Soft tissue injury (muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia) can occur from either a direct trauma injury, like a slip or fall, car accident or through some athletic activity, but they can also occur cumulatively from minor repetitive stresses that can occur from simple everyday life activities. For example, things like typing on your computer creating carpel tunnel syndrome, along with upper back and neck pain and tightness.
Either way the tissue goes through the same stages of healing: inflammatory, proliferative and remodeling.
Repetitive strain injuries manifest themselves as part of the Cumulative Injury Cycle as a broad range of symptoms and conditions that may present themselves as: Numbness, Tingling, Swelling, Weak, Tight, Aching and Painful.
On the histological level, normal, non-injured tissues should be full length and run parallel to one another, but in both traumas (acute and chronic) they cause micro tears within the tissue. As the tissue heals, it heals not only in a shortened manner but different collagen fibers are laid down in a cross bridged manner. You no longer have a full length and parallel tissue. The injured site never achieves the original histologic or mechanical features of a healthy tissue resulting in abnormal tissue tone, texture and length. A shortened muscle or tissue is actually a weaker muscle in that is now more susceptible to re-injury itself and adds more friction, pressure and tension to all the surrounding tissues. This is where the cumulative stress injuries start, and it becomes an ongoing self-perpetuating cycle.
Your best treatment options to date are through soft tissue mobilization, rehabilitation and chiropractic joint manipulation. Soft tissue mobilizations goal is restore the tissue tone, texture and length as close to its original structure and function. This is done by releasing the cross-linked collagen bridges that are formed and re-lengthening the tissue by manually applying a very specific tension, pressure and torque while taking the tissue through its full range of motion. This is best achieved from Active Release Techniques (ART簧), Graston Technique (GT簧) and Trans-Friction Massage (TFM) when combined with Kinesio簧 Taping. Soft tissue mobilization shows promising results especially for the cost and time from a patient perspective, but further data is necessary. Rehabilitation through eccentrically loading and stretching the tissues the tensile forces help to re-lengthen, re-align and strengthen the tissue. This has the best level of evidence to date. Chiropractic joint manipulation, also known as the adjustment, helps to make sure the proper alignment of the joints. Soft tissue injuries can cause joints to become dysfunctional and this is when the joint needs the specific high velocity, low amplitude thrust of the adjustment from a chiropractor.
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