#34: How to Avoid Pulled Muscles

If you’ve ever pulled a muscle, you know how painful it can be. That’s why it’s extremely important to take the proper precautions to prevent muscle strain, pulled muscles and muscle tears.

A pulled muscle occurs when you overstretch or tear the muscle. You can strain, pull or tear any muscle, but the most common muscles that get pulled are in the lower back, neck, shoulder and hamstring. Pulled muscles and muscle tears occur as a result of fatigue, lack of proper stretching and flexibility, poor conditioning, overuse, or something as simple as incorrect form during your workout.

Warm-Up and Cool Down

Before you begin your workout you’ll want to prepare your body and muscles for the demanding activity they’re about to endure. Getting your blood pumping and increasing your body temperature during your warm-up helps decrease the likelihood of muscle strain, pulled muscles and muscle tears. Warming up can include a brisk walk or light calisthenics.

The cool down period is important for muscle recovery, supporting blood circulation and sending oxygen to your muscles, which are in a deficit following a strenuous workout. Electric muscle stimulation can help speed up muscle recovery as you cool down post workout. Using PowerDot, simply set your EMS device to warm up, light recovery, active recovery, extended recovery or massage mode depending on the level of muscle stimulation you need to cool down and recover. Electrical muscle stimulation promotes blood flow and helps flush out lactic acid build up in the muscles.

Stretch Pre- and Post Workout

Stretching keeps the muscles flexible, strong and healthy, helping to maintain range of motion in the joints. It also reduces tension in muscles, supports blood circulation and can lead to increased energy levels. Performing a slow, deliberate stretch across muscle groups helps prevent muscle strain, pulled muscles and muscle tears during your workout. When stretching is not incorporated into your workout regimen, the muscles shorten and become tight, putting you at risk for joint pain, muscle strain and even muscle damage.

Incorporate Strength Training into Your Workout

Strength training is a key component in preventing muscle strain, pulled muscles and muscle tears. It improves the strength of the muscles, tendons, and even the ligaments and bones. The stronger muscles and tendons help hold the body in proper alignment, and also protect the bones and joints when moving or under impact. Muscles that are not used regularly may become weak, which presents a problem when that muscle is called into play suddenly during an activity or workout.

A weaker muscle can’t handle the sudden stress from a workout, causing injury including muscle strain, pulled muscles or muscle damage. It’s important to alternate muscle groups so you don’t overwork a particular muscle. Incorporating a full-body strength training into your workout routine will help eliminate any weak areas and balance the body for other activities. Strength training also increases speed, strength, agility and muscular endurance, which will benefit athletes of every sport.

Change Sleeping Positions

How you sleep can also help prevent and treat muscle strain, pulled muscles and muscle tears. The two ideal positions for sleeping are on your back or side. Avoid sleeping on your stomach due to the possibility of creating tension in the body. Tension in the neck and lower back can create compression of the discs, degeneration and pulled muscles.

When sleeping on your back, keep one pillow under your head and one or two under your knees. The pillow under your head should comfortably support the natural curve of your neck. The pillows under your knees should keep your lower back flat against your mattress. If you’re a side sleeper, keep one pillow under your head and one between your legs. The pillow between your legs should keep your legs parallel and prevent them from crossing over one another.

There is a science to sleep. Using electronic muscle stimulation on a regular basis helps restore muscles and ease muscle tension, allowing the body to relax and slip into a deeper, more restful sleep. This is where electrical muscle stimulation comes in to support muscle recovery, maintain health and wellness, and improve your sleep–all of which contribute to an overall healthy lifestyle.

Try Electric Muscle Stimulation (EMS)

Electrical muscle stimulation is proven to speed up muscle recovery–but don’t wait for an injury to use it. PowerDot EMS can also help prevent the injury from occurring in the first place.

You can use electric muscle stimulation to warm up for 5-7 minutes pre-workout using our warm up or light, active, or extended recovery settings. Our smart muscle stimulator helps reduce muscle discomfort and keeps inactive muscles moving. Cool down with another 5-7 minutes of massage to help relax and lengthen the muscles. Electrical muscle stimulation gently engages type 1, slow-twitch muscle fibers when used for recovery, helping to reduce muscle tightness, soreness, weakness and muscle strain as well as prevents pulled muscles, muscle tears and other injuries.

PowerDot provides a discreet solution for muscle recovery that is safe, clinically proven and FDA cleared. Apply your EMS pads on-the-go while you’re running errands or immediately post workout. Or wait until you get home, curl up on the couch with a blanket and your favorite TV show, and enjoy a hands-free massage.

Discover how you can perform better and recover faster by using EMS to oxygenate your muscles and blood.

How to Prevent Muscle Sprains

During the pandemic, more people have been exercising on their own rather than with intramural teams or at the gym. That means if you run into trouble, you’re also on your own. If you have a muscle strain or sprain, you may want to know what to do—and when you really need to seek professional help. Melissa Leber, MD, Director of Emergency Department Sports Medicine at The Mount Sinai Hospital, answers some of your questions.

How do you strain a muscle?

A muscle strain happens when you pull, tear, or stretch a muscle. Strains sometimes happen from overuse, but often they’re caused by an injury. Muscle strains and sprains can trigger pain, swelling, and even bruising. You can strain or sprain almost any muscle in the body, but the ones we see most often affect the calf muscle (called the gastrocnemius), the ankle, or the lower back. We also see a lot of strained rotator cuffs, quads, and hamstrings.

How should I treat a muscle strain?

If you think you have strained or sprained a muscle, you should immediately stop what you are doing. Then, plan to rest the injured area and apply ice. Ice should not be applied directly to the skin, but rather wrapped in a towel. It should be held in place for about 20 minutes and then taken off. This can be repeated for the first 24 hours after an injury. After an injury you can also take an anti-inflammatory medication such as ibuprofen or naproxen, if you are allowed. If you can’t bear weight or if you can’t use your affected muscle at all, you should seek emergency care by at the nearest emergency room or urgent care facility. Otherwise, give it a day or two to see if the muscle gets better.

I have not worked out in six months. How can I prevent straining a muscle when restarting my fitness regimen?

Muscle strains and sprains are common—but they aren’t inevitable. To prevent straining your muscles, vary the frequency and variety of your workout. You don’t want to do the same thing over and over again because that can ask too much of the muscle. While you might not feel any pain in the moment, you could still be damaging the muscle. Then, later on, you could start to feel pain seemingly out of nowhere.

You’ll also want to vary the intensity of your workout. You can’t go hard day after day after day. Give your body at least one day off a week.  One way to vary the intensity of your exercise is to practice interval training. This means performing a series of high intensity workouts interspersed with rest periods.

When should I see a doctor about my injury?

If you are still in pain after treating at home for two to three days, you should make an appointment with a physician who might take an x-ray or perform a musculoskeletal ultrasound to gauge the severity of your injury.

Also, in addition to strains and sprains, a torn muscle can develop a hematoma. This happens when blood collects at the site of the torn muscle causing pain, swelling, and discoloration of the area. While many hematomas can be treated at home with RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation), more severe injuries will need a medical intervention.  If you suspect that you have a hematoma and have severe pain and/or your injury expands over one to two days, seek medical attention.

Treatment of sprained thigh muscles in Moscow

Among the injuries that occur in athletes, the most common is sprained thigh muscles. It is mainly the posterior thigh muscle group that suffers, since it is in this place that the ligaments and muscles are least adapted to intense loads. Any sudden movements can cause damage to the muscle fibers of the back of the thigh, since the ligaments do not have sufficient elasticity. Less often, but still there are stretching of the muscles of the anterior and lateral groups.

Causes of thigh muscle strain

Hip muscle injury occurs when:

• performing technically difficult exercises by an untrained person;
• ignoring stretching before intense sports activities;
• making sudden movements with the leg;
• blows and other mechanical injuries in sports and at home;
• negligence – falling, sharp straightening of the limb.

You can avoid muscle strain during sports by doing a good warm-up. It allows you to achieve warming up of the ligaments and muscles, increasing their elasticity. Those who are not involved in professional sports are advised to use comfortable, appropriately sized shoes in everyday life, to avoid performing heavy and overwhelming exercises in the absence of proper physical fitness.

Factors that increase the likelihood of hip strain:

1. Age. In adulthood and old age, the ligaments lose their elasticity, so the risks of muscle injuries are much higher than in young people. After the first episode of muscle strain, this injury often occurs again.
2. Past injuries of the muscles and tendons of the thigh. Often, connective tissue forms at the site of the rupture – in other words, a scar. Such fabric is easily torn, which may well occur during strenuous activity or during a fall.
3. Poor warm-up. Athletes know that before the main training block, it is important to warm up the muscles and ligaments. Warming up protects against injuries and sprains, increases the effectiveness of training.
4. Poor nutrition. The lack of protein, vitamins and microelements makes muscles and other tissues less strong: even with minor injuries, they can be easily damaged. Recovery in this situation takes longer, since along with the main treatment of muscle strain, nutrition must be adjusted.
5. Osteoporosis. Calcium is washed out of the bones, which makes the bones, as well as tendons and ligaments, less durable. The tissues become brittle: with an awkward movement or stretching of the ligament, the thigh muscles can be completely torn.

Signs indicating thigh muscle strain

The first clinical manifestation of thigh muscle strain is pain. The pain sharply increases when the patient tries to take a sitting position, because of the discomfort, the mobility of the entire limb is limited. The intensity of pain, as well as the presence of other signs of muscle damage, depends on the degree of damage to it.

There are three degrees of thigh muscle strain:

1. The first degree is characterized only by pain, there are no other signs of thigh muscle rupture. Motor activity is weakened. The condition returns to normal after a couple of days, subject to rest and other therapeutic measures.
2. In the second stage, a partial rupture of muscle tissue occurs. In addition to pain, there is already swelling of the soft tissues; on examination, subcutaneous hematomas are also determined. Recovery here requires more time – it takes up to two weeks.
3. The third stage – the pain syndrome is combined with limited mobility, severe edema and hematoma. When you try to make movements in the affected limb, a characteristic crack occurs, which indicates a rupture of the fibers, a violation of their integrity. Body temperature reaches subfebrile numbers. Movements in the knee and hip joint cause increased pain. The terms of treatment and rehabilitation can reach two to three months.

After an injury, it is important to quickly differentiate a muscle strain from a complete rupture. It is also necessary to make sure that there is no rupture of the ligament or muscle tendon, fracture of the bone, knee or hip joint. If the pain syndrome does not subside within a day, then you should definitely contact a medical institution for examination and an accurate diagnosis. The doctor will prescribe adequate therapy, which will help in a short time to cope with the stretching of the thigh muscles and the accompanying complications of this condition. In a clinic or emergency room, radiography, magnetic resonance imaging, or ultrasound examination of soft tissues can be performed.

Hip sprain treatment

Hip sprain therapy begins with creating conditions for complete rest of the injured leg. Bed rest should be observed, if necessary, use a splint and the help of loved ones. Immediately after injury, it is recommended to apply cold to the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe injured limb – such a compress will relieve swelling and reduce hematoma. Cold helps prevent the development of aseptic inflammation in the affected muscles, ligaments and tendons.

Special compression underwear helps against swelling and congestion in the veins – it can be purchased at the pharmacy. Underwear should be used for 2-3 months with interruptions to prevent re-injury, reduce the duration of treatment and rehabilitation.

In case of acute pain, it is advisable to use painkillers. They are prescribed in a short course of no more than five days in a row, since most painkillers have side effects. They negatively affect the gastric mucosa, so people with gastritis and ulcers should definitely take additional funds to prevent exacerbations – for example, omeprazole. It is allowed to take antispasmodics – the most popular representative of this class of drugs is drotaverine (no-shpa). Muscle relaxants are used to relieve muscle tension – one of their representatives is mydocalm. With tendonitis or myositis, anti-inflammatory drugs are used – diclofenac, ibuprofen: they not only relieve inflammation, but also relieve pain. When prescribing drugs, the doctor must take into account possible contraindications, age and concomitant diseases.

Rehabilitation period

Treatment does not end with one medication. Following the main therapy, the recovery period begins – it is no less important for maintaining the same motor activity and preventing delayed complications. Rehabilitation in time takes from two to three weeks to six months: a lot depends on the degree of injury, the individual characteristics of the body – age, concomitant diseases, regenerative capabilities, etc.

In the process of rehabilitation, it is important to create a stable connection between individual muscle fibers, the integrity of which was broken as a result of an injury. Immediately after the pain syndrome has passed, it is necessary to begin physiotherapy exercises. Moderate physical activity does not allow connective tissue to form at the site of injury. Such scar tissue is formed precisely when movements are limited for a long time, which cannot be done with injuries during the rehabilitation period. Physiotherapy exercises are also needed to strengthen muscles that have weakened during treatment, because the limb should have been at rest. It also helps prevent re-injury to the thigh muscles.

At the rehabilitation stage, physiotherapeutic procedures are used – ultrasound, magnetotherapy and other methods. All of them have a mild effect on the body, have practically no contraindications, so they can be prescribed even for the elderly and children. Massage helps to improve blood circulation in the thigh muscles, as a result of which the process of tissue regeneration is accelerated.

Combined with physiotherapy, therapeutic massage and acupuncture, regular exercise helps to completely eliminate the effects of injury. The main thing is not to rush in the transition from treatment to rehabilitation, for a quality recovery of the tissues of the body, time is needed.

Material verified by an expert

Mikhailov Valery Borisovich

Manual therapist, vertebrologist, neurologist

Work experience – 25 years

How to identify and cure muscle strain?

How to identify the symptoms of muscle strain for treatment?

Sprain can occur when a person lifts heavy objects too abruptly or in an unsafe manner. If a lot of time passes after the onset of the injury, but the pain is still felt, then this may not be a muscle strain, but a more serious injury.

Muscle strain can be identified by whether the pain is felt in one muscle or in several. Painful symptoms of muscle strain appear at a certain point on the muscle, in this place there may be redness, increased skin temperature, swelling.

Also keep in mind that when damaged, muscle fibers can increase to about five times the size of healthy fibers. You should check for various muscle deformities, such as depressions, bumps and bumps.

How to treat muscle strain?

To date, methods have not yet been developed for accelerated and effective healing of sprains without complications, but there are methods that reduce pain and reduce the recovery time of the damaged muscle area.

First of all, if you still happen to encounter such an injury, you should protect yourself and try to prevent the recurrence of stretching. To do this, you need to accurately determine the cause and location of the injury.

Secondly, during the acute period of injury from severe muscle strain, it is better to refrain from physical exertion on the body, especially on the sore muscle.

Thirdly, at the beginning of rehabilitation activities, it is necessary to carry out the most painless set of exercises that do not provoke muscle stress.

Fourth, after the acute period has passed, you should move on to more thorough daily workouts.

As the rehabilitation progresses, if you manage to move on to strength training, you need to train the muscles, improve their readiness for contractions with a very gradual (not sharp) increase in load.

In case of muscle strain, first of all, a chiropractor can help, who will develop the most effective massage technique and exercise therapy.

In the case of a constant increase in pain and persistence of signs of pain for several weeks, even after therapeutic massage and exercise therapy, you need to consult a neurologist or surgeon for diagnosis, who will tell you how and how to treat muscle strain. Since we can talk about more serious injuries.

How can you help yourself immediately after an injury?

• Apply ice to the stretch;

• Try massage;

• Take a contrast shower;

• Prevent overheating of the body;

• Avoid stress on the affected muscle;

You should be very careful about the treatment of muscle strain, such as taking painkillers or injections of platelet-rich plasma. These methods have their own contraindications and complications, so they require a doctor’s prescription. If you do not have time to contact the clinic, you can use the advice of doctors online.

To prevent muscle strain, you should always warm up with stretching before the main workout, strictly alternate moderate muscle load with rest. You should not start injuries received during sports – if massage and a cold compress do not help, then you need to see a doctor.

There are contraindications. Specialist consultation is required.

Doctor on call

Quick consultation with a specialist

Call

Related articles

How to cure herpes at home?

Herpes is a very unpleasant disease that manifests itself in the form of blisters on the lips or in the genital area. Herpes is often accompanied by…

How to overcome attacks of vomiting?

The gag reflex is necessary for the body to more easily remove vomit, for example, in case of food poisoning.