Primary Causes Of Muscle Pain

Muscle pain or muscle spasms are the acute soreness felt in the muscles of the body. Any muscle in the boy can feel pain but generally affected muscles are the back, neck and shoulders. Needless to say that a muscle spasm is a great hindrance to your daily activity and pretty much leaves you unable to perform even your routine functions. If left untreated, muscle spasms will result in permanent deformation of posture, circulatory as well as heart problems.

Muscle pain has a few common and general causes behind it. If any or all these are applicable to you, you may have already experienced muscle pain. We discuss the causes here and also suggest some simple changes you can make to avoid the pain in the future.

1. Prolonged Sitting: sitting in one position for prolonged periods of time can lead to stiffening of the back, shoulder and neck muscles. The severity of this pain may cause the individual to cease working and be unable to move. The pain is generally curable with a mild muscle relaxant, but it will resurface if not tended to. Avoid sitting in the same position for more than 3 hours. The best thing to do is get up from your work desk after every hour and stretch for about 5 minutes. If you've been sitting 3 constant hours, then you should make a lap around the office or go outside and walk for about 10 minutes, stretching your back and shoulder muscles and flexing your neck gently.

2. Ergonomic Safety: ergonomics is the new science that studies how office settings can be made safer. From designing the best chair, to setting your workstation so that you don't end up with inflated muscles and swollen tendons, the field of ergonomics covers it all. All major furniture and hardware manufacturers have an ergonomics department. Check the one used by your office or at home and see how you can make sure that you're using scientifically approved equipment. This could mean a new computer chair that gives your arms better support, a new keyboard that eases wrist movement, etc.

3. Stress: stress is another major cause of muscle pain. When stress levels rise, the muscles begin to stay in a state of prolonged tension. Increased stress also affects the blood circulation and slows down the body's metabolism. All this translates into stiffening of your muscles. The muscle pains that have been caused by stress can be cured and avoided by undergoing physiotherapy, taking up yoga classes, doing meditation, etc.

4. Dehydration: if your body is not well hydrated, you can think of it as a door with unoiled hinges. Water is 70% of the human body and 92% of the blood composition. When your water levels fall to distort this normal proportion, your body begins to store the water in the cells. This swells the cells, it also reduces the rate with which oxygenated blood reaches to various parts of the body. All this causes stiffening in your muscles and you experience pain. Keep your body well hydrated. A healthy adult should take at least 8 glasses of water a day. Increase this quantity if the weather is hot. Don't take the 8 glasses all at once; just achieve the 8-glass target gradually throughout the day.

• Cassandra Bagley
• 13/05/2009, 6:59 PM
• 0 Comments