Tips for Healing fromTendinitis & Muscle Strains

Do you suffer with chronic tendinitis or acute muscle strains from time to time?

Tendinitis means an inflammation of tendons (tough contractile tissue attaching to bone or muscle). Some examples include tennis elbow, plantar fasciitis, rotator cuff pain, and patellar tendinitis. Muscles or tendons can get strained with sports, gardening, recreational hobbies, or even with mundane daily activities, like bending forward, reaching or lifting.

Tendinitis can persist for months and adversely affect your daily functioning, such as walking, prolonged standing, computer work, reaching, leisure activities and sleep. Tendinitis is often “stubborn” and resistant to typical physical therapy treatments like massage, ice, ultrasound, electrical stimulation, exercise, braces or taping. Over-the-counter medications or steroids may reduce and mask pain minimally, but don’t solve the problem.

What if you could heal your muscles with a 2-minute exercise once or twice a day for a few weeks? … Well if that sounds intriguing, read on to learn about this magic muscle trick! It will speed your recovery and give you a way to help yourself the next time you pull a muscle. It will save you money and aggravation from going to one practitioner after another, or from spending money on medications and braces. More importantly, it will help you to heal sooner and get back to your painfree life!

This method is called Strain-Counterstrain (SCS), and was developed by an osteopath named Lawrence Jones. It is sometimes called “fold-and-hold”, because you simply fold your body, so the involved muscle is in a relaxed, shortened position. It is the opposite of stretching. Stretches are typically prescribed by most physical therapists, and can often aggravate acute muscle strains or tendinitis.

This method (SCS) helps your injured muscle to “re-set” the muscle spindles inside the muscle, and allow it to heal. Muscle spindles govern the length of the muscle. Oftentimes, these spindles can become out of balance when you do something unexpected, like step into a hole, miss a step on the stairs, fall, or sustain injuries in a car accident. In these cases, your muscles are not ready for the sudden movement or change of position. The muscle spindles change the internal bias, and then when you move normally, it feels to your muscle as if you are tearing it. So you feel pain as a protective guarding response.

SCS uses simple positional exercises to passively shorten the affected muscle for 90 seconds, and then slowly return to a normal resting position, which helps the muscle spindle to re-set, sort of like “re-booting” your computer. You don’t need to do sets of repetitions, just once for 90 seconds. However, it seems to be most effective when you repeat it at least once or twice a day for a couple of weeks (or sometimes longer), depending on the severity of the injury. For instance, if I’m working on plantar fasciitis, I tell my patients that they should do this 2-3x/day, depending on how much they are on their feet, since the condition will be aggravated by standing or walking.

Here are a few examples of how to apply this to a specific muscle.

--- for biceps muscle, you will bend your left elbow passively (hold your left wrist with your right hand), and then watch the clock for 90 seconds while your arm is in that supported position. Then you will slowly allow the left elbow to straighten.

--- for the wrist on the side where your palm is, then you would use your other hand to support the injured hand and bend your wrist toward the palm.

--- for plantar fasciitis or Achilles tendinitis, you would passively plantarflex (move that foot as if you are pointing your toes, but without using the muscles to do that). You will use your hand to position your foot. Sometimes, I will compress the heel towards the Achilles to shorten/slacken that tendon.

In general, you don’t want to go into an extremely shortened position, but rather somewhere in the middle, where your joints and muscles can feel relaxed and comfortable. (The foot is somewhat of an exception.) This method should NOT cause any pain or strain, but should actually feel good when you are in the right position.

When I diagnose and treat a strained muscle in my office, I will first poke around (apply pressure) to find pinpoint tenderness. But I stop pushing on that tender point while I find the correct treatment position, and only push again to see if I am in the right position. This helps me to be more specific. But it is not necessary that you do this. I can train you specifically on how to apply this to your particular situation.

Rotator cuff muscles need to be specifically tested for tenderness, because there are about four muscles that do various motions, and so are treated in different positions. The most commonly strained rotator cuff muscle is the supraspinatus, which lifts your arm out to the side. So the way to treat this is to sit and rest your arm out to the side (about 45-60 degrees away from side) and about 45 degrees in front of your body. You can simply use pillows and/or an armrest. Other rotator cuff muscles may involve twisting your arm one way or another.

Another way you can end up with a tendinitis is by repetitive overuse, improper body mechanics, or doing activities that you are not accustomed to. For instance, tennis elbow or carpal tunnel can happen from poor ergonomics at your computer. Plantar fasciitis can be a result of prolonged standing or walking in shoes with poor arch support.

Physical inflexibility and/or being out of shape, and then engaging in a sport or recreational activity (e.g., tennis, baseball, hiking, running, gardening), can of course set you up for pulling a muscle. Think of all the “weekend warrior” injuries in your past!

Many of these exercises are easy to do on yourself, especially for the wrist and shoulder. Some other areas of the body are a little more difficult to treat yourself, depending on how flexible you are. For instance, the neck can be a bit tricky and needs some fine-tuning. The foot and ankle can take some extra torque/strength, and can be awkward to do on yourself. But I can help you problem-solve to find creative ways to treat yourself, or teach someone in your family to help you with this.

There is a book I recommend to my clients, called “Muscle Pain Relief in 90 Seconds” by Dale Anderson, M.D. It describes the technique in layman’s terms, and has diagrams and instructions on how to treat different areas of the body. It does not include every possible exercise. But once you understand the basic principle, and you know which muscle is strained, you can often figure out how to devise an exercise to treat that muscle. Even if you do it “wrong”, you won’t cause any harm, as long as it is not feeling strained in the position you choose. At worst, it will not help.

If you have a chronic condition such as tendinitis or an acute muscle strain, and would like some help with getting your muscles back in working order, and in learning how to help yourself heal, please give me a call and we can set up an appointment. One visit might be all you need to get started on the right path to healing. You will be surprised at how much better you will feel, and how quickly you will recover! Not to mention, you will have more tools at your disposal the next time your body is suffering from being a weekend warrior!

As always, I offer 15-minute free phone consultations if you have any questions about how I might be able to help you or a family member. Call 303-819-8839 or email me from my contact page.

Click here for more information on therapy for chronic pain.