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A stretched muscle is a painful but very common injury. Usually it is not dangerous, as long as we do the right thing after it occurs. You can also minimize the risk of muscle strain in a very simple way.
What is a Muscle Stretch?
As you know, muscles are made of muscle fibers, technically known as myofibrils. These structures have the ability to contract and relax, thus enabling movement. Unfortunately, under certain conditions, it happens that they are subjected to forces that exceed their natural adaptability and the fibers break. As a result of damage, inflammation develops in the damaged tissue. Muscle fibers break most often where they connect to the tendon, because they are less prone to stretching there.
There are three degrees of this kind muscle damage:
- stretching the muscle – less than 5% of the fibers that make up the muscle are torn,
- muscle tear – rupture of more than 5% of muscle fibers,
- muscle rupture – complete disruption of a muscle. The most serious damage to muscle tissue.
As you can see, strained muscle it is the least serious injury among those mentioned. It differs from tearing only in less intensity symptoms and a faster recovery period.
Causes of a muscle strain
Do muscle strain it occurs as a result of overloading the muscle tissue or too sudden movement. Most often it is the result of one or more of the following factors:
- Intensive effort without proper warm-up. The muscles are less susceptible to stretching, the lower their temperature and blood supply. Therefore, a stretched muscle is a typical injury for people who do not regularly practice sports and undertake physical activity spontaneously, without any preparation, e.g. during holiday trips.
- Neglect of the muscular system by not exercising regularly. We are talking here especially about stretching exercises, which increase the ability of the muscles to stretch the muscles during movement, and also strengthen certain parts of the muscles. If some of our muscles are too weak, it can put excessive strain on other parts of the muscles. The muscular system is a system whose individual parts are interdependent.
- Muscle overload during sports. Even if we are well trained and we take care of proper warm-up, practicing some sports may be associated with muscle strain. They usually occur in the case of technical errors or overloads resulting from the desire to exceed their limits during competition. Of course, which muscle is most likely to stretch depends on your discipline. And so, bodybuilders or tennis players are most exposed to the stretched shoulder muscle, and footballers should avoid stretching the muscles of the groin or legs.
- The action of a mechanical force upon impact or fall.
Symptoms of muscle strain
If it happened muscle strainthe first symptom of this will be severe pain in the damaged muscle. The exception will be when the muscle stretched very hot athlete. He may not feel pain until the day after the injury occurs.
The pain is punctual and stabbing and is intensified by all touch and movement. There is often swelling, as well as a bruise, because stretching the muscle may be accompanied by bleeding from damaged tissue. Muscle strength and mobility are limited, but not very much, compared to the higher degrees of muscle damage.
Treatment of a stretched muscle
It is questionable for many people whether or not strained muscle should be cooled or rather warmed up. The answer to this question depends on the time after the injury occurred – immediately after stretching the muscle it is necessary his coolingto reduce swelling. A warm compress it comes in handy only then, not earlier than a day after the injury, when the tissues are already beginning to regenerate.
In the treatment of a stretched muscle it is worth supporting yourself with preparations with analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties. Mountain arnica has a particularly positive effect on the regeneration of damaged tissues, so we should pay attention to ointments and gels containing extracts from this plant. In addition, you should avoid straining the injured muscle – in the first days, any movement should be kept to a minimum, and then gradually increase the maximum physical effort to allow the muscle fibers to regenerate. Otherwise, the injury may renew.
If the pain continues, you must contact your doctor as it may be a sign muscle tears or tearsthat can no longer be dealt with with home remedies. In this situation, it is also worth doing additional tests to make sure that there are no additional complications, such as broken bones or damage to blood vessels in the muscles.