Patient Education Corner: Muscle Strains
What is a muscle strain?
A muscle strain is essentially an injury either to the muscle or the tendon, which connects the muscle to the bone. These types of injuries happen when the amount of stretch, or force, applied to the muscle is too much for the muscle to tolerate. When this occurs, the muscle or tendon can experience tearing.
How do muscle strains happen?
Muscle strains occur typically either with an overstretching of the muscle or a strong eccentric contraction associated with deceleration or a change in direction. This happens during such activities as sprinting, jump, cutting, or a quick lunge. As you can imagine this can happen while playing sports. However, it can also happen in day to day activities around the home.
Muscle strains often occur in muscles such as the hamstring, the calf muscle, the groin, and lumbar muscles.
What are the symptoms of muscle strains?
You may experience a sharp pain, a pull, or even a popping sensation. Depending on the severity of the injury, there may be pain at rest, or just with using that muscle. Pain may be present at the moment of injury or delayed until the next day. Swelling and bruising may be present as well if the injury is more severe. Muscle strains are graded by severity (1):
Grade I or mild: A small amount of muscle fibers are impacted. There is typically no loss of strength or range of motion.
Grade II or moderate: About half of the muscle fibers are torn resulting in acute pain, swelling, bruising, and some strength loss is present.
Grade III or severe: This is a complete rupture of the muscle or tendon resulting in significant pain, loss of strength and function, and severe swelling and bruising.
How long do muscle strains take to heal?
Depending on the severity of the strain, muscle strains can take a few weeks to months to fully recover. Typically physical therapy is a very helpful intervention that can help you return to your prior level of function. If the strain is severe, some cases do require surgical intervention.
What does physical therapy for a muscle strain look like?
The goal of physical therapy initially is to improve your pain, mobility, and function. As you get stronger and improve your mobility, activities are performed to gradually increase your flexibility, strength and power. It is important to follow a criteria based return to activity progression. This means that time itself may not always be what dictates readiness to go back to sport.
If you have recently experienced a muscle strain contact our physical therapy office today at Chicago, North Center, Lincoln Square, Lincoln Park, Roscoe Village, IL. We will set up an evaluation for you so you can get started on your road to recovery. At The Fit Institute (TFI), our physical therapists are dedicated to helping you return to your sport, hobbies, and all other activities as quickly as possible!
- “Muscle Strain.” Physiopedia, https://www.physio-pedia.com/Muscle_Strain#cite_note-Six-2.