What is muscle pain?

Muscles in our body, represent approximately 50% of the body weight and has been long recognized by clinicians as a source of common pain problems.

Generally reflecting the prevailing concepts of muscle pain, mechanism or clinical observations of painful muscles, various terms have been applied to muscles and soft tissue pain.

The changing concepts and thoughts about the nature of muscle pain make it difficult to collect data on the impact and incidence of muscle-related pain.

The palpable changes in the muscles, revealing increased ropiness, modularity and resilience, led to the terms Myogelosen (muscle gelling), Muskelhärten (hardened muscle) and Muskelschwiele (muscle callus). The term myofascial pain, suggesting pain originating in muscle and connective tissue.

The term “Regionalised musculoskeletal disorders” can be used for muscle pain when the causes appear to be inflammation, sprain, strain, or degeneration of muscles and tendons. When no obvious aetiology is present to account for muscle pain, tenderness, stiffness, and often associated nonanatomic dysesthesias and autonomic disturbances, four overlapping and confusing diagnoses are often used:

• Regional pain syndrome,
• complex regional pain syndrome, and when muscle pain is widespread
• chronic widespread pain (CWP)
• fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS).

The most common causes of muscle pains are :

• Injury or trauma, including sprains and strains
• Overuse including using a muscle too much, too soon before warming up, or too often
• Tension or stress
  
  

Muscle pain may also be due to:

• Drugs like ACE inhibitors used for lowering blood pressure, cocaine, and statins for lowering cholesterol
• Dermatomyositis
• Electrolyte imbalance, such as too little potassium or calcium
• Fibromyalgia
• Infections, including the flu, Lyme disease, Lupus
• Polymyalgia rheumatica
• Polymyositis
• Rhabdomyolysis

Various infections like malaria, muscle abscess, polio, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, trichinosis (roundworm)

Muscle aches and pains that do not resolve and are severe, requires medical assessment, treatment and physiotherapy for muscle pain.

Home remedies for muscle aches

Home remedies are often enough to relieve aches resulted from minor injuries, too much exercise, or stress.

Many people can treat their symptoms using the R.I.C.E method, which is like the following:

Rest: Rest the affected area and stop the straining activity for that area.
Ice: Use an ice pack or bag of frozen peas to help relieve pain and reduce swelling. Apply ice to the area for 15–20 minutes three times a day.
Compression: Compression bandage helps to reduce swelling.
Elevation: Elevate the feet to minimize inflammation, if possible.

Other helpful home remedies include:

• using OTC pain relievers
• carefully stretching out the affected muscles
• Indulging in relaxation activities that reduce stress, such as yoga and meditation

Medications

Doctors sometimes prescribe various medications to treat the underlying problem:  • Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatories (NSAIDs)  NSAIDs, like Aleve or Ibuprofen etc. are preferred in the treatment of some particular muscle pain conditions, like myofascial pain syndrome and muscle strains/injury.

• Muscle Relaxants Muscle relaxers like Flexeril and Zanaflex etc. to are used to ease the pain of an acute muscle injury. • Antidepressants  Tricyclic antidepressants, such as Elavil (amitriptyline), too, are used to treat muscle pain in conditions of fibromyalgia etc.
• Corticosteroids Corticosteroids are used to treat many inflammatory conditions, which relieves the symptoms of muscle pain. • Steroid-Sparing Agents  For inflammatory medical conditions, your doctor may have you take a steroid-sparing drug.

Vitamin D deficiency

Reversal of the underlying problem is required as a treatment of osteomalacia—for example, a reversal of vitamin D deficiency with prescription vitamin D supplementation.Fluids and Dialysis
Hydration and electrolyte repletion is vital to the treatment of rhabdomyolysis.

Complementary and Alternative Therapies

Complementary therapies are commonly used to ease the symptoms of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.  Some of these therapies include:  Tai chi Massage Mindfulness meditation Lastly, another alternative therapy called trigger-point injection too is used sometimes to treat myofascial pain syndrome.Physiotherapy for Muscle Pain

Special kind of therapy called spray-and-stretch and massage is commonly used to treat myofascial pain syndrome.

Surgery

Surgery is not a common treatment for muscle pain, except maybe for certain serious diagnoses, like, pyomyositis.

Upon your first visit, the physiotherapy treatment for muscle cramps will begin with an assessment by gaining background knowledge on why, how and when your injury occurred.  Afterwards, a physical examination will take place which will evaluate the extent of the muscle injury.  Muscle strains are classified as 1st, 2nd or 3rd degree which defines the severity and establishes guidelines for the treatment plan and anticipated recovery time.  The presence of bruising will indicate that there has been some tearing of muscle fibres – and the location and extent of the bruising help the physiotherapist determine the degree of injury.  After a thorough assessment, the physiotherapist will create a treatment plan that will address the acute stage of your specific injury as well as long-term recovery goals. The rehabilitation process also includes education and suggestions to prevent recurrent and future injuries.

One must get different physiotherapy depending on where the pain is. For example:

• Physiotherapy for throat muscles.
• Physiotherapy for leg muscles.
• Physiotherapy for stomach muscles.
  
  How to find the right balance?

Physiotherapists choose, as indicated by the specific injury,  from a variety of different methods of treatment to treat the injured muscle.

• Therapeutic Modalities
  Electrotherapeutic devices such as ultrasound, interferential current, and TENs can aid in the healing process and with pain control in the acute stage.

• Heat & Ice Heat and ice are known to be successful for pain control although the jury is out as to whether or not it helps to decrease inflammation and swelling.

• Strengthening Exercises
  Perhaps one of the most important and beneficial parts of Physiotherapy, injury-related strengthening exercises ensure that you maintain strength in areas surrounding the injury and regain the strength in the involved muscle safely.
  
  
• Manual or Self-Stretching By assisting you in stretches proven to be beneficial for your specific injury, the stretches will help lengthen and loosen the muscles, ultimately increasing your flexibility and range of motion. Home exercises and self-stretching are an important part of the treatment program!
• Therapeutic Taping Sometimes we need a little help from therapeutic tape to help the patient get back to full speed. A tape can provide compression and support and can also be used to relax or facilitate the injured muscle.

Exercises to relieve muscle pain

Combining exercises to restore mobility and regain strength and function will get back to your previous activities and work sooner, as well as help to prevent any future injuries.

• Hip Flexors:
  Face a bench just about a legs length away. Place your foot on the bench.
  Slowly lunge forward by bending your leg to a lunge position. Keep your hands on your hips and chest high while maintaining a straight left leg with your heel on the ground.

• Hamstring Stretch:
  Bend one leg while sitting on the ground. Rest this foot on the inside of the opposite, outstretched one.
  Stretch forward, bending at the waist. Try to reach the toes on the outstretched leg.

• Press up back
• Wall Sits

We affirm that we work for our patients and that we use very human and personal approach, ensuring that they will be at all times treated with dignity, understanding and respect.

We provide physiotherapy treatment for muscle cramps where the therapists you with special exercise to help you ease the pain and live a normal life ahead. The professional will also give you advice on how to avoid any such injuries in the future.