More than 300 muscle groups facilitate your body's functional and athletic movements. Each muscle has a complex strength/length relationship with an antagonistic, synergistic and stabilizing muscle group. Imbalances between muscle groups impede athletic performance, making you susceptible to muscle tears. Potential causes of muscle tears in athletes include direct blows to a muscle, overexertion and faulty movement patterns.
Types of Tears
A pulled muscle, also called a first-degree strain, involves a tear in less than 5 percent of the muscle fibers. Strains cause mild pain, but do not significantly decrease your range of motion. Second-degree tears affect more muscle fibers, but stop short of a total muscle tear. This type of tear causes painful muscular contractions, but still allows you to walk or stand. A third-degree tear affects the entire width of the muscle. Any type of movement may cause pain, and the torn part of the muscle may have a noticeable lump.
Flexibility and Injury
Flexibility is one of the most controversial topics in sports medicine. Dr. Nicholas J. Honkamp of Des Moines Orthopaedic Surgeons in Iowa advises that inflexible muscles are unable to lengthen during athletic performance, making them susceptible to tears. While some coaches use this theory to incorporate stretching exercises into an athletic warmup, Thomas R. Baechle and Roger W. Earle, authors of "Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning," argue that static stretching, which involves holding a stretch without movement, decreases power and weakens the muscle. Sports medicine specialist Vern Gambetta, author of "Athletic Development," agrees, and warns that pre-competition static stretching destabilizes the joints, cause tiredness and impedes athletic coordination. Since all of these factors make an athlete more susceptible to muscle tears, some coaches use dynamic stretching, or stretching with movement, as part of the warmup.
Muscle Imbalances
Most sports use a particular set of movement patterns, which engage specific muscle groups. Within the course of training and competing, the athlete may inadvertently strengthen some muscles groups at the expense of others. Rock climbers, for example, frequently engage the biceps and other muscle groups that flex the arms and hands. The extension muscles, such as the triceps, in the back of the arm, become weaker and subject to tears.
While some coaches attribute tears in the back of the legs to tight hamstrings, they often result from muscle imbalances between the hamstrings and quadriceps. The hamstrings should be at least 80 percent as strong as the quadriceps. During high-speed athletic events, weak hamstrings fatigue faster than the quadriceps. This fatigue may cause muscle tears.
Treatment
The RICE protocol, an acronym for rest, ice, compression and elevation, provides effective treatment for muscle tears. Rest the injured muscle group, and immediately apply ice for 20-minute segments throughout the day. Ice packs guide the blood away from the injured area and reduce swelling. Compression and elevation also reduce swelling. Wrap the injured area in an bandage and keep it in an elevated position. Physical therapy begins when the swelling subsides. The therapist starts with stretches to bring back your range of motion, and progresses to strengthening exercises.
References
- SportsDoctor.com; That Painful Pull; Dr. Carol L. Otis
- Des Moines Orthpaedic Surgeons; Acute Muscle Strains of the Thigh in Athletes ; Nicholas J. Honkamp MD
- "Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning";Thomas R. Baechle, Roger W. Earle; 2008
- Elite Track; Too Loose, Too Much; Vern Gambetta
- University of Oregon; Preventing Injuries; Ryan Ojerio
- American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons: Hamstring Muscle Injuries
