Strained muscles may well heal themselves fairly quickly with the right rest and the right use of hot and cold treatments within your own home. You may well even find that simply having a long and indulgent soak is the perfect medicine for the muscular maladies.
However, it is not always instantly obvious as to which injuries need focussed attention and which simply need to be rested and then brought back up to strength with regular gentle exercise.
The real test will be time, but of course the longer you leave a chronic problem, the worse it is likely to get and therefore you may well wish to put a limit on the time you leave an injury before you get it checked out. Should you have pain that lasts any longer than a week despite regular rest or if you find that your injury continues to look inflamed, then it may well be wise to seek the advice of your doctor or, even better, have an initial consultation with a West London physio.
Of course, there will be signs that you need immediate treatment too, and should your muscle pain be severe or even simply if injuries recur after a long period away from exercise, then visiting your doctor or an experienced physio will be crucial.
Prolonged weakness in a muscle is another sign that treatment will be needed over rest, and again it will be far better to seek such physio in SW18 earlier rather than later. The quicker any such issues are treated, the less likely they are to have long term impact on your body, and therefore, it may actually simply be best to get such niggles checked out, as being told you will be fine and no treatment is needed will be far better than avoiding such a consultation and finding a small problem turns in to a major one.
you can find out more about the above here prophysiotherapy.co.uk