**2. Basic characteristics of tightened muscle and its clinical evaluation**

When patients relax their inspected area and their central nervous systems function normally, practitioners can still feel the "tightness, stiffness, hardness, and slipperiness" feelings when touching the targeting muscles with finger pulps. Patients often have spontaneous discomfort, pains, or obvious abnormal sensations. The joints that are associated with TMs are often weak and lack of strength. The range of joint activities is often reduced.

#### **2.1 The clinical evaluation of tightened muscles**

The muscle tension states are divided into five grades in clinical practice, which are defined as follows:


+: There is mild muscle tension without obvious clinical symptoms.

++: Muscles are moderately strained and stiff and are often accompanied by clinical symptoms which can often be reduced after a break.

+++: Muscles are tense and stiff with associated pains and other symptoms.

++++: Muscles are severely tense and stiff, and if touched with finger pulps, some changes like clumps and abnormal muscular band on the muscle belly can be felt. Severe intolerable painful symptoms are often accompanied. There is no relief after a break, and it even affects normal life.

**23**

*Fu's Subcutaneous Needling: A Novel Therapeutic Proposal*

**2.2 Clinical manifestations of tightened muscles**

herniation, chronic knee pain, ankle sprain, etc. The characteristics of muscle-induced pains:

fatigue, lack of sleep, and bad mood.

and encountering emotional pleasure.

symptoms of TMs, such as numbness.

Clinical manifestations of TMs can be divided into five major categories, including symptoms caused by TM directly or indirectly, by muscular internal organs, by

Clinical chief complaints that are directly caused by TMs: pain, dysfunction, and

a.Pains that are usually characterized by sourness, swelling, or tingling in rare

b.Pain positioning is often inaccurate, and patients usually can only point out

d.Most of the pains can be relieved by hot compress and massage but not by pres-

e.The degree of pain may aggravate when influenced by cool weather, muscle

f. Pain tends to decrease after using nonsteroidal analgesics, after the related muscles are relaxed, after the weather gets warmer, and after receiving massage

g.Long-term pain often causes changes in related bones and joints, such as hyperosteogeny, pseudospondylolisthesis, scoliosis, knee deformity, etc.

a.The main manifestations related to the affected nerves are the downstream

b.The main manifestations related to the affected arteries are symptoms caused by TMs, such as headache, dizziness, chills, aversion to cold, contact tempera-

c.The main manifestations related to the affected veins are the downstream symptoms caused by TMs, such as edema, heaviness, itching, and skin darkening.

Pathological tension of neighboring skeletal muscles and muscular visceral lesions affects the body at the same time, and there is a close relationship between

TMs affect the internal or nearby nerves, arteries, and veins:

ture dropping, and even cold feeling of the whole body.

c.Peripheral muscle tissues or synergistic muscles are often affected.

sure. Simple touching or rubbing the skin has no effect on the pain.

The main diseases include cervical spondylosis, tennis elbow, lumbar disc

dysfunctions of sleep, by emotions, and by those with unknown reasons.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84251*

*2.2.1 The first major category*

vague directions.

*2.2.2 The second major category*

*2.2.3 The third category*

lack of power.

cases.
