Reversibility is dependent on the type and extent of the damage. If the damage is isolated to the muscle, then it probably is reversible to a certain extent. Fi

Reversibility is dependent on the type and extent of the damage. If the damage is isolated to the muscle, then it probably is reversible to a certain extent. First, the muscles in spasm (constant state of tension) need to be massaged back to pliability, then you need to focus on stretching the muscles so they can better manage repetitive stress, and once the muscle is relatively healthy again you can begin strengthening it to withstand added tension and pressure and to heal itself better. As programmers, we're constantly abusing our arm muscles, and they will wear down over time. The trick is to minimize the abuse, and maximize your ability to regenerate, and hopefully you can get to a state where you heal more at night than you damage in the day. Now, prolonged stress and inflammation (and certain physical abnormalities) can cause damage to the nerves themselves and nerves suck at healing. If you start having problems with sensation (feeling cold or numb), that's the result of nerves under attack. Prolonged attack equals irreversible damage. As far as your notation about collagen gluing muscles, that sounds about right to me, and is sort of part of what I was saying earlier. Also, collagen is largely made up of water, and this is why it is so critical to keep yourself hydrated. Also, muscles locked in static positions (I assume as a result of spasm) can begin to act as a single unit rather than individual muscles. When this happens, your body can actually try to sort of "heal them together" and the muscles can literally begin to bind to each other. Massage, particularly deep tissue massage, can help to break these bands apart so your muscles become independent again. That's my understanding, anyway. I'm definitely no expert in this, and my knowledge largely comes from online research, and the book "It's Not Carpal Tunnel."