Whether you live an active lifestyle, work a physically demanding job or just happen to be unlucky enough to experience it, the pain of pulling a muscle can happen suddenly. Also known as a muscle strain, a pulled muscle occurs when you’ve overstretched or torn a muscle. This most commonly happens when you feel fatigued, are overusing the muscle or the muscle in question isn’t being used correctly. You might feel a sudden rush of pain, as well as soreness, limited mobility, weakness and/or spasms. While strains can happen to any muscle, the neck, shoulders, lower back and hamstrings are among the most frequently injured.
If you have more of a mild or moderate strain, you can probably expect your symptoms to fade within a few weeks, but more severe strains can take several months to fully heal. Depending on the degree of your pulled muscle, you may be able to treat the problem at home with the RICE method: rest, ice, compression and elevation. More severe strains may require medical attention, such as surgery or physical therapy. As soon as you pull a muscle, it’s in your best interest to rest the muscle and try not to use it as much as you normally would. This gives it time to heal so you don’t keep re-injuring it.
What Are Muscle Strains?
Similar to a sprain, when a muscle stretches beyond its capability it tears either on a microscopic level, partially through the muscle or entirely through the muscle. Often called a pulled muscle. Muscles that have a larger amount of high twitch muscle fibers used for fast and powerful movement, such as running or sprinting, tear more often than other types of muscles. Hamstrings, quadriceps and the gastrocnemius strain more often than other muscles due to their composition, use in running and sprinting, and because they attach to two joints which causes tension from two directions. The risk of strain also commonly manifests in muscles of the lower back, shoulders, neck, arms and the hips. Physicians define strains by breaking them into three categories or grades. Grade one strains involve stretching muscles to the point they tear microscopically or up to 5% of the muscle. Grade two strains have tearing between 5% and 100%. Grade three strains completely tear the muscle.
Preventing Muscle Strains
Athletes may protect themselves from muscle strains by properly balancing their muscle groups. Balanced and strong muscles tear much less frequently than unbalanced weak muscles. Taking a few minutes before heavy exercise or competition to warm up the muscles and stretch them out effectively reduces the chance of strain as well.
Warm-Up
A light warm-up involves increasing the blood flow and temperature of the body. A proper warm-up can be as simple as a brisk walk or other light cardiovascular exercise. By increasing temperature and blood flow the muscles loosen up a little bit and pose less risk of tearing muscle as well as a myriad of other conditions.
Stretching
Stretching during or after a warm-up increases the flexibility and mobility of each muscle stretched. Flexible warmed muscles pose less risk of injury. Working through each muscle group with slow and sustained flexibility increasing stretches. Stretching helps prevent many sports injuries including injuries of the back.
Strength Training
An athlete paying attention to properly balancing complementary muscles and focusing on maximizing range of motion acquires additional protection against straining muscles when using short bursts of explosive force in training or competition. Most often athletes neglect their hamstrings while strength training. The complementary muscle, the quadriceps, have many exercises that isolate or even just favor them over the hamstring. Not only does a quadriceps dominant leg put the athlete at increased risk of hamstring strain, but also increased risk of damage to tendons and the ligaments of the knee, such as tearing your ACL, MCL, PCL and meniscus.
Treating Muscle Strains
When treating a muscle strain first aid dictates the use of R.I.C.E. and NSAIDs. Rest, ice, compression, elevation and NSAIDs reduce the swelling, stiffness and pain associated with minor strains. Larger strains, such as grade two and grade three strains, cause bruising in addition to swelling, stiffness and pain. Grade three strains completely tear the muscle and are subject to retracting. Complete tears of muscle cause loss of strength and may require surgical correction to regain function. Grade 1 strains heal in a few weeks. Grade 2 strains heal in two to three months and may need physical therapy or surgical intervention. Grade 3 strains do not heal without surgical intervention.
Muscle Overuse: How Much Is Too Much?
The Injuries Overuse Causes
The first thing we need to understand about muscle overuse is the injuries it leads to. Injuries caused by muscle overuse are referred to as trauma injuries, though the medical meaning of trauma and yours might not align. Trauma often does refer to a sudden, shocking and life-altering change when we are discussing traumatic injuries. In this case, however, it would be more accurate to think of trauma as simply meaning anything sudden. Overuse injuries can be strained over time, but the injury is normally the result of one incident.
The trauma injuries caused by muscle overuse vary wildly in scope but are put into two categories: macrotrauma (the big ones) and microtrauma (the small ones). Generally, you will only see microtrauma injuries as a result of only muscle overuse, though overuse in conjunction with another issue will cause macrotrauma.
Microtrauma injuries include things like tendonitis, calluses, blisters and so on. In some cases, overuse can lead to bruised and blackened toenails. While this isn’t the most painful on the list of microtrauma injuries, it is one of the most off-putting. Shin splints and golfer’s elbow are more painful options, both of which can lead to lasting, or even permanent, side effects. Carpal tunnel is one of the more common, and more unfortunate, microtrauma injuries, and is one of the number one reasons to avoid overuse.
Treating Overuse Injuries
You may notice that there is a similar treatment for most overuse injuries. While the process isn’t quite as simple, it’s most effective to sum it up as “underuse.” The key component in the treatment of an overuse injury is rest. Rest, and ice in case of inflammation. If you have an overuse injury, you will likely be recommended over-the-counter painkillers. It is important to note that over the counter doesn’t always mean harmless. Any pill can have a lasting effect on your body, so they should only be taken when absolutely necessary. If you “need to take an ibuprofen before the gym,” it’s likely better to skip the gym. Yes, for once staying home to watch TV might be healthier for you.
Of course, the most effective treatment for overuse injuries is prevention. There are only a few scenarios where an overuse injury absolutely could not be avoided. To prevent overuse injuries, here are the things you need to look out for.
Preventing Muscle Overuse
What are the two things you need to consider at the gym? The first is weight. When you’re lifting, setting and raising your weight is how you get stronger. However, raising the weight too much quickly leads to overuse. In general, you shouldn’t be raising your weight by more than a single unit each visit. With free weight, this is normally 5 pounds, while on a machine it will either be 5 or 10. Remember that improvement happens over a long period, not overnight.
You also need to consider reps or repetition. This is the leading cause of overuse. It’s simple: doing the same motion over and over wears down your body. Whether this is lifting a barbell or scrolling through Facebook is your decision, but either way, make sure to change up your motion every now and then. You shouldn’t be “feeling the pain,” you should be feeling, at worst, mild soreness.
Are you worried you severely strained a muscle? Learn whether you need medical treatment by scheduling an appointment with one of our board-certified orthopaedic surgeons. They can examine your muscle and determine if you may need more advanced care to properly recover from your injury.
Your path to recovery starts here. Schedule an appointment with OrthoTexas or find a location near you.