There are many ways in which your muscles can be directly damaged. The most obvious is injury or trauma
such as sporting injuries, pulls and sprains. Exercising without ‘warming up’ and stretching the muscles is a
common cause of muscle pull. In any muscle injury, bleeding from damaged muscle fibres occurs inside the
muscle, followed by swelling and inflammation. This makes the muscle less strong and also painful to use.
Localised pain is the primary symptom, but weakness also results.