Muscle pain after vigorous exercise is normal, even for well-conditioned athletes. Most people know that stretching before exercise is important, but in addition, stretching after exercise can be equally important to relieve muscle pain. The theory behind muscle pain after exercise is that it involves buildup of lactic acid in the tissues. If you ask a sports medicine doctor, they will tell you that the most important thing to do for treatment of muscle pain related to exercise is to use LED therapy after exercise .
In the era of growing importance of sport in the life of self-confident women and men, the logical consequence is the growing incidence of sport injuries. In the search for new and more efficient treatment methods, LED Therapy placed itself on a high ranked position due to its positive therapeutic results with lower rate of injury recurrence.
Introduction
The physical activities like light gymnastics, jogging, fitness training and even walking became an irreplaceable part in the life of modern man. People are practicing sport activities from various reasons: some to reduce their body weight or to look nicer, the other ones to cure or prevent some diseases. It has been stated that regular exercising decrease the incidence of chronic musculoskeletal disorders, cardiovascular and other systemic diseases, achieving in the end notably better quality of life. Physical activities have been integrated in daily schedule of a modern man - even fitness gyms are oftentimes open 24 hours a day. But, with more intense sports activities, more frequently are the sport injuries. Due to important psychological impact on an individual, interruption of sport activities - even if occurs only temporary - sometimes causes more damage to a person that the injury itself.
The physical activities can be divided in three main categories, according to the intensity of exercise and the risk of injury (the pyramids):
Light physical activity with the smallest risk of injury (e.g., walking, light exercises without accessories, water gymnastics) and with minimal musculoskeletal system demands.
Medium physical activity with the corresponding risk of injury. In this category the main population are the amateurs who practice sport activity regularly for a long period of time, but with medium demands for the musculoskeletal system.
Intense physical activity, with high risk of injury. It comprises professional and amateur athletes who practice sport activities due to competitive reasons. The musculoskeletal demands are maximal and sometimes at the limit, what often causes injuries and overuse syndrome.
Sports activity pyramid: Majority of the population practices light physical activity as demonstrated on the basis of the pyramid. Following the pyramidal order the top of the pyramid represents minority of the population that practices intense physical activity.
Sport injury pyramid: Those who practice intense physical activity have the highest risk of injury, while those who practice light physical activity have the lowest risk of sport injury.
The sport injury is a tissue trauma that occurs upon any type of the physical activity mentioned above. The causes of sport injuries can be intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic components arise from static misbalance of the muscle system and overall biomechanical changes. Extrinsic components include inadequate sport equipment and technique as well as extended demands. Structures that are the most frequently injured during sport activities are the tendons, muscles and ligaments.
Backgrounds of sport injuries reveal:
- Overuse
- Overload
- Incorrect technique
- Non-symmetric and uncoordinated muscle movements
- Irregular and uncontrolled training
The sport injuries occur the most at the lower extremity due to the body weight. Second most-affected location is the upper extremity, while the third place holds the vertebral column. The injured tissue suffers from structural damage followed by functional disability. Both processes can be reversible and irreversible, while all injuries can also be followed by bone fracture. Stress bone fractures are more frequent in female population due to their hormonal and menstrual cycle changes (amenorrhoea or anovulatory cycle). The lack of estrogen causes decrease of the bone density and bone mass in general. Women not taking hormonal anti-contraceptive pills have 20 times higher risk of a bone fracture, compared to those who take these pills. Additionally, female population is more prone to dietary nourishment, thus causing unbalanced blood levels of proteins and calcium.
Lower extremity
Injuries of the lower extremity appear the most in the specific groups of athletes like sprinters, bicycle riders, football and ice hockey players, jumpers, body builders and weight lifters as well as various types of hyperactivities. Injuries that occur are Achilles tendon injury, "jumper’s knee", bursitis, tractus iliotibialis syndrome, symphysis syndrome, compartment syndrome, myogelosis, fasciitis plantaris, calcaneodynia and muscular scar tissue syndrome.
Upper extremity
Frequent types of sport injuries in the upper extremity are wrist and interphalangeal joints distortion, acute tendonitis of the hand, tenosynovitis of extensor and flexor muscles of the forearm, lateral and medial epicondylitis, injury of the shoulder (e.g., periarthritis humeroscapularis-PHS, acute bursitis, synovitis and partial rupture of joint capsule and m. supraspinatus).
Vertebral column
The most common sport injuries of the vertebral column are cervical syndrome, torticollis, lumbago and muscle strain.
Sport injuries represent to the athlete an unavoidable and unpleasant lay-off from training and competition with subsequent loss of form . Consequently, there is a strong psychological impact on the athlete, especially during long-term injuries. Sport injuries of the soft tissue described above are usually treated with strong painkillers or injections of corticosteroid or analgesic drugs directly to the injured area, because the aim is to bring an athlete back to the competition as soon as possible. As a result of that treatment, we have observed in our clinical practice high rate of re-injuries with even higher degree of tissue damage. The reason for that is a prompt analgesic effect achieved with use of medications, but still existing damage of the tissue. Therefore, an athlete does not feel a signal telling him that tissue has been hurt (e.g., the pain) giving the best of his abilities at the sports field, while the tissue cannot support those challenges.
When affecting working population, sport injury represents an unpleasant absence from work with psychological, financial and other consequences . Macroscopic changes that usually develop upon mechanic or over-loading injuries of soft tissue are in order of appearance the following: hematoma → tissue necrosis → increased tissue edema → increased pressure on the surrounding structures → decreased regenerative capability of injured area . On the microscopic and pathophysiological level several changes occur: destruction of capillaries → increased interstitial aseptic inflammation → increased permeability of capillaries → increased presence of interstitial plasma proteins → decreased local blood circulation (ischaemia) → decreased local lymph circulation → increased local intensity of pain → decreased functional ability .LED therapy has positive influence on all stages of injury mentioned above, even when the bone fracture is involved
As a result, LED’s therapy causes improvement of local blood and lymph microcirculation, induces pain relief and stimulates tissue regeneration and reparation Furthermore, soft tissue trauma, regardless of its origin, is a cause for trigger points (TPs) appearance, where LED’s proved to be an effective treatment modality.
Sport injuries should be treated urgently, not only due to the impatient sportsman, but to avoid the chronic form of the injury, which provokes irreversible structural and morphological changes making the injury much difficult to treat.
