Muscle Strains: What They Are and How to Recover Properly

The Good Soreness

What Is DOMS?

If you have ever pushed yourself in the gym, gone for a longer run than usual, or tried a new exercise class, you will know the feeling. That deep, satisfying ache that sets in a day or two later — Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, or DOMS.

DOMS is your body doing exactly what it should. When you exercise, you create microscopic tears in your muscle fibres. Your body repairs those tears, and in doing so, the muscle grows back stronger. It is a completely normal part of getting fitter. The stiffness typically peaks 24 to 48 hours after exercise and eases within a few days.

So far, so good. The trouble starts when things go beyond those micro-tears.

Grades of Injury

When It Becomes a Strain

A muscle strain happens when you overstretch or overload a muscle beyond its capacity. Think of your muscle fibres like fabric. A little tension is fine — it is designed for it. But pull too hard or too fast, and the fibres start to tear.

Strains are classified by severity:

• Grade 1 (Mild): A small number of fibres are damaged. You will feel discomfort and some tightness, but you can still move. Recovery usually takes around one week.
• Grade 2 (Moderate): A significant number of fibres are torn. There will be noticeable pain, swelling, and difficulty using the muscle normally. Recovery can take several weeks.
• Grade 3 (Severe): The muscle has ruptured completely — it has torn away from the tendon or bone. This is serious. You may hear or feel a pop at the time of injury. Surgery is often required, followed by months of rehabilitation.

The difference between DOMS and a strain? DOMS comes on gradually and feels like general stiffness. A strain tends to hit suddenly, often during the activity itself, and the pain is sharper and more localised.

Recovery Mistakes

What to Do (and Not Do) After a Muscle Injury

This is where most people go wrong. The natural instinct is to tough it out, push through the pain, or get straight back to training. Here is why that approach backfires:

Pain is your body talking to you. It is not a weakness to acknowledge. It is a signal that something is damaged and needs time to heal. Ignoring it almost always makes things worse.

Do not mask pain with medication just to keep exercising. Taking anti-inflammatories so you can power through a workout is one of the most common mistakes we see. You are not fixing anything — you are hiding the warning signs while causing more damage. If you do take medication, follow the dosage instructions carefully and use it to manage discomfort at rest, not to enable more activity.

Hold off on stretching and foam rolling. This surprises people, but in the first 48 to 72 hours after a muscle injury, aggressive stretching or foam rolling can do more harm than good. The fibres are damaged and inflamed. Give your body time to begin its natural repair process before adding mechanical stress.

Respect the inflammatory response. Inflammation gets a bad reputation, but in the acute phase of an injury, it is your body sending repair cells to the damaged area. Interfering with that process too aggressively — through heavy icing, strong anti-inflammatories, or immediate return to exercise — can actually slow your recovery.

Immediate Care

The R.I.C.E. Protocol

For the first 48 to 72 hours after a muscle strain, the R.I.C.E. protocol remains the gold standard for initial management:

• Rest: Stop the activity that caused the injury. This does not mean total bed rest — gentle movement is fine — but avoid anything that reproduces the pain.
• Ice: Apply an ice pack wrapped in a cloth for 15 minutes every two hours. Never apply ice directly to the skin. This helps manage swelling and provides short-term pain relief.
• Compression: A neoprene support or compression bandage helps limit swelling and provides stability to the injured area. Make sure it is firm but not so tight that it restricts circulation.
• Elevation: Where possible, raise the injured area above heart level. This encourages fluid to drain away and reduces swelling.

Warning Signs

When to Seek Professional Help

Watch for bruising. If bruising appears around the injury site — sometimes hours or even days after the initial event — it is a sign of more significant tissue damage. Bruising means blood vessels have been torn along with the muscle fibres, and the injury is likely more serious than a simple Grade 1 strain.

As a general rule, if your symptoms have not improved noticeably within 7 to 10 days, it is time to see a professional. This is the window where an acute injury can start to become chronic. The longer you leave it, the harder it is to resolve — and the more likely you are to develop compensatory patterns that create new problems elsewhere.

It is also worth asking yourself why the injury happened. Was it a one-off — a slip, an awkward movement, pushing too hard on a heavy set? Or does this keep happening? Recurrent strains in the same area often point to an underlying structural imbalance, muscle weakness, or movement pattern that puts excessive load on certain tissues. A structural assessment can identify the root cause and help prevent it from recurring.

Our Approach

How We Treat Muscle Strains

At Canonbury Clinic, we do not just treat the strain itself — we investigate why it happened and address the full picture. Depending on the nature and severity of your injury, your treatment plan may include:

• Osteopathy — hands-on assessment and treatment to restore joint mobility and relieve compensatory tension patterns
• Deep Tissue Massage — targeted work to release adhesions and improve blood flow to the injured tissue
• Assisted Stretching — guided stretching to safely restore flexibility once the acute phase has passed
• G5 Massage — mechanical massage to reach deeper tissue layers and accelerate recovery
• Laser Therapy — low-level laser to reduce inflammation and stimulate cellular repair
• Ultrasound Therapy — therapeutic ultrasound to promote healing at the cellular level
• Kinesio Taping — supportive taping to protect the muscle during recovery while maintaining movement
• Bespoke Exercise Programme — a personalised set of exercises to rebuild strength, correct imbalances, and prevent recurrence

Every treatment plan is different because every injury is different. We combine multiple approaches in a single session where appropriate, so you get comprehensive care — not a one-size-fits-all approach.