Muscles
Muscular pain is of course very common and can be very mild in nature - such as the day after exercising - to very severe such as those that occur after twisting badly.
How do you know if you have only muscular pain?
Its really very simple. If the pain you feel on a scale of 0-10 is less than say 5 and you can function well then there is a high chance that the pain is just muscular. What you should do is to keep moving as normally as you can, then simply time will tell if indeed it is just a simple 'muscle' problem. Muscles heal fast. Within 2-3 days you should be feeling back to normal again, Very much like gardening on Sunday, you feel aches and pains on Sunday night/Monday morning but by Tuesday night Wednesday morning you feel better again.
When should I get 'muscular pain' checked out?
If after say 2-3 days you still feel pain and it has not changed much or has improved and the pain has reached a plateau in its improvement or it is getting worse. IT IS MORE UNLIKELY TO BE MUSCULAR, EVEN IF IT FEELS IT TO YOU! - you should get yourself checked out. In this type of case we normally find the muscle spasm is a compensation for an underlying problem. Usually the pain is caused by a locked/jammed up facet joint, sacroiliac joint, disc 'lesion'. Locked facet and sacroiliac joints (SI joints) are the most common causes of unresolved back pain, followed by disc lesions and then arthritic pain.
Severe Muscular pain
In all cases of severe pain i.e. greater than 6/7 you should get yourself checked
out ASAP as it is very unlikely in our experience that this level of pain will be from simply a strained, pulled or spasmed muscle. You should get yourself checked or at the very least call the clinic and speak with Ian or Richard first. They can help decide what should be done. In some very severe instances of back pain the advice is to rest for a day or so to allow the acute inflammation and swelling to subside before travelling in. Very much like an animal that has hurt its paw it returns to its burrow and rests up. If this is the case we can give you expert advice on do's and dont's so that you don't inadvertently make things worse.