Muscle Medicine: The Revolutionary Approach to Maintaining, Strengthening, and Repairing Your Muscles and Joints Read Online Free PDF
Author: Rob Destefano
the area becomes inflamed and then chronically sore. These
----
FIVE REASONS MUSCLES ARE WEAK
1. Underuse: This may cause pain and dysfunction, possibly affecting other muscles and joints along the “kinetic chain.” A good example would be the gluteal muscles in the butt, which aren’t used much by distance runners. Their weakness causes the hips to move laterally during running and may add to muscular imbalances, an inefficient stride, and the possibility of lower-leg injuries.
2. Fatigue from overwork: Muscles may tire out trying to stabilize an unstable structure. When you sit for long periods, the muscles of the lumbar spine can become weak or tired and painfully tight, fighting a losing battle against gravity and poor posture.
3. Nerve damage: If a nerve going to a muscle is damaged, the muscle can’t properly fire. Despite the tissue’s potential, the body can’t communicate with it, so the muscle will test as weak. And if the nerve problem isn’t corrected, over time the muscle will atrophy from lack of use.
4. Infection: The muscle is using its resources to fight the infection. In this condition, it will test as a weak muscle.
5. Muscle disease: A disease such as muscular dystrophy will cause progressive muscle weakness and atrophy.
----
repetitive stress injuries have become the bane of the workplace, and are increasingly considered the most common form of occupational injury, costing the nation, by some estimates, more than $100 billion a year in medical costs, decreased productivity, and other related expenses. The two biggies that we’ll discuss in the “Hot Spots” section are carpal tunnel syndrome and lower-back pain. Interestingly, in the latter case, the problem isn’t too much movement but too little. The postural muscles have to work so hard to keep the spine aligned when the body is sitting in a fixed position that they tire out and become irritated.
The line between traumatic and chronic injury is anything but hard and fast. Sometimes a muscle trauma can destabilize a joint area, setting it up for chronic problems. Sometimes chronic inflammation can weaken the muscles or connective tissue to such a degree that an otherwise ordinary pivot or twist can cause structures to rip—the straw that broke the camel’s back. But let’s go beyond standardtextbook terms and take a closer look at the different ways muscle can cause pain and limit movement before we consider the ways to treat it.
When muscle is asked to do too much, to fire too long or too hard, it can simply tighten up and shut down in self-defense so forcefully as to cause pain. But the tricky thing about diagnosing muscle pain is that the site of the original tissue damage is sometimes not where it hurts the most. This is one reason muscle problems can be mistaken for joint injury. Muscle can refer pain to other areas of the body in several ways. Sometimes a contracted muscle will press down on a nerve sending pain (or numbness or tingling) to some other part of the body along that nerve track; for instance, a compressed sciatic nerve in the back can cause pain down the leg. Sometimes an overwhelmed muscle just shuts down, forcing neighboring muscles to pick up the slack, and then they become fatigued and painful. Restriction in one part of the muscle can pull on the tendon where it attaches the muscle to the bone, causing pain there. Diagnosis in these cases of “referred pain” can be tricky, and the bigger musculoskeletal picture needs to be considered. Just because you have pain in the lower back doesn’t mean that is the source of the problem and the location that needs to be treated first. This is why it is so important to see a doctor and not try to self-diagnose!
The tendon is a popular area for pain. Everyone has heard of tendinitis, the inflammation that sets in when tendons and the surrounding muscle are overstressed and overstretched. “Tennis elbow” (lateral epicondylitis) and Achilles tendinitis are
----
FIVE REASONS MUSCLES ARE WEAK
1. Underuse: This may cause pain and dysfunction, possibly affecting other muscles and joints along the “kinetic chain.” A good example would be the gluteal muscles in the butt, which aren’t used much by distance runners. Their weakness causes the hips to move laterally during running and may add to muscular imbalances, an inefficient stride, and the possibility of lower-leg injuries.
2. Fatigue from overwork: Muscles may tire out trying to stabilize an unstable structure. When you sit for long periods, the muscles of the lumbar spine can become weak or tired and painfully tight, fighting a losing battle against gravity and poor posture.
3. Nerve damage: If a nerve going to a muscle is damaged, the muscle can’t properly fire. Despite the tissue’s potential, the body can’t communicate with it, so the muscle will test as weak. And if the nerve problem isn’t corrected, over time the muscle will atrophy from lack of use.
4. Infection: The muscle is using its resources to fight the infection. In this condition, it will test as a weak muscle.
5. Muscle disease: A disease such as muscular dystrophy will cause progressive muscle weakness and atrophy.
----
repetitive stress injuries have become the bane of the workplace, and are increasingly considered the most common form of occupational injury, costing the nation, by some estimates, more than $100 billion a year in medical costs, decreased productivity, and other related expenses. The two biggies that we’ll discuss in the “Hot Spots” section are carpal tunnel syndrome and lower-back pain. Interestingly, in the latter case, the problem isn’t too much movement but too little. The postural muscles have to work so hard to keep the spine aligned when the body is sitting in a fixed position that they tire out and become irritated.
The line between traumatic and chronic injury is anything but hard and fast. Sometimes a muscle trauma can destabilize a joint area, setting it up for chronic problems. Sometimes chronic inflammation can weaken the muscles or connective tissue to such a degree that an otherwise ordinary pivot or twist can cause structures to rip—the straw that broke the camel’s back. But let’s go beyond standardtextbook terms and take a closer look at the different ways muscle can cause pain and limit movement before we consider the ways to treat it.
When muscle is asked to do too much, to fire too long or too hard, it can simply tighten up and shut down in self-defense so forcefully as to cause pain. But the tricky thing about diagnosing muscle pain is that the site of the original tissue damage is sometimes not where it hurts the most. This is one reason muscle problems can be mistaken for joint injury. Muscle can refer pain to other areas of the body in several ways. Sometimes a contracted muscle will press down on a nerve sending pain (or numbness or tingling) to some other part of the body along that nerve track; for instance, a compressed sciatic nerve in the back can cause pain down the leg. Sometimes an overwhelmed muscle just shuts down, forcing neighboring muscles to pick up the slack, and then they become fatigued and painful. Restriction in one part of the muscle can pull on the tendon where it attaches the muscle to the bone, causing pain there. Diagnosis in these cases of “referred pain” can be tricky, and the bigger musculoskeletal picture needs to be considered. Just because you have pain in the lower back doesn’t mean that is the source of the problem and the location that needs to be treated first. This is why it is so important to see a doctor and not try to self-diagnose!
The tendon is a popular area for pain. Everyone has heard of tendinitis, the inflammation that sets in when tendons and the surrounding muscle are overstressed and overstretched. “Tennis elbow” (lateral epicondylitis) and Achilles tendinitis are
Similar Books
Deceive Not My Heart
Shirlee Busbee
Skin Tight (Skin Deep #4)
J. M. Stone
Dangerous Games
Keri Arthur
The Unwilling Adventurer (The Unwilling #1)
Heidi Willard
Winter Term at Malory Towers
Enid Blyton
How I Became Lotus Raine...the Porn Star
Erika Ashby
Summer Loving
Rachel Ennis
Sweet Surrender
Mary Moody
The Doom of Kings: Legacy of Dhakaan - Book 1
Don Bassingthwaite
Caddie Woodlawn's Family
Carol Ryrie Brink