Hello all.

What happens to a muscle when excessive forces are exerted, as in pulling, forcing, pushing; perhaps in a unusual position or to little developed or used muscles ?

Is there some minor tearing or ligaments detaching that takes several painful days to slowly heal ?

4 hours ago, Externet said:

Hello all.

What happens to a muscle when excessive forces are exerted, as in pulling, forcing, pushing; perhaps in a unusual position or to little developed or used muscles ?

Is there some minor tearing or ligaments detaching that takes several painful days to slowly heal ?

How long is a piece of string?

Seriously, the answer obviously depends on the degree of overstress, ranging from a muscle or ligament tear requiring surgery to a minor ligament or muscular strain that heals itself over days or weeks. (Ligaments and tendons heal far more slowly than muscles, as they don't have a blood supply.)

But muscular overexertion can also include simple stiffness, resulting from lactate accumulation in muscles that, not being trained up to that level of exercise, don't have the circulation to oxygenate the muscles aerobically. This stiffness is what anyone starting an exercise programme will feel in the first days and weeks, until the muscles and cardiovascular system respond by enabling a better blood supply. (I recall this vividly from my own rowing days🙂. In rowing training one spoke of aerobic and anaerobic training regimes, the latter generating lactate which the body has to oxidise and remove after the exercise is over.)