Breakdown is a muscle injury resulting from the rupture of a greater or lesser number of muscle fibers (cells capable of contraction contained in the muscles). It is secondary to an effort of greater intensity than the muscle can withstand and is classically accompanied by local hemorrhage (which forms a hematoma).

The term “breakdown” is debatable; it is part of an empirical clinical classification in which we find curvature, contracture, elongation, strain and tear or rupture. From now on, professionals use another classification, that of Rodineau and Durey (1990)¹. This allows the distinction between four stages of a muscle lesion of intrinsic origin, that is to say occurring spontaneously and not following a blow or a cut. The breakdown corresponds mainly to stage III and is similar to muscle tearing.