Musculoskeletal pain affects the muscles, ligaments and tendons, sometimes the bones too.
Causes of musculoskeletal pain are subjective. Muscle tissue can be damaged with the wear and tear as we go about our daily chores. Trauma causing injury to an area (such as jerking movements from tennis, squash or wrestling, auto accidents, falls, fractures, sprains, dislocations from soccer or football, and direct blows to the muscle e.g. martial arts training etc.) also can cause musculoskeletal pain. Other causes of pain include postural strain, repetitive movements, overuse, and prolonged immobilization. Changes in posture or poor body mechanics might bring about spinal alignment problems and muscle shortening, therefore causing other muscles to be misused and become painful.
Often, the body's natural response to injury is to tense the injured area called muscle spasm, which restricts blood flow. Increased pain can in turn cause increased tension, resulting in a pain-tension cycle that might be hard to overcome. Poor body mechanics and posture, along with stress, can also cause increased muscle tension, which then contributes to the pain. Inactivity as a result of pain can gradually lead to muscle weakness and de-conditioning, contributing to the pain.
A medical professional will conduct a thorough physical examination and in addition, might perform additional diagnostic studies to confirm the diagnosis. We will analyze the medical report and design a specific rehabilitative therapy training program for you, which may include nutrition and dietary counseling to increase the body's level of serotonin and norepinephrine (neurotransmitters that modulate sleep, pain, and immune system function).
Different types of manual therapy, or mobilization, can be used to treat people with spinal alignment problems.
Rehabilitative exercise is an important component of treating chronic musculoskeletal pain. Alignment problems might persist without treating muscle shortening or weakness, which might contribute to your alignment problems, as well as poor mechanics and body posture.
Stretching and strengthening exercise are important, as stretching can change the actual length of the muscle, while strengthening without stretching can cause the muscle to shorten further. Strengthening weak muscles groups can also reduce the likelihood that muscles will become strained and suffer minute tear with regular and recreational activity. Since pain and inactivity can lead to de-conditioning and muscle loss, rehabilitative circuit training exercises is important to improving your cardiovascular and muscular endurance, and depending on the type of exercise, can lead to increases in strength as well.
