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Hmm, I have a tendon injury, which is not quite the same thing as muscle injury. I got it from (believe it or not) drawing too much.

I was holding the pencil wrong and diligently drawing 10 hours a day with only meal and bathroom breaks. It was quite shocking when one day after finishing a project I found that I could no longer bend the middle and fourth finger in my right hand. It really effed up my school life, forcing me to take two incomplete grades and delay my graduation date by a couple months, causing depression and what-not.

I received that injury back in March of last year and it's probably about 70% better. I tried a couple different things to ease the inflammation in my wrists and fingers, which included wearing wrist braces and finger sleeves. I took anti-inflammatory medicine (which caused pretty bad nausea), tried anti-inflammatory cream (which made my skin peel like a snake shedding), tried physical therapy (frekkin waste of time and money), and learned to use my left hand. What really helped though was acupuncture and frequent exercise. The root of my problem was poor circulation and muscle tension in my back and shoulder.

I'm studying graphic design so I have to be on the computer working a couple hours everyday. An acupuncturist I saw told me that my spine was not aligned very well and suggested that when I work on the computer I should do an exercise every 15 minutes. My right shoulder is always pretty tense, so every 15 minutes I stop what I'm doing, turn my whole head and look to the left for 1 minute, then take my right leg and lift it up and down 20-30 times (I do all this while sitting down). It looks kind of funny to others who are also sitting in the computer lab with me, but who cares, it's made me feel a lot better. Plus, I got this alarm on my phone which sings "marshmallow" every 15 minutes emotion_awesome

For those who are thinking TL biggrin R...To answer the question brought up by the first post...all injuries need time to heal. Sure it's difficult, disappointing, and depressing to not be able to do things that most take granted for on a daily bases, such as brushing your teeth or holding a pin between your fingers, but as my friend always says...resting is part of working out too. 3nodding Always know your physical limits.