How to treat a muscular elongation
Athletes are exposed to many types of injuries. Depending on the discipline in question, some or other will be more frequent. However, muscle lesions are common and frequent. It is difficult to know exactly how much tension and strength our muscles can endure, so it is common to end some type of damage. One of the slightest forms of this type of injury is muscle elongation.
Next we will see exactly what we are about and how we treat it to recover as soon as possible.
Muscle elongation: what is?
To understand how to treat a muscular elongation, we must first know what is.
A muscle elongation is a mild lesion in which there have been fiber microrks due to abrupt or abnormal stretching. To get an idea of gravity, it is a bit more serious than a contracture, but less serious than the partial breakage of a muscle. That is because the fibers have not only contracted, but there have been microrrost. But these microruratures do not endanger the continuity of the muscle in question nor are they breaks of fiber packages.
From all of the above it follows that elongation is an injury that appears due to lack of muscle flexibility. The more flexibility we have, the less the resistance that opposes a muscle to be stretched. If there is not enough flexibility, it will not be able to stretch and, in case of being a large and/or sudden tension, microrroruratures occur. The injury may also appear if we do not perform adequate heating, or if the muscle is already fatigued from an earlier effort.
Finally, being a minor muscle injury, there is no resting pain. We will only notice pain when we ask the muscle a contraction. That is, it will hurt when we try to use. There will also be pain to palpation, and we can notice stiffness and hinder to make movements. The more serious elongation, the more significant these symptoms will be.
How to treat muscle elongation
The first thing we must do when you notice a possible elongation is to stop doing the sport we are doing. Follow when we have noticed a sudden appearance pain after an unusual stretching of a muscular group will only worsen the injury. Next, we must perform the classic action protocol in the face of such an injury: ice, compression, rest and elevation. In this way, we will limit inflammation and damage, as well as the edema that could appear.
The next step would be to go to a doctor to confirm the diagnosis. It is important to rule out any more serious injury, and diagnostic tests will tell us exactly what injury we have. We will continue assuming that a muscular elongation diagnoses us.
From here, in general, a muscular elongation will be cured alone with rest. It can take about 10 days, but it is likely that a week we are already recovered. To help recovery, we can continue applying ice during the first days, as well as keeping the injured limb high. If we go to the physiotherapist, this can also help us and guide in recovery effectively. Soft manipulations will help relax and recover normal circulation. And the variable intensity exercises will let us know at what time of rehabilitation we find.
Be flexible
After seeing all this information regarding this injury, we see that the most important thing really is to prevent. If we perform flexibility exercises of the muscle groups that we are going to use in our favorite sport, we start with advantage. It will also be essential to make an appropriate warming before starting. Having flexible and ready muscles, the probability of an elongation is considerably reduced. Finally, we must respect rest periods to let the muscles recover. If we notice tired or tired, it is preferable to opt for a simple walk or some similar intensity exercise. We will resume our favorite activity when there is no danger of injury.
However, if we end up suffering a muscular elongation, we will have been lucky. We will have avoided the most serious injuries, and in about a week we will be ready again.
So if you want to avoid contractures, elongations and breaks, stretch, heat well and don’t exceed yourself. your body will thank you.
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