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Hey there!

If you’ve ever felt an ache or pain in your muscles or joints that seemingly came out of nowhere, most of the time, this discomfort can be chalked up to muscular issues. Here’s a quick guide on how to identify and fix those nagging injuries, especially if you’re dealing with repetitive strain.

Step 1: Identify if it’s Muscular

You might think it’s your bones or joints that are causing the pain, but 99% of the time, it’s actually your muscles. So how can you tell?

If a position or movement makes it feel better: It’s likely muscular.

If a position or movement makes it worse: It’s also likely muscular.

If it hurts no matter what: It might be something else, but this is rare unless you’ve experienced a direct impact like an accident.

Even in those situations, muscle injuries are often involved. Now that we’ve identified the root cause is muscular let’s move on to Step 2.

Step 2: Leverage Your Body’s Built-in Damage Control System

Your body has a hierarchy for how it handles injuries. Ideally, it prefers to injure more vascular structures (like muscles) over less vascular ones (like tendons or ligaments). Why? Because muscles get more blood flow, which speeds up healing.

Muscles are red because they have a rich blood supply.

Tendons and ligaments are white due to their limited blood flow, making them slower to heal.

Getting more blood flow into the muscles that are affected can be a great idea. How can you do this? By using the M.E.T.H. method of Movement Elevation Traction and Heat. The movement must be pain free. If it hurts stop and move in even smaller ranges. It’s ok if that’s only a few centimeters or inches. Normally, icing an injury is not recommended.

Step 3: Reverse the Pain with Opposite Movements

Once you’ve identified it as a muscular issue, the best way to recover is by doing the opposite movement of what’s causing you pain. Here’s how:

If walking forward hurts → Try walking backward.

If pitching or throwing causes pain → Instead of throwing, try the opposite motion: take a resistance band and pull backward through the same range of motion.

By working in reverse, you’ll help retrain your muscles and accelerate healing.

This method works because of two key principles:

Reciprocal Inhibition: Activating the opposite muscle forces the injured muscle to relax, giving it a chance to recover.

Strengthening the Decelerators: In activities like throwing, training the muscles that slow down your movement can prevent future injuries by stabilizing your joints.

Step 4: Always Ask These Two Questions

To quickly assess whether it’s a muscular injury, use this simple two-question combo:

Does a position or movement make it worse?

Does a position or movement make it better?

If the answer is “yes” to either, chances are high that it’s muscular and can be healed with the steps above. Using these in conjunction with a Sportbodywork MethodⓇ Therapist can quickly and painlessly resolve your issues. Use our app Pain Free Movement to ask questions get answers and accelerate healing!

That’s it! Next time something starts hurting out of the blue, follow this framework. With the right recovery process, you can eliminate pain quickly and get back to doing what you love.

Stay active and pain-free!

P.S. If you’ve got a friend dealing with muscle or joint issues, feel free to forward this along!