Mitigating muscle fatigue and tension with physiotherapy techniques

Muscle fatigue is a gradual decrease in muscle force or ability to generate force that makes it difficult to do your usual physical activities. It can affect any part of your body and may cause the following symptoms:

• Feeling of weakness
• Exhaustion or lack of energy
• Muscle aches or soreness
• Burning muscles
• Muscle spasms, twitches, or trembling
• Muscle cramps
• Muscle knots

How do your muscles work?

Muscles contract to create the force needed for movement. This muscle contraction is due to a series of chemical reactions in the body – this causes the muscles to get longer, shorter, or tighter, allowing them to create force.
Repeated muscle contraction during exercise, especially high-intensity workouts, is a very common cause of muscle fatigue. Researchers have many views regarding muscle fatigue, including adenosine triphosphate depletion, lactic acid buildup (PH change), electrolyte loss, aging, and other factors like environment.

Some systemic conditions too can cause muscle fatigue, such as Anaemia, Hypothyroidism, Insomnia, Mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety, Nutritional or mineral deficits, Viral and bacterial infections, flu, and Fibromyalgia.

Physiotherapy for your muscle fatigue and muscle tension:

1. Maintain a balanced fitness routine - A balanced fitness routine can help you avoid muscle fatigue.
Aerobics: Regular aerobic exercise can improve cardiovascular fitness and help decrease or prevent muscle fatigue. Try different workout styles — like high-intensity interval training (HIIT) — to improve fatigue resistance. Aim for moderate-intensity cardio workout like jogging, fast walking, cycling for 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.
Strength training: Strength training helps in muscular endurance, which can help avoid fatigue. Start training with weights, machines, resistance bands, and your body weight. Practice strength training at least twice weekly and aim for 3 sets of 15 reps for each muscle group.

2. Warm up and cool down periods - Don't forget to warm up and cool down. Take about 5 - 10 minutes of warm-up before your workout. Dynamic stretching before exercise is highly recommended. After exercise, do a short cool down or a gradual reduction in activity to bring oxygen back to your muscles, so they can recover quicker. Slow walking and doing static stretches can help you cool down post-workout sessions.

3. Instrumented assisted soft tissue release (Graston technique) or myofascial release techniques - The therapist uses this technique to alleviate muscle tension, promote good blood circulation, and enhance healing.

4. Massage - Physiotherapists use Swedish gliding strokes and effleurage techniques to increase blood circulation, thereby speeding up muscle tissue recovery and performance.

5. Rest - Rest days allow your overworked muscles to heal and repair damaged tissues. The American Council on Exercise recommends resting until your muscles are no longer sore before resuming any exercise or activity. You need not avoid all physical activity. Instead, consider low-impact active recovery workouts that target muscles that are unaffected.
6. Ice or heat - Ice and heat therapy can help relieve symptoms of muscle fatigue. After an intense workout, an ice bath or ice pack can reduce muscle inflammation. A heating pad, warm bath, or sauna helps raise blood circulation to promote muscle relaxation.

To add up, I would suggest sound sleep not less than 7 hours, appropriate hydration or water intake, and good nutritional habits (mix of protein and carbs) would help a lot to avoid muscle fatigue.

(Author: Ms. Dhanalakshmi V, Chief Physiotherapist, Manipal Hospital Old Airport Road, Bangalore.)