DAMAGE TO THE MUSCLES AND TENDONS: MUSCULAR SPASM
The muscles which support the spine and control its movements are liable to injury by the same stresses that damage the vertebrae and joints. Muscular injury may be related to postural stress, or to excessive or miscalculated effort.
An example is bending with a sudden jerking movement without allowing the back muscles to arrange themselves for co-ordinated effort. This can cause excessive strain to the muscles which have the job of controlling bending movements of the spine.
Any unaccustomed effort can injure a muscle; keep-fit and other exercises which do not begin with a warm-up period can result in aching muscles or even injury. People who rashly dig the whole garden after a winter’s inactivity are likely to suffer for it.
Another way to do damage is to lift heavy or awkwardly placed loads, particularly if this involves bending or off-centre one-armed efforts, or sideways twisting.
Muscular spasm: the pain/spasm cycle-In most parts of the body, following injury or pain, the involuntary response of the surrounding muscles is to contract in a spasm, clasping the hurting part as in a vice. This prevents it from being used any further, and so protects it, but it also impedes the blood circulation. If the pain was caused by pressure on a nerve, the spasm reinforces the pressure, setting up a kind of vicious cycle. For the damage to be repaired, and the function in the damaged part to be restored, the muscular spasm must first relax, usually by resting the injury.
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