Week 3 (Addressing Weakness)

Question 1

Principles of recent muscle strain

Answer 1

• Understand stages of tissue healing
• Progressive load optimises tissue healing
• Early on load is determined by symptoms
• Be very clear on the “goals” of the strength program which changes at different times

Question 2

Give a script to explain the purpose of strengthening 3 days and how this will differ 3 months later

Answer 2

3 days: We rested the injury and protected it to allow heating. It is not strong but strong enough to tolerate simple exercises. It is starting to lay down scar tissue but the fibres are unaligned so by doing simple exercises that optimally load the tissue, we’re going to help the fibres realign. Depending on the grade of tissue injury, we can increase the neural drive to the muscle.

At 3 months: The tissue is in remodelling stage now which means that the tissue is trying to regain the strength you had before the injury. We need to load the muscle and get it back to what it was before pre-injury.