What exactly happens when you tear a muscle?
In: Biology
It’s actually a lot simpler than you think – still hurts like hell:
Muscle fibres are bundled together into muscles. When they get a nerve impulse, they contract, pulling the muscle together.
Now take a rubber band: It works similarly when stretched. If you take a bunch of rubber bands together and stretch them, you get something similar to a muscle.
Taking that bundle of rubber bands, if you pull hard on them, some of them will begin to snap as they overextend and cannot stretch any further. This is exactly what happens with muscle tears.
The good news – sort of – is that the instant the tearing starts you will feel the pain and hopefully stop doing whatever is tearing the muscle, so you dont rip the muscle in half (which is a lot worse) – and then the muscle just needs time to heal again.
Muscles are made of many, many long strands of proteins called “myofilaments”. These proteins are made of chains of amino acids. When a muscle is tensed, these proteins are pulled taut, like when you are lifting weights.
When the muscle lengthens again, that same tension is released, like when you lower the weight.
Torn muscles are muscles that have received a forceful stretch, ripping apart the myofilaments.
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