Here’s what really happens when you pull a muscle
Treatments for minor pulls include ice packs and elevation at home, but full tears might require surgery. Depositphotos Joel Cramer was at the pool with his kids when another dad, competing in a big splash contest, got up onto the diving board. He bounced up once, and when he landed on the board for the second time, his quadriceps muscle tore. “It rolled up his leg and balled up near the top of his thigh,” says Cramer, a professor of exercise physiology at the University of Nebraska. “[It was] like rolling up a window shade.” That’s an extreme (and extremely rare) example of a muscle strain, a common injury that happens to high school soccer stars, recreational runners, and middle-aged racquetball players alike. “Strain” is the medical term for the condition, though...