Veteran - LVRC

That creak may be Nature’s way of telling you that your next frame should be a Zimmer – or perhaps
a good stretch will do …
Muscle bound
Auriel Forrester
MUSCLE IS OF THREE different
types: smooth muscle,
cardiac muscle and skeletal
muscle. The first is found surrounding
hollow organs such as in the wall of the
gut, around the bladder and womb, and
in the walls of arteries and veins. We
cannot control these muscles and hence
they are referred to as ‘involuntary’. As
its name implies, cardiac muscle is found
only in the heart muscle itself. One of
the unique features of cardiac muscle is
that it can contract repeatedly many
times a minute for a great many years –
fortunately without a rest. Finally, skeletal
muscles are those involved in movement
and support – a function often overlooked,
yet a crucially important role of
muscles and one where weaknesses lead
to problems. Skeletal muscle is also
referred to as ‘voluntary’, for fairly
obvious reasons.
A muscle is made up of thousands of
muscle fibres bundled together and
wrapped in connective tissue. While the
muscle fibres themselves are elastic in
nature this tissue is very fibrous – a type
of collagen. In young children this
collagen is very soft and its fibres run
parallel to the muscle fibres, helping to
make the muscle more pliable and
resistant to injury. As we get older the
collagen fibres become more knotted
and twisted – rather like hair that has
never been combed. Such tissue is very
inflexible and non-pliable and thus more
prone to tearing. Tears are then repaired
with further knotted collagen (a form of
scar tissue) making the matter worse.
These knots are what can be felt when
the legs are massaged – indeed massage
can help re-align the collagen
fibres, akin to combing the hair.
The analogy is a good one because
knotted hair could easily be
damaged if the teasing out was not
extremely gentle. Thus these
knotted collagen fibres can be blamed
for at least some of the loss of flexibility
in older people including athletes.
Furthermore, it is believed that knotted
fibrous connective tissue around muscle
fibres reduces the ability of a muscle to
contract forcibly and so reduces the
amount of power produced.
Things are made worse because the
natural fluid levels within muscle tissue
decreases as the muscle ages. This means
that the muscle is less pliable and more
injury-prone. Muscular aches after
training or racing can often be explained
by microscopic damage to muscle cells
and some of the valuable fluid leaking
out. This can best be treated using a cold
compress on the area followed the next
day by warmth to promote healing and
some gentle stretching and mobility as
described later in this article. Older
muscles are more prone to injury and
take longer to heal so every effort should
be made to reduce injury risks however
minor the resulting injury might be.
Movements where the thigh is having to
brake the movement of the body such as
in squash, running or badminton are
likely to cause micro-tears; similarly the
‘lowering phase’ in weight lifting is more
of a risk than the ‘raising phase’. The new
range of isokinetic and assisted-effort
machines appearing in many health clubs
are designed to reduce such injury risks.
Muscular pain should not be confused
with joint pain although the treatments
are actually very similar. The main joints
of our skeletal system are made up of
cartilage-lined pockets surrounding the
juxtaposed ends of the bones making up
the joint – not unlike the gaiters in cars, I
am told. These pockets are filled with a
viscous fluid. In young people the
cartilage provides a smooth surface for
the bones to move over each other, the
fluid lubricating the joint. As we get older
the cartilage becomes worn and less
smooth and the fluid becomes thicker
and therefore a less effective lubricant –
hence the creaking joints that are all too
familiar. The answer here is to reduce the
weight-bearing load on the joints (so
cycling or rowing are much better than
running), and to ensure the joints are
adequately warmed up before any load is
placed on them and kept warm through
sensible clothing. By load, I don’t just
mean weight-bearing load but also the
load placed by bigger gears. Warming up
is best achieved by a repeated action
with minimal load – such as gently
revving a low gear. Such repeated actions
warm the joint and active muscles
up through friction, increased blood
flow to the region and the heat
produced by muscular activity – the
burning of calories.
Muscles perform a supportive role
as well as movement. This is
achieved through a balancing act
between pairs of postural muscles –
such as the muscles of the back and
abdomen, or through stabilising a joint
by holding the bones together such as
the ‘teres’ muscle groups in the shoulders.
Weaknesses in these muscles –
either caused through injury or lack of
use – will inevitably affect posture,
mobility and strength. Your training
programme will therefore need to
include exercises to strengthen and
mobilise these muscles and associated
joints. In addition to an adequate warmup
the key to reducing injury risk is to
keep the muscle supple and the joints
mobile. This does not mean a rigorous
stretching regime but more a programme
of gentle mobilisation exercises undertaken
when the region is warm – say after
a bath or light exercise session. The joint
should be worked through its current
natural range of movement – say knee
raises assisted by hugging the thigh, then
gradually increasing the range as far as is
comfortable. Any position – in the
Page 14 Veteran Leaguer: Winter 2002