• Question: Can tissues break down while you exercise/do sport?

    Asked by Diana to Dan, Helen, Katy, LauraAnne on 18 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: LauraAnne Furlong

      LauraAnne Furlong answered on 18 Nov 2016:


      Yes, and this is the way muscles end up growing. When you apply force to muscles, tendons and bone, you cause a little bit of damage to them and this triggers an inflammatory response which leads to the tissues becoming stronger when they are healed. This response is why you might feel sore after doing exercise you aren’t used to. Tissues can also dramatically break down during exercise, like muscle and tendons can rupture and bones can break. While a healthy bone can break for any number of reasons, muscles and tendons usually won’t fully rupture unless there was something wrong with them before so they were a little weaker than usual.

Comments