Physiotherapists in Victoria treat many different conditions including the issues profiled below.

Muscle

Human muscle is classified into three types, smooth, striated and cardiac. Striated or skeletal muscle is the type we think about when we consider muscle, allowing us to contract with force, maintain posture and produce movement. Muscle is well supplied with blood and also with nerve endings which are able to continuously monitor the stresses and strains through the tissue. Pain nerve endings are present mainly in the fibrous sheaths which surround the muscle. The muscle is structured in bundles of fibres, each surrounded by a fibrous sheath which join together at the ends into tendinous tissue on its way to attachment to bone.

Muscle fibres can be orientated in various directions which gives the muscles different abilities as contractile structures. If the fibres are arranged longitudinally along the muscle it tends to be longer and to be able to contract more in length terms, while muscles in different configurations such as the fibres on a feather can generate higher degrees of force. Higher forces may be required in muscles which have to work against gravity and move the weight of the body. Muscles have three different types of fibres, named Type 1, 2A and 2B, with different functions.

Pain Behaviours

When we hurt ourselves it is usual for us to give some indication of the fact that we are injured and these behaviours we exhibit are caused pain behaviours. Typical pain behaviours are non-verbal such as groaning or moaning, grimacing, holding the painful part, lying down, seeking a space away from people or taking painkillers. These behaviours are normal and are a form of communication, letting other people know we have a problem so that they can help us if we require some assistance to manage our injury. These behaviours allow others to assist us more quickly than if we had to think about it and ask them, which would be difficult immediately after a painful injury.

However, such pain behaviours can become chronic, a sort of ingrained habit, and people may use them to communicate daily to people around them about how they are doing that day. This type of communication, being non-verbal, can be misconstrued as it is not clear what is being communicated, leading to incorrect guesses and unwanted actions. Non-assertive communication can be very irritating for those around the person as it is never clear what they want and when something is done it is wrong.