Prone to Muscle Strains? Reduce Your Risk!

If a person doesn’t work out often or is inexperienced in certain sports or training regimens, they can end up with muscle strains, sprains, or tears. There are differences between a strain, sprain, or tear, and all come with different healing times and rehabilitation. If you are prone to muscle strains or muscle problems, you may also be familiar with muscle spasms. This is when your muscle tenses up and fails to relax once more. We have physical rehabilitative therapies such as vibration treatment that can help keep your muscles in shape and prevent strains and tears from happening as easily. See how you can reduce your risk for injuries and reach your goals today!

Muscle Strains and Tears

Your body is made up of over 650 different muscles that cover you from head to toe. Those muscles play a part in every single movement that you make. In fact, muscles are the reason you are even able to move at all. You have many muscles working at all hours of the day, contracting and relaxing in all different directions so that you can pick up objects, walk, or even turn over in your sleep. Because muscles are used so extensively, they are also prone to injury such as through muscle strains and tears.

A muscle strain refers to damage to a muscle or the tendons that are attached to it. You can strain a muscle by pulling it too far. When this happens, you can pull enough to tear some of the muscle fibers in the muscle or the the tendons attached to the muscle. This can cause inflammation, swelling, bruising, redness, weakness in the muscle, pain when in use or constantly, and even an inability to use the muscle. A full muscle tear is when all the muscle fibers or the tendon have been torn. This generally requires surgery or lengthy physical rehabilitation. With proper warm-ups, stretching, and a healthy diet, you can avoid strains and tears in many cases.

What Is a Muscle Spasm?

You might be familiar with muscle spasms, as most people have had one at some point or another. Some spasms set in while you exercise or sleep, but they can actually strike you at any moment. When you move, muscles tense and relax to help you perform an action, such as kicking a ball. Injury and illness can cause nearly any voluntary muscle in the body to tense up and fail to relax again. This is a muscle spasm, and it usually doesn’t last too long. However, it can be painful and can cause involuntary contractions, tightness, irritation, loss of movement or flexibility and lack of response to stretching.

Muscle spasms are generally more common than muscle strains, sprains and tears, but they are no less a nuisance. Most times, they are actually caused by your diet and your lifestyle. Dehydration or electrolyte imbalance can cause them as well as a alcoholism, artery blockages, medications, too much heat, and new activities or movements that are unfamiliar to you. Diabetes and other chronic illnesses can also cause them. When you do get a spasm, massaging the area can help relieve the pain as well as stretching to relieve the cramping. Make sure you’re getting enough nutrients (such as potassium), water and electrolytes throughout your day and eat a balanced diet to avoid problems.

Physical Therapy to Get Stronger

The road to recovery can be difficult during the best of times, especially if you are suffering with chronic pain from muscle strains. Physical therapy can get you up and moving once more if you have sustained an injury. Physical therapy helps you regain normal movement and physical function. It can also raise your fitness level and enhance your body’s capacity to heal. When it comes to muscle strains, our high-tech rehabilitation and active release technique services can help you heal. Anti-inflammatory joint injections can also help healing by reducing your pain right at the area where you have an injury.

For some, ailments and injuries keep them from moving at all. Even these patients have options for keeping their muscles in shape and getting in physical activity. This is when we use vibration exercises for rehabilitation. Vibration therapy has our patients standing on a vibrating platform, with or without assistance. As the machine vibrates, it sends vibrations through all the muscles of the body. This causes the muscles to vibrate dozens of times per second, giving them a complete workout in about 7 minutes. It does such a good job that any more time than that would actually hurt your muscles. Vibration therapy is also a quick way to improve performance in athletes and to keep muscles strong and in shape between seasons.

Your Consultation

Nobody likes having problems with their muscles, but problems are inevitable. Injuries and ailments are a part of life no matter how much we don’t want them. However, muscle strains, sprains, spasm, tears, and more can all be helped through physical rehabilitative treatments. These treatments can help you recover after injury and can prevent further problems. If you would like to learn more or need to schedule your consultation, call Texas Spine & Sports Therapy Center today at (512) 806-0015!