Repetative Motion Injuries (RMI) are overuse injuries that occur to muscle, joints, ligaments and connective tissue (fascia) when they are stressed without adequate time for repair. Soreness and pain restrict your ability to perform simple tasks of daily living such as sitting, standing, walking and sleeping.
Providing the body optimal time for recovery and regeneration is essential to healing and prevention. Overuse of muscles and joints is primarily the result of micro-traumatic injuries that wear down the body. These small movements repeated on a regular basis for extended periods of time can fatigue and breakdown the body. Examples include typing on a keyboard, raking leaves, exercise, prolonged sitting, shoveling, etc.
Injuries can occur anywhere and at anytime, yet are most common in the workplace. People spend 8-18 hours a day, 5-7 days a week performing repetitive movement patterns in the workplace, causing an imbalance in the musculoskeletal system resulting in the overuse of certain muscle groups.
Overuse injuries can become chronic, resulting in pain and dysfunction that can last for years. When one muscle group is overused, an opposing (functional opposite) muscle group becomes underused due to compensation. If you don’t use it, you lose it!
For example, if you have chronic overuse in the bicep of your arm, the opposing triceps may be weak. When this imbalance programs itself in the musculoskeletal system, the body does not move efficiently. Instead of muscles working together to perform a specified function, they work against each other, causing the body to exert more energy to perform the same task that previously was perceived by the body as ‘easy.’ Now it takes more effort and energy to complete a given task making the body more vulnerable to injury.
