What are the steps to soft tissue repair?

Common Muscle Injury FAQs & ProductsJohn Miller2022-12-05T14:03:51+10:00

What Are The 4 Types Of Muscle Injuries?John Miller2022-12-05T14:04:31+10:00

Article by John Miller

We categorise your muscles into three main types: skeletal, cardiac, and smooth muscles

• Skeletal muscle is the most common muscle tissue type in the body. Plus, it is prone to injury. Skeletal muscles facilitate your body's movement and strength. The four types of skeletal muscle injuries include:
  • Muscle Strain/Soreness
  • Muscle Tear/Rupture
  • Muscle Contusion (Haematoma)
  • Rhabdomyolysis
• Cardiac muscle forms your heart muscle walls.
• Smooth muscle tissue is in the walls of hollow organs like the bladder, passageways like the airway and gastrointestinal (GI) tract.

Muscle Strain/Soreness

Muscle strains result in microscopic muscle fibre tears. We commonly refer to a muscle strain as a "pulled" muscle. This injury occurs when the muscle is mildly overstretched or overused. Common muscle strain injuries include the hamstring, shoulder, neck and lower back.

Muscle strains result in muscle soreness, stiffness, weakness, swelling and spasms. They usually heal over a few days. Ice, anti-inflammatory medications, massage and gentle stretching, may help the muscle injury heal faster.

Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) is post-exercise-related muscle pain. DOMS develops after excessive and unaccustomed exercise. It is particularly prevalent if that exercise has an eccentric component. DOMS is myofibril tears (muscle strains). The microtrauma results in an inflammatory response with intramuscular fluid and electrolyte shifts.

We know biochemical markers (such as creatine kinase and lactic dehydrogenase) are in the blood of DOMS sufferers, which is consistent with muscle fibre disruption.

Swelling, altered muscle firing patterns and pain is why muscle strength, motions and function are impaired in DOMS sufferers.

Muscle Tear / Rupture

Muscle fibres and the blood vessels that supply them tear. While a muscle strain refers to a microscopic injury to muscle fibres, a muscle tear is a more significant macroscopic injury. We can typically visualise the damaged fibres on an ultrasound scan or MRI. Like muscle strains, the most common muscle tears occur in the lower back, neck, shoulder, and hamstring. It typically takes substantial force to cause this type of injury.

Muscle tears usually cause a sudden onset of severe muscle pain, as well as bruising, weakness and swelling. Muscle tear sufferers should seek urgent medical attention to confirm the diagnosis and undertake a physiotherapist-guided rehabilitation to return to sport or work quicker, plus reduce the likelihood of re-injury. Patients with torn muscles also often require follow-up care and rehabilitation with physical therapy.

The most severe extreme of a muscle tear is a complete rupture. Complete muscle rupture usually requires surgical repair and post-operative physiotherapy to optimise your return to function.

Muscle Contusion (Haematoma)

Muscle contusion may also be referred to as a muscle "haematoma". This injury occurs when a blunt object strikes the body and crushes underlying muscle tissue but does not break the skin. Common examples include being hit with a ball or accidentally kneed, e.g. "corked thigh". Contusions are typically painful, swollen, and weak and result in a reduced range of motion as a protection mechanism. Visible bruising is from damaged blood vessels that pool underneath the skin's surface.

While most mild contusion injuries often heal with ice, rest and time, more severe injuries sometimes require surgical intervention to address excessive pressure accumulated from internal swelling and bleeding.

Rhabdomyolysis

Rhabdomyolysis is a severe condition when muscle fibres die, and their contents release into your bloodstream. Your kidneys normally filter out these muscle byproducts. However, in rhabdomyolysis, kidney failure can result and be fatal. Urgent medical attention is required.

Muscle pain, weakness and dark urine are the common symptoms of rhabdomyolysis.

Causes of rhabdomyolysis may be traumatic or non-traumatic. Examples of traumatic rhabdomyolysis include car accidents, crush injuries or lying unconscious on a hard surface for an extended period. Causes of non-traumatic muscle injury include heatstroke, infections, intense exercise, seizures, and the use of certain recreational drugs like cocaine and amphetamines.

If you have any symptoms, please seek an urgent medical assessment.

General Information

• Common Muscle Injuries
• Muscle Injury FAQs & Products

How Can I Speed Up Muscle Recovery?John Miller2022-12-05T14:05:01+10:00

Article by John Miller

There are a plethora of muscle recovery options available. Which ones are scientifically proven to speed up muscle recovery?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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