Muscle Tear Rehabilitation

Muscle Tear Rehabilitation: Getting the Sequence Right, Not Just the Exercises

Did you feel a muscle giving way while you were sprinting, twisted in an awkward position, or lifting something heavy? The affected muscle will then start to hurt; it may feel weak and won’t work the way it was working a few moments back. These symptoms may result from a muscle tear. Some of the tears involve a few muscle fibres, while others are complete ruptures with a significant loss of strength and function. A structured muscle tear rehabilitation aims to protect the affected tissues from early on and then works on rebuilding strength, movement, and the ability of the muscle to cope with everyday demands.

What Is a Muscle Tear?

When a muscle is forced to contract too abruptly, subjected to frequent overuse without getting adequate rest, or is overstretched, it may lead to a muscle tear. Muscles contain thousands of flexible fibres that are bundled together. These fibres experience structural damage when the force placed on them is more than what they can handle.

The severity of a muscle tear is classified in three grades, where a Grade I tear involves a small percentage of muscle fibres that are minimally torn, a Grade II tear involves a significant percentage of fibres that can be partially torn, and a Grade III muscle tear indicates a complete tear of the muscle or when the muscle shears away from the connecting tendon.

Why It Happens

When a muscle is producing force while being lengthened, it places substantial stress on the tissue. Such a mechanism occurs during activities like sudden sprints, rapid changes of direction, heavy lifting, jumps, and other activities when the muscle has to absorb or control the force quickly. In such situations, the muscle controls or resists a movement while its attachments on both ends are getting pulled apart. If the force placed on the muscle is more than the capacity of the fibres or connective tissues, the fibres may overstretch or tear.

Common Symptoms

What a person feels right after the injury depends on the location and extent of the tear. A sudden and sharp pain is felt during the injury. Some people describe it as a sharp pull, a tearing sensation, or a pop in some rare cases. Swelling may also begin after the injury in case the tear is more severe. Bruising may appear over the following hours or days, which may extend beyond the original site of injury. As a result, the affected muscle becomes noticeably weak, and people face difficulties during everyday movements, and it also causes pain. When the injury is serious, like a complete rupture, there can be a visible or palpable defect in the affected muscle.

Who Is at Risk

Muscle tears can happen in athletic and non-athletic settings. Certain muscles are more vulnerable to such injuries in athletes who jump, sprint, or change directions quickly during their sports activities. Outside sports, this type of demand is involved in manual handling, heavy lifting, or a sudden strenuous effort during a normal day.

As muscle mass, tissue capacity, and strength of the muscles change with time, age may contribute to the risk of certain tears. During prolonged intense activities, the risk of muscle tear may increase because the ability of muscles to handle load deteriorates due to muscle fatigue. One thing worth understanding is the fact that the risk factors mentioned above don’t automatically lead to a muscle tear, but they influence the way a muscle tolerates demanding loads.

When To Seek Immediate Help

A muscle tear can be painful and highly uncomfortable, but there are some symptoms that indicate serious issues which must be medically assessed without waiting or trying to manage the symptoms on your own. You should seek urgent help in case you feel severe pain after the injury or you are unable to use the affected muscle. When there is a complete rupture of the muscle, a noticeable gap in the muscle may be visible, which deserves immediate assessment. Injuries after significant trauma need to be assessed by clinicians so that they can check what has been damaged and start the required treatment in time. 

How the Diagnosis Is Made

Diagnosis starts with the history of the injury, and it looks into how the injury occurred and the symptoms that followed afterwards. Everything from a forceful movement that was followed by immediate pain, weakness, and difficulties associated with using the affected muscle provides important clues. Then, clinicians perform a physical examination to properly assess the location of the injury, presence of other symptoms like tenderness, bruising, swelling, muscle strength, impact of the injury on movement and flexibility, and presence of a palpable gap or a noticeable change in the shape of the muscle. Based on these findings, the extent of the injury is determined.

Assessment of every muscle tear does not require imaging. In cases when the location or extent of the muscle tear is unclear after initial assessment, MRI can be used.

How Physiotherapy Helps

Physiotherapy for a muscle tear focuses on restoring the strength, movement, and ability of the muscle to tolerate loads gradually. During rehabilitation, the muscle is not kept entirely at rest unless the injury is severe and the affected muscle is also protected from loads that are too high for it to tolerate. So, gradual progress is maintained throughout the rehabilitation as the muscle gains the ability to tolerate more loads.

Gentle muscle activation and comfortable movement are introduced during early rehabilitation, where the amount of activity is adjusted based on the severity of the issue and the symptoms of the person. Further exercises are introduced with the progress of healing. This way, as the muscle becomes able to tolerate more demanding activities, relevant exercises become a part of the rehabilitation in later stages.

The main goal of physiotherapy is not to ensure that the muscle heals but to progressively work on restoring the ability of the muscle to perform the demanding tasks as before.

Muscle Tear Rehabilitation at Painflame

Muscle tear rehabilitation at Painflame Clinic starts with a thorough assessment of the tear, its severity, location, and other symptoms. After getting a proper idea about these aspects, we discuss the demands that the person wants to return to. Then a tailored programme is built that progresses based on the way these symptoms respond. Treatment here can include relevant exercises for restoring range of motion, rebuilding strength, and improving the ability of the muscle to tolerate greater loads progressively. Our sports injury rehabilitation programme can be used for athletes.

In case the individual faces difficulties in travelling to our clinic, our home physiotherapy visits bring the targeted care to their homes.

Recovery Timeline

Factors like the extent and location of the injury, muscles involved, and the activities that a person wants to return to determine the time needed for recovery. If there is a small or partial tear, it may improve over a period of several weeks, but more extensive tears and complete ruptures may need considerably longer time, along with additional medical or surgical treatments.

Prevention

Those who are involved in demanding work, exercises, or intense sports-related activities should increase the intensity and volume of the activity gradually so that muscles get enough time to adapt to higher loads. Properly managing fatigue during prolonged or demanding activities, along with allowing adequate recovery, may be useful.

In case you have had a previous muscle tear, don’t return to your intense activities when you start feeling pain-free at rest or during normal activities. The affected muscle needs to regain its objective strength before it is exposed to demanding activities.