How long does it take to recover from a muscle injury?

If you injure your muscles, you will need a long period of rest to recover. Moreover, these injuries are caused by external force. You must stay in bed and rest after they happen. This will make the recovery speed faster. If necessary, you need to alternate between cold and hot compresses. Don't do any physical labor to avoid further injury.

In addition to muscle contusion caused by direct external force, muscle injury is mainly caused by muscle strain due to indirect external force. Common strains include the hamstring muscles, back muscles, and thigh adductor muscles.

Signs: After a muscle is strained, the injured area will feel painful, swollen, tender or cramped, and will feel hard to the touch. The pain is aggravated by active contraction or passive lengthening of the injured muscle.

Treatment: When the muscles are slightly injured or a small amount of muscle fibers are broken, cold compresses should be applied immediately, pressure bandages should be applied and the injured limb should be elevated. After 24 hours, Chinese medicine can be applied externally, medication injections can be given to the painful areas, physical therapy or massage can be performed, etc. When most of the muscle fibers are broken or the muscles are completely broken, the injured person should be immediately sent to the hospital for early surgery and suture after first aid such as pressure bandage.

Prevention: Before strenuous exercise, you should do sufficient warm-up exercises, especially warm-up exercises for the parts of the body you are exercising. Pay attention to the reaction of muscles during exercise. If muscles become stiff or fatigued, massage or reduce the intensity of exercise. Master the essentials of exercise techniques in a reasonable, scientific and correct manner. Pay attention to the temperature and humidity of the exercise environment and the conditions of the sports venue. When participating in exercise again after recovery, pay attention to gradual progress to prevent re-injury.

Cold compresses can have two effects. First, it can relieve pain and freeze the sensory nervous system to play an anti-irritation role. The cold stimulation exceeds the pain of the trauma, so the pain will be relieved. Secondly, it can hinder local supply and reduce bleeding of damaged tissue, thus preventing the damage from expanding.

2.Wrap the injured area with an elastic bandage.

The bandage must be applied evenly, otherwise a "pocket" of swelling will form around the edge of the compression bandage. In addition, the compression should be checked regularly to ensure that blood circulation is not affected. If you feel tingling, numbness, or bluish skin, it means the compression is too tight and you should relax it. Wait until your skin color returns to normal before applying looser compression.

3. Make good use of gravity.

After an injury, the injured limb will have bruising or swelling. You can use gravity to lift the injured limb to a position higher than the heart to prevent bruising and swelling.