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Understanding Muscle Injuries:

There are three ways in which injuries of the soft tissues in the body can arise:

• 1 - Acute Conditions: pulls, tears, crush injuries.
• 2 - Repetitive Stress: accumulations of small tears over time (micro-trauma).
• 3 - Posture: Your body's response to bad posture and stresses that occur over time directly related to the way one holds their body, and the body's response to it.

Each of these can cause the body to produce scar tissue. Scar tissue is a tough, dense network of collagen fibers that develops to repair/protect the area that has been injured.  Excess scar tissue can prevent the muscles and other structures from working properly, which can lead to changes in normal movement, muscle shortening and weakness, misalignment of bones, and even disruption of the movement/structures in the surrounding areas. A compromised muscle, or muscles, not only places more tension on the tendons that attach muscle to bone, which can cause tendonitis/tendonosis, but can irritate nerves that pass though or supply the muscle.  This injury process can cause the following symptoms:

• Loss of range of motion;
• Loss of strength;
• Aching, pain, tingling, numbness;
• Swelling;
• Spreading of symptoms if untreated;
• Further injury.

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» Sore no more

"Calling all weekend warriors: Don't let a few sore muscles leave you couch-bound come Monday. No matter where you ache, these tips will get you going again." by Beth Dreher

The sports chiropractor

Rob DeStefano,
Sports chiropractor, co-author of Muscle Medicine

A combination of stretching and massage helps loosen injured muscles and promotes blood flow, which speeds healing.

To soothe a sore hamstring for instance, lie on your back with both knees bent and feet on the floor. With the fingers of both hands, apply pressure on the sore spot on the back of the thigh. Maintaining the pressure, lift your bent leg off the floor, then extend your heel toward the ceiling. Hold for two seconds, then lower your heel. Repeat 2-3 times.

The nutritionist

Nancy Clark,
Author of Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook

Try drinking low–fat chocolate milk after your workout.

Research suggests its combo of protein and carbohydrates can help reduce post-exercise muscle soreness. Better yet, have a yogurt and fruit smoothie or half a sandwich before you exercise – the carbs will give you energy and the protein will be ready and waiting to heal and rebuild the muscle.

The fitness guru

Dr. Len Kravitz,
Coordinator of Exercise Science, University of New Mexico

Delayed onset muscle soreness, expert-speak for pain and soreness you may not feel until 48 hours after exercise, results from tiny tears in your muscle fibers.

Low-intensity exercise like walking, swimming, biking or yoga can help flush out the lactic acid that contributes to that achy feeling.

Log on: go to spryliving.com for more muscle-soothing methods from Rob DeStefano.

 

One smart move

Tone & Tighten

Shape up your top half with this three-in-one move that targets your arms, chest and abs. By Tony Molina

1. Lie on your back on a mat with your legs bent, holding a 5 lb dumbbell in your left hand and 3 lb dumbbell in your right hand. Extend your arms toward the ceiling and lift your upper body off the mat in a crunch.

2. Lower your back to the mat. Keeping your right arm straight, lower it to the side. At the same time, bend your left arm at the elbow to lower the weight until it’s near your left ear. Do the crunch-and-lower sequence 10 times, then switch the weights to the opposite hand and do ten more reps, lowering your left arm out to the side and bending your right arm until the weight is near your right ear.