Muscle strains/tears
Muscle strains/tears
Most commonly muscle strains and tears you can have a recovery period from two weeks to nine months and are graded in three categories.
Grade 1 small over stretching resulting in tears in the muscle fibres which usually takes 2-4 weeks to recover.
Grade 2 partial tear of a muscle which can result in swelling or bruising to appear at the sides of injury. Up to 2 months recovery time.
Grade 3 tearing of more than 85% of the muscle fibres you will usually experience a lot of sweating and bruising. Recovery time from 6 to 9months.
If you have damaged a ligament or tendon within one of your joints recovery time can be between 12 weeks to six months. Ligaments and tendons tend to have a very poor blood supply which can increase recovery time.
How do we assess
The first part is the listen to your story we take an in-depth injury history as well as understanding the mechanism of the current problem. We look for patterns in your story to make the best possible picture. We then look at your range of movement before moving into any muscular testing. We will assess the site of pain as well as areas above and below to ensure we have full information to move forwards.
How do we treat
Treatment can comprise of both hands on and exercise based activities. Hands on work will look to relieve muscle tension through soft tissue work while exercise will follow a four-step progression.
- Restore full range of movement
- Start loading the muscles isometrically
- Increase strength in a single plane of movement
- Strength exercises in multiple planes of movements
