Tissue stress theory is a biomechanical framework that practitioners use to understand the physical stressors to the soft tissues (muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones) of the body that may have caused an overuse injury. Sounds complicated right?
Put simply, tissue stress theory says that pain and injury in your body will happen when the “stress” (or load) placed on your soft tissues is more than what they can tolerate.Think of your soft tissues like a rubber band. If you pull both ends of a rubber band the band will stretch and tolerate the tension. If you keep on pulling too hard, or do it way too frequently, the rubber band will eventually snap and break.
In practice, the tissue stress theory might look like this:
- A person starts running/walking a lot suddenly without gradually building up overtime. Their soft tissues were not ready to tolerate the amount of running or walking leading to pain and injury. Their body could not tolerate the repeated stress/load of running or walking.
- A person takes on a new job that requires standing and walking all day leaving their office job behind where they were used to sitting all day. After a few weeks, they start to experience pain in their feet. The soft tissues within the foot could not tolerate the new physical demands placed on them.
- The first time a person does a squat in the gym, lifting just the bar without any additional weight may feel heavy. After exposing the body to this stress repeatedly, the body’s soft tissues in the hips and legs will become stronger and bigger, and that bar that felt heavy the first time won’t feel as heavy.
- Identify through physical assessment which soft tissues are over loaded
- Help you understand the CAUSE of the tissue overload. This could include certain activities or the way that your body is moving
- In the short-term: reduce the stress/load that is causing pain to allow healing. This might look like rest, icing, anti-inflammatories or massage
- In the long-term: Gradually show you how to re-load the injured soft tissue to help you get stronger. This might look like prescribed exercises, foot orthotics, footwear recommendation or a graduated walking/running program
So, tissue stress theory helps explain how injuries may have occurred and guides us how to prevent them and rehab from injury by controlling how much stress you put on your body.
You can book an appointment with a member of our practitioner team here: https://www.proactivehm.com.au/book-online/
Written By:
Josh McGill
