Muscle Spasms

Cramps & Spasms

Cramps are sudden, involuntary, painful muscle contractions; their mechanism remains poorly understood. A muscle cramp is a sudden, involuntary, painful contraction of a muscle or part of it, self-extinguishing within seconds to minutes and is often accompanied by knotting of the muscle.

Cramps may occur in people with conditions such as lower motor neuron disorders; however they also often occur in healthy subjects with no history of nervous or metabolic disorders, such as during sleep, pregnancy, and strenuous physical exercise. The latter cramps have been defined as “benign cramps” or “idiopathic cramps” or “cramps with no apparent cause”.

A cramp can be distinguished from spasms based on clinical criteria. For example, muscle contractions (spasms) resemble cramps because they are involuntary and painful. However, they are different from cramps because they are involuntary sustained co-contractions of several muscles producing slow, twisting, and repetitive movements or abnormal postures that are not relieved by muscle stretching. If you feel you are suffering from either and are in need of a massage in Hitchin please get in touch.

Muscle Strains

Muscle strain, muscle pull, or even a muscle tear refers to damage to a muscle or its attaching tendons.

You can put undue pressure on muscles during the course of normal daily activities, with sudden heavy lifting, or while performing work tasks. Muscle damage can be in the form of tearing (part or all) of the muscle fibres and the tendons attached to the muscle. The tearing of the muscle can also damage small blood vessels, causing local bleeding, or bruising, and pain caused by irritation of the nerve endings in the area.

Symptoms of muscle strain include:

• Swelling, bruising or redness.
• Pain at rest
• Pain when the specific muscle or the joint in relation to that muscle is used
• Weakness of the muscle or tendons
• Inability to use the muscle at all