In many regards slow and steady really does win the race, whether you are trying to become more flexible or stronger remaining well balanced and in control when you exercise or work is important. “Form” is a term used in the fitness industry that defines the best posture and way of moving when you exercise. Good form reduces the risk of workout misadventures such as losing your balance and overstraining both of which can cause muscle micro trauma.
Time tested and proven exercise regimes such as Yoga and Tai Qi exercise your body in a very controlled and focused way that takes your muscles through the full range of their natural movement. The opposite way of using your muscles tends to traumatise them- short, jerky and highly repetative movements builds a type of friction up inside the muscle that is not healthy or sustainable.
Repetative strain injuries (RSI) are caused by using your muscles in such a way, you may get away with it for a long time because the natural pain killing effects of your endorphins and encephalins mask the pain, but sooner or later it will get you.
Ignoring the muscular symptoms earlier on will make you more likely to get tendon and joint problems later which are much harder and more expensive to fix. You may do data entry all day on a computer, sort mail, dig trenches or even play a musical instrument, all these activities and many more that require repetative short muscular movements can give you muscle micro trauma.
It is useful to think of a rope fraying, one fibre at a time breaking until a relatively small force makes it suddenly tear the rest of the way. Micro muscle trauma can do the same thing. If you are required to do short ranged repetitive tasks with your work try sharing the work load between both your hands.
Sacrificing good form to perform personal best reps is not worth it.
On any fresh muscle trauma ice packs can give you good instant relief and anti inflammatories can suppress the symptoms too, as can stretching provided of course that your symptoms will still allow you to do so. By the time you know that you have a repetitive stain injury caused by muscle micro trauma the chances are that it has been going on for quite some time before you can no longer ignore the symptoms.
It is for this reason that you must be patient and consistent for therapy and preventative measures to start showing results. It doesn’t matter whether it is physio therapy, osteopathy, acupuncture or massage or combinations of these or similar therapies you must be consistent and follow the advice of your therapist, it is unfair (and unintelligent) to think they have failed if your symptoms do not improve immediately.
The good news is that muscle micro trauma is treatable and preventable.