Muscle injuries are usually experienced by some people who are doing strenuous activities. Those of you who have muscle injuries will definitely feel disturbed by their activities. The following will explain the health problems of muscle injuries, definition, symptoms, causes, and treatment.
What is Muscle Injury?
Muscle injury, also known as cramps, is a medical condition in which muscles are stretched excessively. Usually, muscle injuries are caused by strenuous physical activity or simple activities that are carried out continuously. The body parts that often experience muscle injuries include the lower back, hamstrings, and neck.
Symptoms of muscle injury
You can see the symptoms that arise at the time of muscle injury. What are the symptoms of a muscle injury?
- sudden pain in certain areas
- limitation of movement
- bruising in certain parts that experience pain due to bleeding in the skin
- swelling in the area that is experiencing pain
- muscle spasms
- muscles feel stiff
Causes of muscle injury
Muscle injury can occur if the muscles are too tense or do strenuous work. Muscles that are tensed if allowed actively functioning, can cause cramps. This generally occurs due to a sudden tension in the muscles due to heavy work carried out without warming up first.
Some people who have joint flexibility and poor posture are also more prone to muscle injuries. Meanwhile, for people who are used to doing strenuous activities, if it is done continuously, it will certainly force the performance of the muscles that cause injury. An example is when doing sports that require certain body parts to work repeatedly such as rowing, tennis, baseball and golf.
Apart from intentional physical activity, muscle injuries can also occur due to accident, including slipping, falling, sleeping in the wrong position, jumping, running, throwing things, lifting objects in the wrong position, and so on. cold one. Cold weather can cause muscles to become stiffer and more prone to injury. Those of you who live in cold weather need to warm up and stretch frequently before engaging in physical activity.
Muscle injury treatment
Minor muscle injuries only require simple treatment methods, including adequate rest and compressing using ice cubes. Muscles should be rested for a few days, especially away from movements that causing pain. Proper rest is about 2 days, so that you can then return to using your muscles for activities.
When using ice cubes, you should not apply it directly to the skin. You can place ice cubes in a new towel or cloth and then apply pressure to the injured area for 15 minutes, this can be done every hour on the first day of injury and every 4 hours the following day. You can also use a cloth wrapped in an elastic bandage until the swelling goes away. But remember, the installation should not be too tight.
This treatment is done if the muscle injury experienced is not severe or causes swelling to repeated pain. If you have experienced the severity of the pain, you are advised to consult an orthopedic specialist for further action, such as needing an X-Ray or MRI examination.