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What is RSI?
The RSI Clinic theory of RSI
Muscles were made to work efficiently and effectively, when they do what they are meant to do: - initiating and maintaining your body in motion and supporting posture. They were not meant to be overworked, overstrained or made to work without appropriate rest.
We at the RSI Clinic maintain that one of the major factors in RSI is that some muscles may be fatiguing while other (less appropriate) muscles are compensating or overworking. The muscles that were meant to do the work have not been functioning properly, either as a result of acute injury, or from fatigue due to long-term overuse. The neighbouring muscles (or another muscle group) may have been recruited to "help out" or take over completely. They quickly fatigue because they are not designed to do the job. In fact, we have seen a large number of patients where this fatigue pattern is the cause of their symptoms. As you can imagine it is important to fully assess the muscles to understand where the problem exists, because what you feel is not necessarily where the problem originates! For example, many patients come with problems of pain down their arms, with tingling, "pins and needles" or pain sensations and weakness of the hands. These symptoms, often labelled as "Carpal tunnel Syndrome", can be caused by smaller muscles in the shoulder area trying to "help out" the main shoulder muscles (which are often fatigued), then developing trigger points.
When muscles do an unexpected task very suddenly, or when they fatigue from doing repetitive work in awkward positions without rest breaks, they can develop tight "knots" or "bands" called Trigger Points. These trigger points are the spots which tell us that the muscle is not working properly. If you press on a trigger point it is tender, and you can sometimes feel the muscle "twitch" if you roll the trigger point around under your finger. Trigger points can refer symptoms to certain parts of the body in very consistent ways. It is possible that most of the symptoms you are experiencing are the result (directly or indirectly) from trigger points. The
extensive assessment protocol at the RSI Clinic will identify these or other problems if they exist.
Once assessed, the treatment of these types of injuries requires that individuals take responsibility for making changes in their approach to using their muscles. Treatment at the RSI Clinic can provide individuals with the information and skills to do tasks safely and effectively by learning how to use their muscles efficiently.
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