Can you get rid of muscle pain?

Muscle pain or injury is caused in any of three ways – Sports Therapy compliments the healing process of all three.

You don’t have to have been playing sport to damage muscles.  The causes and healing processes are exactly the same whether hurting your back by bending down to pick something up or by mistiming a tackle in a football game and straining a muscle.

Causes of Muscle Pain

Misuse

Muscle fibers, ligaments or tendons are torn because they are over-loaded or over stretched.  When healing, fibrous scar tissue can develop around the injury causing stiffness and pain to the surrounding area.  Sports therapy techniques (see below) will assist the natural healing processes by breaking down adhesions and mobilising the area to promote optimal healing.

Overuse

Starting a new fitness regime, stepping up training after a break or inadequate healing for old injuries can slowly overload muscles causing ‘micro-traumas’.   If left unchecked can lead to more serious injuries like tendonosis and persistent pain syndromes.  Overuse injuries can occur over days, weeks or even months.  Emotional stress manifesting in muscle tension and repetitive strain injuries are examples of overuse injuries.  There are certain therapy techniques particularly effective at helping of this type of injury.

Disuse

Previous injury or poor running style etc. creates muscular strength imbalances and the development of ‘faulty’ movement patterns, sometimes without you realising it.  A neuromuscular system moving in a dysfunctional way means optimal natural processes are compromised…. The classic “use it or lose it scenario”.  Hands-on therapeutic techniques allow appreciation of a specific problem and the means to fix it!

 

“My Shoulder’s playing up”

“My back’s killing me!”

“My neck is so stiff!”

“My calf hurts when i push off”

“I can’t put weight on my foot first thing in the morning”

 

All examples of pain I hear on a regular basis.  Sometimes really debilitating in the short term but normally an irritating pain that comes and goes or has stubbornly stuck around for a while.  The doctor has checked and said its muscular so there is nothing he/she can do…  “Rest it for a couple weeks and it should go.”  But what if (as often happens) it doesn’t?

Recurrent mild stiffness in the lower back or ‘sciatica’ pain first thing in the morning is commonly a symptom of a build-up of tension around the muscles of hips and lower back.  Shoulder pain which prevents you moving your arm properly is commonly described as “frozen shoulder” – however its often caused by overused and tight rotator cuff muscles which can be easily remedied with Sports Therapy.

 

 

Treatment of Muscle Pain

After an initial consultation to assess the problem and its agreed we can help; treatment techniques that may be used in a session include:

• Deep Tissue & Sports Massage Techniques
• Myofascial Release
• Neuromuscular Therapy
• Soft Tissue Release
• Muscle Energy Techniques
• Manual Therapy
• Functional Movement Therapy

 

In an assessment and treatment at Marlow Sports Therapy we take the time to find the real cause of your pain and if we can help, set out a program of rehabilitation that resolves the issues.

 Sports Therapy is as much about injury prevention as injury treatment and rehabilitation.

There may well be nothing specifically wrong with you however, regular maintenance treatments mean areas of tension and imbalance can be addressed before developing into painful problems. Sports Therapy can be an invaluable component of your fitness routine – whether a professional athlete or once-a-week ‘jogger’ Marlow Sports Therapy can help.

Call us for more information on 01628 914751 or 07946 405664.