Herman Nation,
I am rehabing from a slight muscle tear in my left arm/forearm from deadlifting last week. Fortunately it is not serious and after I take this week off I will hit the gym again. In researching this injury, I found out a few things I was not aware of and I wanted to share with the forum:
First: Muscles are not like bone. When a bone breaks, it repairs itself with NEW bone that is stronger than the previous bone. Muscles, however, do not do this. When a muscle is torn, the torn fibers die off and are replaced with SCAR tissue - not fresh muscle fibers. The extent and thickness of this scar tissue depends on what you do within the first 72 hours. Scar tissue is not as flexible and not as strong as muscle tissue. The more scar tissue you have, the more strength loss you will experience and the more chance of re-injury. Why does this happen? A muscle exerts strength when all the muscle fibers are fully stretched (eccentric motion) and then contract. A repaired torn muscle has the areas where there was a tear replaced with scar tissue which bonds the surrounding un-injured fibers together to strengthen the area. The fibers that were damaged will therefore be shorter and not as strong. Does this mean the muscle will never fully recover and will be weak? Not necessarily. It will never be stronger than it was before the tear but you can retain the majority of the strength and flexibility if you take care of the injury properly.
The first 72 Hours: This is the MOST critical time after the injury and will determine the ultimate outcome. During this period, RICE is what should be performed. Icing the area for 20 minutes every hour is crucial. You need to minimize the swelling and control the inflammation response of your body. This can only be done with ice, compression (with an ACE bandage), and elevation. After the first 72 hours, the pain and swelling should subside considerably. If not, you have a Type 3 strain which is a complete tear of a muscle and/or tendon and needs immediate medical attention. Type 1 and Type 2 strains can be treated at home. Type 1 strains usually resolve in 7-10 days. A type 2 strain can take 2-4 weeks. Type 3 strains can take many months as surgery is required to fix it. Once the pain and swelling are controlled after 72 hours, you can now start applying heat and deep tissue massage. The deep massaging is critical as this will break up scar tissue and adhesions and help the scar tissue form correctly over the damaged muscle fibers. This will limit its size and thickness thus providing more strength and flexibility for the muscle.
It is day 5 for me and I have been having my wife deep massage my arm and it is working tremendously! The swelling, stiffness, and pain have been drastically reduced and I can feel her breaking up the forming scar tissue. My goal is to be fully functional again and not be in a position of constant re-injury. People who constantly experience re-injury of strained/pulled muscles have this scar tissue/adhension issue and unless fixed they will always re-injur the area. So be careful when you lift and don't push yourself too hard. If a strain happens, follow the RICE protocol within the first 72 hours and massage and stretch afterwards and you should be good to
go :-)
John
