Friday, April 16, 2010

Torn Muscle? Pulled muscle?

One of the problems with language is what means one thing to someone means something else to another person. I used the term "pulled muscle" in a previous post, but really, it is not an accurate description of the actual injury. Every time we use a muscle we use a pulling force as we contract it. We could technically call any muscle movement, a pull. In common usage, however, the term "pulled muscle" is used to describe an injury.

Torn muscle is a better description of this type of injury. In reality, when we contract a muscle violently (an Olympic sprinter jumping out of the start blocks in a race), there is the risk of a tear. Muscle fibers tear all the time, and our bodies are constantly repairing them. All body builders train to tear their muscles so when the body repairs the muscle it is larger and stronger. Only when we tear a great number of muscle fibers, to the point of pain (pain beyond just being sore), do we have an injury.

Most people do not use the term "torn muscle" because it sounds so absolute, so severe, so complete. In reality, only a few muscle fibers were torn. We are left with the common term
"pulled muscle" because it seems more descriptive of the injury in regard to how it feels.

In reality, there are tears in the muscle fibers and the body is working to repair it. I will go over some of the ways I deal with this type of injury.

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