Types of injuries we can sustain working out

    I should preface this article by saying that I'm not a Doctor, Athletic Trainer, Physical Therapist, nor a Team Physician. I'm just a guy trying to study for the practical portion of the CSCS exam. Meaning I don't have the qualifications to diagnose injuries (outside of the obvious), prescribe medications or prescribe corrective exercises for rehab purposes. In my scope of practice as a future (knock on wood) would be to differentiate between exercises that someone can do while injured (indication) or can't do (contraindication). I do possess some knowledge of injuries given my 38 years on earth, medical training provided by the Army and through studying for this exam.

    The first type of injury we will talk about is Macro trauma. Macro trauma is a sudden, specific overload type injury that was sustained to the bone, joints, ligaments and muscles. Bones can suffer from a contusion (bone bruise) or a fracture (break). Joints such as your shoulder or fingers can be dislocated (complete displacement of joint) or subluxation (partial displacement of joint). Ligaments and muscles can also suffer from injuries but are graded into three levels.

    Ligaments such as your ACL, MCL (ligaments in the knee) can suffer from a grade 1 sprain which entails a partial tear with no instability. A grade 2 sprain is a partial tear with minor instability and a grade three sprain is a complete tear with full instability. In terms of recovery, it depends on previous activity, current activity (job that requires physical efforts would take longer to recover since you are using the ligament over and over) and rehab tools available. 

    Muscles work similar to ligaments in terms of grades but differ slightly. Grade 1 strain is a partial tear with strong but painful muscle activity. Grade 2 strains are partial tears with a weak painful muscle activity and a 3rd degree strain is a complete tear with weak, painless muscle activity. Again, recovery is difficult to determine due to the variables at stake. Tendons are typically stronger than muscles due to the increased collagen fibers so an injury sustained to the muscle would be in the muscle belly rather than the tendon. Unless of course the injury is catastrophic. Think of the Willis Mcgahee hit back in the day in college or the Gordan Haywood injury a few years back in the NBA. 

    In summery macro trauma is a sudden, specific injury that overloads the tissue at hand. Bones and joints suffer from either partial tear or complete tear. Ligaments are characterized as sprains with three grades ranging from partial tears with stability to complete tears. Muscles are also characterized with grades but are called strains. Muscle injuries can be from partial tears but painful muscle activity to complete tears with weak and painless muscle activity.