Muscle Strains

A strained muscle is one of the more straightforward injuries to treat well, and one of the easiest to rush. Most people feel better long before the muscle is ready, which is why strains have a reputation for recurring.

A strain happens when a muscle is loaded beyond what its fibres can tolerate, usually during a rapid or forceful contraction while the muscle is lengthening. That’s why they cluster around sprinting, kicking, changing direction and lifting something heavier or more awkward than expected.

What causes muscle strains

The common thread is load exceeding capacity at a moment when the muscle is stretched and contracting at once. Sprinting strains hamstrings, kicking and changing direction strain groins and calves, and lifting strains backs and shoulders.

Several things reduce the load a muscle can take on a given day: fatigue near the end of a session or a week, a sudden increase in training, cold or insufficient preparation before an intense effort, and previous injury in the same muscle. A muscle that’s been strained before is the strongest single predictor of straining it again, which is why the rehabilitation matters more than the initial injury.

The most commonly strained muscles have their own pages, including hamstring injuries and groin strain.

When to see a physiotherapist

Early is genuinely better with a strain. The first few days shape how the tissue heals, and an early assessment establishes how much of the muscle is involved, which sets a realistic timeline instead of a guess.

Some presentations need urgent medical assessment: an inability to bear weight, a visible gap or bulge in the muscle, severe swelling and bruising appearing quickly, or numbness and pins and needles below the injury. If you contact the clinic with any of these, you’ll be told the same thing and helped to get seen.

Physiotherapy treatment for muscle strains

Andrew’s assessment establishes which muscle is involved, how much of it, and what it currently tolerates. Treatment then moves through stages rather than repeating the same thing:

• Early management, practical guidance on what to do and avoid in the first days, including how much to move and how to load it safely.
• Manual therapy and soft tissue work as the acute stage settles, to restore movement and ease the protective tightness that builds around an injury.
• Exercise rehabilitation, progressive loading that rebuilds the muscle’s strength at the lengths it failed at, which is the part that determines whether it holds.
• A tested return, with the specific movements of your sport or job reintroduced and reassessed rather than assumed.

What to expect

Andrew will tell you which muscle is involved and what a realistic timeline looks like, and he’ll be specific that feeling fine and being ready are different things. Reassessment through the programme is what establishes readiness, and he’ll tell you what he’s measuring so you can see the progress rather than take it on trust.