Last Monday as I was about to take the first step down my stairs I felt a shooting pain up my left leg. After catching it, sitting down, gasping and the slowest stair descent ever, I spent the rest of the day hobbling around, popping ibuprofen and cursing. It was only last November when I'd last suffered a pulled hamstring. It felt like DOMS (until the pull), I was quite sore in the days after lots of squatting. Seems to be the mostly highly rated compound exercise but also the one that gives me the most regular problems. Anyway, I managed okay with a Bench Press workout last week, my back was fairly upset after a light if intense Deadlift workout the Wednesday, maybe other muscles were taking up the slack, probably not the smartest thing I've done. Saturday was a mediocre Press day (considered repeating today, shoulder DOMS aside). Today is a Squat workout day and wondered if I should just stick with Upper Body routines the next 5 weeks until my hamstring is fully recovered? Online info on hamstring injuries split them into three ratings. I thought I had DOMS the day after but could have been Grade 1 injury, but felt more like Grade 2 when I almost went down the stairs, although my first thought was cramp so might be okay with 3 weeks?
rest it till if feels better, then wait a week. watch your leg drive in the bench, and if needed press seated.
I'm still carrying a severe hamstring strain from about 3 years ago. I do my best to stretch as much as I can but it's still holding me back a lot. I'm not sure how much rest is required as after the hamstring strain I tore my calf muscle and was out for several months and I'm recently back from being out 18 months from a trapped nerve. During those absenses I did do some swimming but no exercise that would aggravate it. I fully believe that you never get over any injury. Any time you have a severe injury, you are probably going to have some problem with it for the rest of your life, even if it is only slight niggles.
Sounds like you've a considerable amount of scar tissue built up in that hammy, have you had a deep tissue massage done on it?
No. To be perfectly honest, other than stretching exercises, I haven't done anything like that. Basically what happened is three years I was training for my black belt so decided to up my training and do some muay thai for a few months (I was doing that at the same time back home as well). About a week into training I pulled my hamstring. I could avoided it getting more serious though as I had never had any problem with it I just put it down to me to a little niggle and trained on until it was worse. Over the next month or so I continued to train every day though with no kicks - only knees and boxing. It was surprisingly still good and I improved a lot. About 4 weeks later my hamstring was feeling a lot better and the trainers were trying to get me to fight for them so I was training in the main ring where they push you a bit harder. Stupidly, I started throwing kicks again. As my hamstring was still poor, I had very little control over my standing leg and overstretched my right leg when performing head kicks. After one of the sessions I heard a pop and collapsed on the floor. I found it later I had tore my right calf muscle (I have no doubt my left hamstring strain was a cause of this). The thai trainers told me to get a thai massage and I'd be back the next day. In reality, I couldn't walk for a month and didn't go back to training for about another 7 or 8 months. So in short (I know I've rambled on ), I never did much to repair the hamstring as my tore calf muscle was the main problem. I did go to physio for my calf muscle back in the UK for about 4 or 5 months and was later sent to a podiatrist. They did talk give me exercises for my hamstring too but to be honest they didn't help too much other than give me good stretching exercises. Sounds look I could benefit from getting it checked out again.
Yeah but, there's going to be some nasty scar tissue and junk in that muscle from the sound of things. I'd recomend finding a sports massuer, look for a big guy because it'll take some weight to loosen that off, he'll apply some deep tissue therapy and TPRT, it's pretty unpeasant but could prevent further injury and issue. in the mean time a foam roller and hockey ball will also help out.
Thanks Steve. I appreciate your suggestions. I've only been training again for a month but noticed last night how much it was holding me back from throwing a left high kick properly. The classes are on 4 times a week and I'm keen to go to them all and improve my stretching and try and get back to normality. I'm living in Colombia at the moment so not sure how difficult it is to find a sports masseur out here though I'm planning on going back to the UK in the Summer for a few months and know of a good physio back home. Just looking at foam roller exercises now [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJLxruO3su0"]Top 5 Foam Roller Exercises - YouTube[/ame]
light stiff leg deadlifts and deficits with a lot of foam rolling seem to help a lot. but i agree with steve. you need deep tissue therapy
I second Steve's suggestion to get a massage and foam roll. I tweaked a hamstring several years ago and it bothered me on and off until I started to have regular deep tissue massages done by a professional and foam roll/use a hockey ball at home regularly. http://www.t-nation.com/free_online...g_performance_repair/feel_better_for_10_bucks
I should be able to pick one up fairly cheap today or tomorrow as the shopping centre in town has a lot of sports stores. Will let you know how I get on
+1 for Steve's advice. If you can, try and get a 'The Grid' foam roller, it's miles better than most others and will last almost forever, generic ones tend to go flat'ish quickly, only thing is the price but it's worth it. Though, I think you may only be able to get them online. Also, I find doing swings with kettlebells a very good dynamic rehabbing stretch type exercise, if you get my drift. May find this stretch useful too: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBHzXF-mVjY"]Super Squat Hip Sequence pre-workout - YouTube[/ame]
I travel a lot so I don't want to spend too much on it if I'm honest. Anything that can't fit in my bag when I'm away from the UK will probably be thrown out. I could get it back in the UK though (my HQ haha). Will need to give that stretch a try.
a PVC pipe, a sit up mat (or yoga mat) and a glue gun makes a painful but effective roller. although you'll curse my name when your using it!
I was at training last night. We didn't do any sparring but we were doing training routines at the end (i.e. dodge, throw a kick etc) and my leg felt a bit better than the other night. I'm going to be more proactive in class and out of it and do stretches on it whenever I can until I can get a massage on it.
Not that this is necessary as the thread is 3 years old, I believe this is important nonetheless: If you feel a sharp pain in your leg whilst training, you should seriously consider taking it easy. Sometimes even stretching it out can cause more damage than good. I remember being told by my Master Instructor that excess damage to the hamstring can put you out of training for months. Obviously one sharp pain doesn't exactly mean you've damaged your hamstring, though if it continues, keep leg training to a minimum until you're sure it's no longer going to be a problem. This doesn't necessarily mean you have to stop training altogether. Instead of kicks, you can focus more time on your punches. Here's to good training. Apologies for the bump.
