Five-Minute Stress Relief.com

Dealing With Muscle Pain

All of us experience varying degrees of pain in our lifetime. Learning to distinguish between significant pain and non-significant pain is crucial to managing your health. Pain is basically defined as when your body is sending messages to your brain signaling that something is wrong. Pain that involves muscles and joints (the most common) is called musculoskeletal pain.

Musculoskeletal Pain

Muscle Pain - Myalgia

The medical technical name is myalgia and its most common sources are injuries, sprains and strains. Injury usually means some outside force has harmed or damaged a structure or function in the body (e.g. bruises, wounds, burns, fractures), however movement-generated muscle problems are also classified as injuries.

Muscle Strain - Pulled Muscle

Muscle Strain occurs when an overstretching movement has caused a tear to the main portion of the muscle fibers, or to the tendons (located at each end of the muscle), which connect muscle to bone. Typical symptoms of muscle strains are localized pain, stiffness and inflammation.

Muscle Sprain

Muscle Sprain occurs when an overstretching movements causes a tear to the ligament (articular ligaments, the most common, connect bones to bones to form a joint). Ligaments have less stretching and flexibility as opposed to tendons. Therefore an untreated, un-repaired ligamental sprain can bring future problems such as partial joint dislocation. Severe ligament sprains are common to professional athletes, who undergo extensive physical therapy to prevent future problems.

Diagnosing

Diagnosing the muscle injury is done by manual range of motion testing (therapist bends and stretches limbs) and observes patient’s movement capabilities).

MRI

MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) is used to view soft tissue damage in minute detail in order to access the degree of tissue damage. First degree is minor tear. Second degree is a tear accompanied by swelling. Third degree is a complete rupture. Fourth degree is a severe break in the ligament and requires surgery to reattach the tissue.

Basic Sports Therapy

Basic Sports Therapy involves four protective and healing modalities that apply to most muscle injuries, which are easily remembered through the mnemonic R-I-C-E:

Rest

Stop all activities that have caused the pain to the injured area, along with all other movements that provoke pain.

Ice

Apply ice to the area several times a day, for about 15-20 minutes at a time. Icing (cyrotherapy) reduces swelling, internal bleeding and damaging inflammation. Note: If commercial cold packs/ice packs are too cold, they will cause skin blistering. Protect the skin by placing (only if needed) a soft cotton cloth (t-shirt, etc.) between the skin and the cold pack/ice pack. After 3-5 minutes (or whatever time you need), remove the cotton cloth and apply directly to skin for maximum benefit.

Compression

Wrap the sprained area to reduce swelling. Cold water will do also.

Elevation

Keep the sprained area as close to the level of the heart as is conveniently possible. (Most relevant for foot, ankle and leg injuries.)

Cold/Heat Therapy: After 48 hours, many therapists recommend applying heat (heat packs/heating pad) following 15-20 minutes of icing. For early morning stiffness, a hot bath or applying heat is an immediate remedy.

Muscle Contractions

Muscle Twitching

Consists of quick contraction phase that is usually not painful, which is due to a lack of optimal blood flow and low oxygen supply. This is usually results from either lack of exercise, or follows vigorous exercise, indicating the muscle is temporarily depleted.

Muscle Cramp

This is an uncomfortable (and often painful) muscle sensation that is usually caused by a strong muscle contraction. The typical cause of muscle cramps is overexertion; another cause is exposure to cold.

The Five General Causes of Muscle Cramping

Hyperflexion

This motion is technically defined as moving a body part that decreases joint angle (e.g. the hand (palm up) is brought close to shoulder, resulting in a cramp in the bicep/upper arm muscle).

Inadequate Oxygenation

At the start of the football season, it is very common for players to become depleted late in the game and experience muscle cramps due to this cause.

Temperature

This factor refers to a large drop in temperature to cold conditions.

Low Level of Blood Electrolytes

Electrolytes are minerals that help to conduct the electrical activity of the heart and regulate the fluid balance in the body, hence the creation of Gatorade™-type drinks.

Restless Leg Syndrome

The cause of this painful condition is unknown.

Muscle Spasm

This occurs when a muscle experiences a sudden, involuntary contraction. When people are “out of shape” (lacking healthy muscle tone) a spasm may result because the muscle is unable to contract intensely and then release, as a well-toned muscle can. (This is why regular stretching not only develops more flexibility, it also conditions and tones the muscle to lengthen, contract, and then release the contraction fluidly.)

Protection

Although muscle spasm pain is intense, the contraction is a defensive action by the body to prevent a more serious injury by freezing the muscle from any further movement.

Do Not Force a Muscle Spasm

Never force a muscle to lengthen (stretch), as this can result in a tearing of tissue. For a spasm in the right bicep/upper arm, use your left hand to grasp the right wrist and very slowly begin to straighten out the arm. If you experience strong pain while doing this, discontinue before you do damage and consult your physician. If you experience very mild pain, stop and briefly rest. Then slowly try again to straighten the arm to a neutral position.

Gently Massage

If you can gently massage the muscle spasm, it can be beneficial. If you experience pain, icing the muscle will reduce swelling, inflammation and pain. If you have no pain, soaking in a hot bath may loosen the muscle. Usually following a night’s rest, the spasm will let up and allow you to slowly stretch out the muscle. If so, perform gentle stretching several times a day.

Be Patient

If you rush too fast, you’ll only create a worse problem. If mild pain persists, consult your doctor.

© 2009 Five-Minute Stress Relief - All Rights Reserved

Sources: Medline Dictionary (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/medlineplus.html) Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org) Force-Generating Capacities and Fatigability of the Quadriceps Femoris in Relation to Different Exercise Mode Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 2008 Aug 14

Print PDF Page for: Dealing With Muscle Pain