Modalities
• Heat Packs
• Medications?

Later Stage Muscle Strain Treatment Options

• Foam Roller
• Stretching Exercises
• Strength Exercises
• Closed Kinetic Chain Exercises
• Eccentric Exercises
• Neurodynamics
• Proprioception & Balance Exercises
• Agility & Sport-Specific Exercises

Other Factors to Consider

• Biomechanical Analysis
• Joint Mobilisation Techniques
• Gait Analysis
• Running Analysis
• Video Analysis
• Prehabilitation
• Yoga

General Information

• Common Muscle Injuries
• Muscle Injury FAQs & Products

What Helps Muscles Recover Fast?

There are a plethora of muscle recovery options available. Which ones are scientifically proven to speed up muscle recovery? Here's the scientific evidence for seven different muscle recovery options.

1. Ice Bath

Post-exercise ice baths are among the most studied muscle recovery methods because of their popularity and simplicity. Super-cold temperatures reduce the swelling and pain associated with muscle damage. Any large bucket of water or a cold bath with crushed ice bags thrown in.

Does an ice bath work to reduce pain?

Some studies show it does and some it doesn't. On the whole, ice baths seem to reduce associated pain, but the results can vary.

It could be okay to use if an ice bath does give you pain relief. Some benefits of a post-workout ice bath are during specific training phases. Post-marathon or following a competitive game would be great to test the ice bath method.

However, it's probably not ideal for taking an ice bath in preparation for an upcoming intense training workout or a competition. For that, the research suggests that reduced muscle temperatures hamper your performance. Warmer muscles always feel loser and stronger. In short, they perform better, which is why we warm up in the first place.

2. Compression Garments

Compression garments create physical pressure. The pressure limits blood pooling and assists blood flow through the veins to reduce swelling. Studies show they work for people with circulation issues and healthy subjects needing recovery.

In athletes, the increased blood flow increases the clearance of lactate and creatine kinase: muscles and the bloodstream release these byproducts after vigorous exercise and signal muscle damage.

A 2020 review looked at 21 studies that examined the effects of compression tights and found that wearing compression garments improved performance in a few studies. They concluded that compression socks could help with perceived muscle soreness during recovery.

3. Recovery Massage

There's a lot of mixed evidence over recovery massages, which reduce the tension of the muscle's fascia. On the whole, they probably do help. That's why professional sports teams use them weekly.

4. Foam Rollers

Foam rollers work by inducing self-myofascial release when the layer of tissue on the outside of a muscle loosens up. This tissue release improves the range of motion around a joint and reduces DOMS.

5. Stretching

Researchers have found convincing evidence that static stretching isn't that helpful in warming up your muscles. Dynamic stretching is far better, which involves moving and engaging more than one muscle in a contract and relax cycle.

Dynamic stretching increases muscle blood flow and generates heat. Muscle warmth is crucial to athletic performance. Static stretches help increase the range of motion at the joints that connect muscles. They are also probably best done after your workout or game.

Stretching is helpful, but remember dynamic stretching before and static stretching afterwards.

6. Pain-Relieving Drugs

There's more hard evidence on pain-relieving drugs than other recovery techniques. While non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), e.g. aspirin and ibuprofen, work well at minimising pain, they come at a potential cost. Studies show that they significantly inhibit the natural recovery process of muscles. Some research suggests that NSAIDs inhibit the proliferation of a group of muscle stem cells known as satellite cells, which play a crucial role in muscle repair. So if you can handle the pain, it's probably best to use more non-chemical or natural modalities. However, there's a place for them. Suppose there is intolerable pain since you still need to be mobile. In that case, the benefits likely outweigh the costs but understanding that it may hinder the recovery process.

7. Sleep

Most people don't get enough sleep. Average adults need about eight hours. Endurance and full-time professional athletes probably need to increase closer to nine or ten hours.

Researchers haven't pieced apart the exact mechanisms through which muscle recovery occurs. Still, they know that sleep plays a critical role in the health of every organ system in the body. Sleeping is also very cheap, so try to see how it affects your muscle recovery.

General Information

• Common Muscle Injuries
• Muscle Injury FAQs & Products

Chronic Pain

Recent research has helped to shed more light on the changes in your body with chronic pain.

What is Normal ‘Protective’ Pain?

Normally pain is good. It informs you about potential or actual damage to your body’s tissues. Nociceptor nerve cells in the tissues of your body react to strong stimuli such as pressure, heat, cold or chemicals.

These nociceptors send a message to the spinal cord, which then forwards another message to the brain. Your brain then processes these messages and produces a coordinated response to escape whatever is causing the tissue damage.

What is ‘Pathological’ Pain?

Research has shown that changes occur in your body at all levels of pain processing. These changes include:

Changes at the Injury Site

At the injury site, your peripheral nerve becomes much more easily excitable. This means that it takes far less of a stimulus to cause it to fire off. Sometimes, a gentle brush against the skin is enough to fire off the pain pathway.

Unfortunately, it is not just the damaged nerves that become more excitable but also the neighbouring nerves, which further amplifies the nerve messages. Some nerves can also start firing off spontaneously, meaning they do not need a stimulus to fire off.

Changes in your Spinal Cord

In the dorsal horn of the spinal cord, changes occur in some of the cells that receive the nociceptor messages. These changes lead to greater sensitivity to the spontaneous nociceptor messages mentioned previously. Changes can also occur in some cells, leading to a ‘memory’ developing between two cells, leading to an amplified response in the neighbouring cell.

Changes in your Brain

Usually, your brain can decrease the level of pain you experience by releasing natural opioid hormones. When you suffer chronic pain, changes occur in the midbrain, which increases the nociceptive messages. This means you’ll perceive even more pain.

Chronic pain messages stimulate brain parts involved in emotion, fear and feelings. This may help explain why conditions such as depression, sleep disorders and pain catastrophising are linked with chronic pain.

We also know that chronic pain leads to atrophy or ‘shrinking’ of parts of the cortex and midbrain. Brain-stimulating activities may help to limit this ageing.

Do You Need More Information about Chronic Pain?

If you need more information about your pain or how to manage your chronic pain best, please consult the advice of your physiotherapist. Your physiotherapist is highly trained to help you to understand and reverse the changes that occur with chronic pain.

Pain FAQs

• Understanding Pain: Exploring its Types, Causes, and Impact on Well-being
• What is Pain?
• What is Nerve Pain?
• What is Chronic Pain?
• What Causes Post-Exercise Muscular Pain?

What Causes Pins & Needles?

Have you ever wondered about the reason behind that sensation known as "pins and needles"? Let's discuss the topic of paraesthesia, which is the medical term for this phenomenon. The primary culprit behind the sensation of "pins and needles" is often a moderately pinched nerve. Interestingly, this sensation can sometimes be even more concerning than experiencing direct pain in your arm or leg. Surprisingly, when a nerve is significantly compressed, you might not even feel pain anymore.

Moving beyond "pins and needles," we encounter an even more alarming state known as "numbness" or "anaesthesia." This condition entails a complete absence of sensation. Severe nerve compression can lead to such anaesthesia. If this numbness lingers for an extended period, it could indicate lasting nerve compression. Seeking timely medical attention becomes crucial to prevent irreversible nerve damage and a substantial weakening of the innervated muscles.

The majority of instances involving pinched nerves and nerve compressions are transient and respond well to early treatment. However, negligence in seeking appropriate care can result in lasting nerve compression injuries, which might not fully recover.

Exploring the Common Causes of Pinched Nerves

Nerve compression most frequently occurs in spinal joints. This can stem from a disc bulge or a bony arthritic spur that irritates and compresses the nerve. Sciatica is an example of an impaired nerve from your lower back.Additionally, compressions can manifest as the nerve navigates its way through or around muscles. Fortunately, your physiotherapist possesses the clinical skills to pinpoint these areas of concern.

Addressing the Issue of "Pins and Needles"

Should you come across someone grappling with chronic or persistent "pins and needles," numbness, or muscle weakness, it's crucial to encourage them to seek urgent professional advice. The cornerstone of a swift recovery lies in obtaining an accurate diagnosis. Entrusting this task to a well-trained healthcare practitioner, such as your physiotherapist or doctor, is the most prudent course of action.

More info

• Nerve Pain
• Pinched Nerve